As a follow-up to our reporting on the City of Chicago's efforts to identify and potentially remove historic monuments, including that of President William McKinley in McKinley Park , we wanted to share this article from the Better Government Association:

‘What’s Said Here, Stays Here.’ Work of the Committee That Identified 41 Public Monuments for Possible Removal Remains Opaque.

This article takes a close, critical look at the process whereby the McKinley Memorial and others in Chicago were selected and discussed, notably that everything was conducted in a purposefuly secretive process outside of Illinois' Open Meetings Act. It digs into previously unknown deliberation details, such as:

Records provided by the city in response to the BGA’s request suggest the list of 41 problematic monuments was provided by Lightfoot administration officials — and not generated by the artists and cultural figures on the advisory committee.

If you're interested in the fate of the William McKinley memorial, this article from senior investigative reporter David Jackson is a worthwhile read.