Hinsdale D86 Broke Law With Its Secrecy: Attorney General

HINSDALE, IL – Earlier this year, Hinsdale High School District 86 became more secretive with the public about its legal bills.

This week, the attorney general found the district violated the state's open records law in doing so.

Last year, the school board's president, Catherine Greenspon, took heat for the number of times her name appeared in the district's legal bills. Some suggested it reflected an elected official's micromanagement.

After a controversy, the district's law firms changed last year, with the Evergreen Park-based Odelson law firm appointed.

In a letter Monday, Teresa Lim of the attorney general's access bureau said the district could black out the specific topics of discussion in its legal invoices. But she could find no exception under the law to withhold the names of employees and elected officials in communication with the district's attorney.

Lim also provided a list of other instances in which the district should unredact information in the invoices that "discuss the nature of the work performed in only broad, general terms."

District officials and their lawyers couldn't be reached for immediate comment Wednesday.

Because the letter is advisory, the district is not required to follow it. If it were a binding opinion, the district would be mandated to obey it or take the matter to court.

The attorney general's letter was in response to a complaint filed by Hinsdale resident Daniel Levinthal. He is the husband of former board member Debbie Levinthal, who criticized Greenspon's leadership when she resigned in September 2023.

In its response to the complaint, the district pointed to a 2014 attorney general's opinion that it said allowed the redaction of the recipients of legal advice. However, Lim said the opinion did not allow all such names to be redacted. She said the exception for the secrecy of attorney-client communications would not typically apply.

"In this matter, the District did not illustrate how disclosure of the identities of its specific clients would reveal the substance of any litigation strategies or the contents of any substantive communications between the District and its attorneys," Lim wrote.

After Lim sent her letter, Levinthal said on Facebook that the district's redaction practices with legal invoices changed dramatically after the board hired Odelson. He said it would be interesting to see whether the district follows the attorney general's recommendations.

Meanwhile, the attorney general is considering a complaint from Patch that contends the district violated the Freedom of Information Act in response to a public records request.

The district declined to release an attachment to an email titled, "Follow up – Invoices for Legal Services." The email was from its former law firm, with which the district is disputing past legal bills.

Last July, the attorney general found the school board broke state lawwhen it decided behind closed doors a year earlier to suspend then-Superintendent Tammy Prentiss. The vote was supposed to have been taken publicly. The attorney general's finding was in response to a complaint from Patch.

In early 2024, the attorney general determined the board violated state law when it held a closed session on goal-setting for the superintendent two years earlier. That discussion should have been in public. Hinsdale resident Dale Kleber filed the complaint.