Yorkville resident Darlene Sabo believes the village council isn’t providing enough transparency about the legal issue it is dealing with. T-L Photo/GAGE VOTA

YORKVILLE — Yorkville Village Council held an emergency meeting Tuesday evening to discuss what members termed a pressing legal issue.

Seconds into the emergency meeting, Yorkville Mayor Sandy Reasbeck informed the residents in attendance that the purpose of the meeting was to go into a closed-door session where council would be receiving a phone call from an unnamed lawyer to provide legal advice. She added that Village Solicitor Thomas Ryncarz wasn’t at the meeting or present on the call because the village is seeking outside legal counsel.

Councilman Doug Delvecchio made a motion for council to enter an executive session. Council members, Reasbeck and the outside attorney on the call were in the private session for nearly two hours before council and the mayor returned to open session.

Following the closed-door portion of the meeting, council member Cindy Norman made a motion to adjourn.

Before it could be seconded, Yorkville resident Darlene Sabo interjected, asking if she could speak before the meeting was adjourned.

Reasbeck allowed her to speak, and Sabo informed council that she believes the council is obligated to provide transparency to the residents of the village in regards to the reason for the meeting.

“You called a special meeting at 4 o’clock. You said the Pledge of Allegiance, and then you kicked everybody out. You call people back in, and then you tell them that you want to leave. Do we not have a right to know what’s going on?” Sabo said.

Reasbeck replied that the point of the meeting was to hold an executive session, but due to Ohio’s Sunshine Law a council must first hold a public meeting before going into an executive session. At this point, she said, the council and administration are not providing any information to the public regarding the legal matter.

“I have to post every meeting. That’s required by the Sunshine Law. No matter what meeting it is, it has to be posted. That’s why it was posted. That’s the only reason it was posted, because I had to,” Reasbeck said.

She then asked council if there was a second on the motion to adjourn. Council member Sarah Jokovich replied that she believed the residents were entitled to some sort of an explanation from council before adjourning.

She said she believes council needs to address the legal matter. Reasbeck replied that she did address it by saying that it’s a legal matter that she, the council and an attorney needed to discuss.

“You didn’t discuss anything. You didn’t say what it was about or anything. This is what the people don’t like. This is why they don’t like you,” Sabo said.”It just seems to be like you don’t want the people to know what’s going on.”

Sabo then exited the meeting with Norman seconding the motion to adjourn, which was approved by council.