LLEEGGIISSLLAATTIIVVEE TAKE ACTION! BBUULLLLEETTIINN www..iml..org INTRODUCTION The Illinois House and Senate were in session for three days this week. They both return to session next week on a Tuesday thru Thursday schedule. Speaker YOU Madigan has called for a meeting of the Committee of the Whole on May 9th at 9 am CAN on the House Floor to discuss the Governor’s proposed Gross Receipts Tax. MAKE A A solid contingent of local officials traveled to Springfield this week for the Difference! Annual IML Lobby Day. We appreciate the attendance of the Southern Illinois Difference! Mayors Association, the South Suburban Mayors and Managers and the Southwest Conference of Mayors who had their drive downs this week in conjunction with the IML Lobby Day. The League would like to thank Senate Majority Leader Debbie Halvorson and Senate Republican Caucus Chair Dale Righter for addressing the attendees at the Legislative Briefing. In other news, Senate Bill 500 passed the Illinois House this week. This legislation creates the Statewide Smoking Ban. The Governor is expected to sign the bill. LEGISLATIVE BULLETIN 2007-13 HB 1500 CABLE / VIDEO LEGISLATION – IT’S ALL IN THE DETAILS Friday, May 4, 2007 In This Issue: Last week, the interested parties to HB 1500 talked, exchanged ideas and language to further modify the Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s amendment to the bill. The working draft is a Introduction complete rewrite of HB 1500 as proposed by the Attorney General’s office. The discussions have been extensive by all parties and a fair HB 1500 – Cable/Video amount of language has been exchanged, debated, modified, and rewritten many times to hopefully produce a second working draft House Bills during the week of May 7, 2007. Senate Bills Once again, the Illinois Municipal League is extremely grateful to Terry Miller, Dave Bennett, and Tim Frenzer for the long Status Report hours of work with IML staff member Roger Huebner. We are fairly confident that the second draft will be better than the first draft and a tremendous improvement over the original HB1500 language. PLEASE KEEP THE CABLE / VIDEO ISSUE IN MIND DURING YOUR DISCUSSIONS WITH LEGISLATORS! 500 East Capitol Avenue P.O. Box 5180 Springfield, IL 62705 Phone: (217) 525-1220 Fax: (217) 525-7438 Legislative Bulletin 2007-13 May 4, 2007 Page 2 HOUSE BILLS House Bill 511 – Release of Settlement Information Senator Ronen (Representative Joyce) – Senate First Reading House Bill 511 passed the Illinois House. This bill changes the Freedom of Information Act making the financial portion of settlement agreements entered into on behalf of public bodies for the prosecution, defense, or settlement of any litigation a matter of public record. Making settlement agreements public will prove costly to taxpayers. Out of court settlements will be much less likely to occur if the payment to plaintiffs is always made public. Many times a difficult case will be settled in order to save the cost of attorneys’ fees needed to defend a case through trial. On a few occasions, the local government and the plaintiff will choose to have settlement agreements withheld from public view. If that option no longer exists, public bodies will have much less incentive to settle, and the court system will become much more congested. Once settlement figures are made public they will tend to become a floor for future settlements across Illinois. If this bill passes and becomes law, taxpayers will pay the additional costs that inevitably will occur for public bodies. IML OPPOSES HB 511. House Bill 773 – Authorizes the Illinois Department of Labor to Sue Public Bodies for Back Wages to Employees if They Fail to Notify Contractors of Prevailing Wage Requirements Representative Fritchey – Senate First Reading HB 773 passed the Illinois House. The legislation would require that public bodies provide a written notice to contractors when the prevailing wage is required to be paid on a public works project. Failure of the public body to provide the contractor with written notice can result in the Department of Labor suing the public body for any back wages, interest, penalties or fines owed by the contractor to all laborers, mechanics and other workers who performed work on the project. IML OPPOSES HB 773. House Bill 928 – Fire Fighter Workers Compensation Legislation Senator Link (Representative Hoffman) – Senate Labor Committee Hearing 5/9/07 at 2:30 pm Room 400 State House HB 928 was amended on the House floor to create a rebuttable presumption regarding several health conditions (heart, vascular system, lung and respiratory system, hypertension, tuberculosis, cancer, hernia or hearing loss) for firefighters under the Workers Compensation Act. Despite the amendment, the IML remains opposed to the bill. IML OPPOSES HB 928. House Bill 962 – Vacancies of Municipal Officers Senators Koehler and Althoff (Representative Tryon) – Senate Local Government Committee Hearing on 5/8/07 at 1 pm in Room 409 State House HB 962 amends a provision in the Municipal Code governing the filling of vacancies of municipal