UPDATE, 3:25 p.m.: Senate President Cullerton just now explained and defended his reasoning for closing the meeting — but also said he wouldn’t do it again.

He said the meeting was closed in part because several Senators are running for statewide office and there was concern that electoral politics would come into play.

“If you’re a candidate, you might want to ask a question . . . It might be an uniformed question,” Cullerton said. He also noted that the political process often involves compromise, but when the media is watching, “you don’t want to be seen as compromising.”

He didn’t explain why the public shouldn’t have the right to see its political leaders asking uniformed questions or making compromises–but he did all-but promise that future meetings of the full Senate would remain open “since everyone seems so upset about it.”

“It’s not that big a deal,” he said. “We just won’t do it again.”

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — So the first time in recent memory that Democrats and Republicans in the Illinois Legislature are able to get together on something . . . it’s to conduct an arguably illegal meeting.

The state Senate — the entire state Senate — met in a closed-door session today to hear a presentation from the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) on the national economy and how it’s affecting debt-plagued state budgets like Illinois’.

Not exactly explosive stuff (especially since Illinois’ record $13 billion budget shortfall is the least-kept secret in the state). Which makes it even stranger that the Senate’s leaders chose to shut out the public with a pretty transparent end-run around the Illinois Constitution.

The Constitution requires that all meetings of the House or Senate be open to the public, unless two-thirds of the body votes to close it. There was no such vote taken regarding the Senate meeting, yet reporters were literally stopped at the door.

The explanation from the office of Senate President John Cullerton (D-Chicago) was that he wanted senators to be able to get information about the issue and ask questions without worrying about how it would be reported. He called it “a bi-partisan caucus,” which is an odd new notion around here.

In a political body like the Legislature, a “caucus” is a meeting of a group of like-minded lawmakers, at which they discuss strategy on how they will address a given issue when the full body meets. Caucus meetings aren’t required to be open to the public because they’re not meetings of the governmental body itself. (The Democratic and Republican parties “caucus” all the time–as do other caucuses that encompass black lawmakers, female lawmakers, downstate lawmakers, gun-owning lawmakers, and lots of others.)

But a “bi-partisan caucus” of the whole Senate?

Um . . . Isn’t that just another way of saying, “a closed meeting of the whole Senate” ?

“The problem is, where does it stop?” asked Don Craven, attorney for the Illinois Press Association, who said he believes the meeting was a violation of the Illinois Constitution. “Can they have a `bi-partisan caucus’ to talk about the 1,700 other bills pending in the Senate? Can they have a `bi-partisan caucus’ to talk about amending the Open Meetings Act or the Freedom of Information Act?”

State Sen. Donne Trotter, D-Chicago, briefed reporters on the meeting afterward, and assured us there was nothing “ominous” about the fact that it was closed to the public.  We’ll take his word on that. We pretty much have to, since no reporters were present.

This may sound like one of those issues that reporters care about and the public doesn’t. We’ll remind you of that if the Legislature ever decides to hold a close-door “bi-partisan caucus” to raise your taxes or something.

Great news!

There are over 500 real jobs coming to IL, high paying too.

Among the vacant positions in Schaumburg: One opening for a training specialist, with a salary of $88,055 to $145,697; a slot for a facilities services assistant, with a salary of $43,396 to $69,061; and three positions for counsels, who will be paid $107,799 to $202,515.

Pretty impressive, but wait, there’s more!

Ooops, they are government jobs.   Double oooops, they are for a new branch of the FDIC for liquidating failed banks.  What has been going on in IL? ACORN? Community organizing?