A Naperville Park Board commissioner’s social media comments about the park district executive director and fellow board members crossed the line on some board ethics policies but not enough to warrant punitive action, the park district’s attorney said.
Speaking at Thursday night’s board meeting, attorney Derke Price said Commissioner Josh McBroom’s Facebook posts in August raised public questions as to whether the park district policy on masks would be enforced, and that was a problem.
But it also triggered conversation and clarification on board policy and that was a sufficient response given the circumstances, he said.
McBroom’s comments were made on a private Facebook group page set up to discuss mandates on mask usage by children because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The park board approved a motion requiring children to be masked while using park district facilities, a measure McBroom opposed.
In one post, McBroom responded to a comment about the park board’s action and said district Executive Director Ray McGury did not agree with it either.
McBroom later apologized to McGury, saying it was inappropriate to write about what he thought was the director’s opinion.
Commissioners have the right to disagree with the board majority, Price said, and to associate with people who agree with them.
However, “policies do set boundaries which are intended to help facilitate the ability of the district to accomplish and deliver on its mission. … (The comment made challenged) the enforcement — which is a problem for staff — and it (implied) that perhaps the executive director was not going to enforce them. Those are problems,” Price said.
In another comment, McBroom wrote it “should be a requirement of board members who support (the mask rule) to play a full court basketball game masked up.” When someone commented that, “I’ve seen those gals and that’s not going to happen anytime soon,” McBroom responded with a laughing face emoji.
Some saw the emoji as McBroom’s agreement and others interpreted it as “body shaming.” Price said it’s difficult to interpret the intent behind a symbol.
“I think we have to be very careful, then, to take any action about something that is clearly ambiguous in terms of what it meant or what its intention was,” he said. “The emoji gets to remind us of that value that we should be focusing on the issues and not on each other.”
McBroom thanked Price for the inquiry, but he also said he did not believe his actions required an investigation at taxpayer expense or that what he wrote could be interpreted as an attempt to interfere with the district’s mask rule.
“I’m not going to tell (supporters) to walk into a facility unmasked and see what happens,” he said. “I’m going to tell them to call/contact the park district and ask them and find out what would happen. I understand this gray area, I understand where attorney Price is coming from, but I just wanted to make that statement.”
His comments came to light because he has been vocal in questioning the benefit of mask policies, which he argues can end up hurting people, he said.
“If asking hard questions can subject you to cancel culture, so be it. I’ll sleep well at night,” McBroom said. “With that off my chest, all that said I’m ready to move on. I’m ready to get back to the people’s business.”
Price also addressed rumors that said the other commissioners had launched a “coordinated attack” on McBroom at the Sept. 9 meeting by getting together in advance to discuss how they were going to address his Facebook posts, possibly in violation of Open Meeting Act rules.
Price said his inquiry found no evidence of such a violation.
“The most farcical of this is somehow (Commissioner Mary Gibson) and I met to write her issue statement, in connection with the other three commissioners,” Price said.
Gibson, who requested the ethics inquiry, said she appreciated Price’s examination of the incident and was ready to move on.
“I think as a board, it’s important we work together, to move forward and serve the district,” she said. “I think it was a worthwhile endeavor. In order to work together as a board, we need to make sure we’re all following board policy.”
