B. Any other statutory requirements for closed or open meetings.

Every public body is required to designate employees, officers, or members to receive training on compliance with this Act. Each public body must submit a list of designated employees, officers, or members to the Public Access Counselor. Within 6 months after the effective date of this amendatory Act of the 96th General Assembly, the designated employees, officers, and members must successfully complete an electronic training curriculum, developed and administered by the Public Access Counselor, and thereafter must successfully complete an annual training program. Thereafter, whenever a public body designates an additional employee, officer, or member to receive this training, that person must successfully complete the electronic training curriculum within 30 days after that designation. 5 ILCS 120/1.05.

The General Assembly and committees or commissions of the General Assembly are specifically exempt from the definition of "public body," but other state and local legislative bodies are covered by the definition. See 5 ILCS 120/1.02. The policy of openness is the same regarding the General Assembly, but the Illinois Constitution provides that sections of each house of the General Assembly and meetings of committees, joint committees and legislative commissions are open to the public unless two-thirds of the members elected to the particular house determine that the public interest requires a closed meeting. Joint committee and legislative commission meetings may also be closed if two-thirds of the members elected to each house so determine. See Ill. Const. art. IV, §  5(c)).

One court has noted that this provision actually places greater restrictions on the General Assembly than on bodies covered by the Act, since the General Assembly must have the concurrence of two-thirds of the members involved, while the Act allows closed meetings on certain topics without member concurrence. See People ex. rel. Hopf v. Barger, 30 Ill.App.3d 525, 534-35, 332 N.E.2d 649, 657 (2d Dist. 1975).

Additionally, the Open Meetings Act does not apply to a child death review team, the Illinois Child Death Review Teams Executive Council, and the meetings of the Executive Ethics Commission. See 5 ILCS 120/1.02.