5 ILCS 120/2(c)(5)

How the Public Access Counselor has treated 5 ILCS 120/2(c)(5)

This exception permits a public body to meet in closed session to discuss the purchase or lease of real property. It is listed as 5 ILCS 120/2(c)(5) and is separate from other closed-session grounds such as pending litigation or the sale or disposition of property.

In these decisions, the Public Access Counselor applied the exception narrowly. It found violations where councils, school boards, and a park district board used closed sessions noticed for purchase or lease to discuss other topics, including the future of an existing City Hall, plans discussed across multiple meetings for a new school, the sale of a separate property, and intergovernmental agreements with a city. It found no violation in one matter where review showed the board's closed discussions concerned the potential purchase of property.

At a glance: 5 documents from 2020 to 2026(2 binding opinions, 3 determination letters). Most often cited alongside: 5 ILCS 120/2(c)(6) (Setting a sale/lease price for public body's own property) (2); 5 ILCS 120/2(c)(11) (Pending, probable, or imminent litigation) (1).

Recurring issues

• Public bodies discussed the future, sale, or disposition of property they already owned during sessions justified as purchase or lease of other property. (Closed-session discussion of real property acquisition, Closed-session discussion of a property sale)
• A school board held repeated closed sessions over months about plans for a new school that the PAC found were not permissible under the Act. (Closed-session discussion of a new school opening)
• School boards cited property-related exceptions along with litigation to discuss an intergovernmental agreement with a city in closed session. (Closed session discussion of an intergovernmental agreement)
• A park district board discussed the sale of one property during a closed session authorized to discuss the purchase of a different property. (Closed-session discussion of a property sale)

Practical points

• Keep closed discussion within the purchase or lease that justified the session and do not add discussion of selling separate property.
• Do not use this exception to discuss in closed session the future use or disposition of a building the public body already owns.
• When a challenge concerns what was actually discussed, a review of the closed-session recording can determine whether the discussion concerned potential purchase.

Summary drafted from the linked decisions and checked against them; read the decisions themselves before relying on it. Not legal advice.