No witness fee for policemen The attorney general concluded that police officers are not entitled to a statutory witness fee when testifying against persons they have arrested. Although there is no law that specifically rules out compensation in such cases, testifying is an officer's duty as part of the arrest process, so no extra fees must be paid. A police department, however, may compensate a policeman for time spent testifying outside of normal duty hours, if such compensation is otherwise legal. State scholarships, S-1352: Illinois State Scholarship recipients may take courses at "nonqualified" (not meeting statutory standards) colleges or universities while attending a "qualified" institution. Environmental protection, S-1355: The Department of Mines and Minerals may not lease abandoned lands to a unit of local government under the Abandoned Mined Lands Reclamation Act. The act (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1975, Ch. 93, sec. 259) requires a governmental unit to submit a plan for the use of the reclaimed land to the Abandoned Mined Lands Reclamation Council. If the council approves, the director of the Department of Mines and Minerals may transfer the land to the governmental unit without requiring valuable consideration. Per diem employees, S-1351: Election judges, board of review members and jury commissioners employed by a county are covered by the Unemployment Insurance Act (Ill. Rev, Stat. 1977, Ch. 48, sec. 300 et seq.). These per diem employees are eligible for benefits under the act as long as the per diem position was not their only employment during the year. Medical Center Commission, S-1356: A medical center commission may not use income gained from the rental or sale of commission-owned property for the acquisition of property or any related capital expenditures. Under section 10 of "An act in relation to the establishment of a Medical Center District in the city of Chicago, etc." (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1975, Ch. 91, sec. 134), the commission may use such funds only for paying off its bonds, or operating, maintaining and improving its property. Appropriations, S-1349: The board of trustees of the State Employees' Retirement System has the authority to pay retirement and administrative expenses from its accumulated funds. Section 2a of the Public Act 80-142, which appropriates money for the system's ordinary and contingent expenses, is invalid because it violates section 8(d) of article IV of the 1970 Illinois Constitution which provides that an appropriation bill may not change an existing statute. Section 2a of P.A. 80-142 purports to change the substantive provisions of the Pension Code which places the board of trustees in control of the system's funds rather than the General Assembly, so it is invalid. June 1978/Illinois Issues/31
|
|||||||||||||||