officers. This legislation clarifies the procedures for an elected official resigning from office and when the vacancy begins. The legislation clarifies that when a vacancy occurs by the death of an officeholder, the vacancy begins on the date issued on the death certificate. Also, the council may determine when a vacancy by disability occurs. If the vacancy determination is based upon mental disability, then appointment in court of a guardian ad litem is a precondition (currently, there is no qualification in the statute in determining if an officeholder is mentally incapable of performing the requisite duties). The other provision this legislation addresses is the filling of a vacancy of a board member when the current board does not approve nominations from the mayor. This legislation allows the mayor to make a temporary appointment to fill the vacancy after the 60th day of the vacancy so long as the mayor nominated a minimum of 2 persons for the appointment. The temporary appointment must be made from those persons that were nominated but failed confirmation. Lastly, the legislation clarifies Legislative Bulletin 2007-13 May 4, 2007 Page 3 that a person does not have to have lived in the municipality for a year to be a municipal officer if the municipality is newly incorporated. IML SUPPORTS HB 962. House Bill 988 – Substitute Fire Fighters Representative Phelps – House Floor HB 988 was amended on the House floor on Thursday afternoon. The underlying bill would prevent municipalities and fire protection districts from hiring substitute firefighters on a part-time basis to supplement the fire force and fill scheduling holes unless the fire fighter has qualified for a regular appointment under the Illinois Municipal Code. The practical effect of this bill would be to eliminate the hiring of a multitude of part-time firefighters, even if the firefighters had received substantially similar training as required for a regular, full-time firefighter. If it were to become law, this bill has the potential to financially devastate many departments and fire protection districts because of the limited funding available to hire full-time firefighters, particularly within tax-capped jurisdictions. The amendment that was introduced is, for lack of a better description, "smoke and mirrors." The primary change to the bill would be to make the issue a matter of permissive bargaining. What this means is that the underlying bill restricting the use of part-time firefighters would become the statewide standard. As amended, municipalities could ask their local unions to bargain over alternative staffing procedures, but the unions do not have to agree to even negotiate on the subject. Many local fire unions will simply refuse to bargain the issue. Because the bargaining is permissive and not mandatory, there is absolutely nothing municipalities can do in such a situation. Unfortunately, the amendatory language was accepted by the Illinois Fire Chiefs Association (IFCA) in exchange for the removal of their opposition to the bill. Proponents of the bill will now use the neutrality of the fire chiefs and the largely misleading argument that the bill "preserves local control" in their efforts to pass the bill. Remember, permissive bargaining only means that the municipality has the right to ask the union to bargain the issue. It does not, as with "mandatory bargaining," require that both sides negotiate toward an agreement. The amendment also contains a home rule preemption that was not included within the bill as introduced. The League will continue to oppose HB 988. We urge your municipality to contact your representative and strongly oppose HB 988. House Bill 1670 – Commencement of Elected Municipal Officials Terms Senator Mike Jacobs (Representative Pritchard) – Senate Floor Currently, the terms of elected municipal officers shall commence at the first regular or special meeting of the corporate authorities during the month of May following the proclamation of the results of the regular municipal election. Due to recent changes in the Election Code (absentee voting and provisional voting), the results of the election may not be official for fifteen to twenty-one days after the election. HB 1670 will provide that municipal terms commence at the first regular meeting or special meeting after the receipt of the official election results and provide that the agenda for such meeting includes the inauguration of the newly elected officers. This proposal will provide flexibility for the timing of when municipal terms will commence. IML SUPPORTS HB 1670. House Bill 1727 – Mandatory Public Library Internet Filters Senator Hultgren (Representative Joyce) – Senate Rules Committee HB 1727 passed the Illinois House. The bill will require the installation of mandatory internet filters on all public library computers (except colleges and universities). Each library must create and Legislative Bulletin 2007-13 May 4, 2007 Page 4 enforce an internet safety policy to prohibit access through computers to obscene material, child pornography or images harmful to minors.