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Executive Report

Board of Elections certifies 'Thompson proposition'

Gov. James R. Thompson's proposed referendum to limit taxes and state spending will be on the November ballot unless there is a successful court challenge. The Board of Elections voted September 8 to validate the "Thompson proposition." The legality of some 26,000 petitions had been challenged August 26 by Rep. Dave Robinson (D., Springfield), the Illinois Education Association and the Independent Voters of Illinois. The challengers disqualified 15,618 signatures, but the proposition still had 2,377 signatures over the required 589,415.

A key question was whether petition circulators must be registered to vote at their current address. Thompson's attorney argued that such a requirement would put too great a burden on petition sponsors, and the board agreed by a vote of 6-2, with Democrats Carolyn R. Chamberlain and Joshua Johnson joining the four Republicans. Challengers contended that the requirement was necessary to correctly identify and trace petition circulators.

The biggest bloc of disqualified signatures were 7,000 notarized by Vicki Sands, executive secretary to Lt. Gov. Dave O'Neal. Called to testify before the board September 1, Sands surprised everyone when she took the Fifth Amendment. The board then continued its inquiry until the last minute before ballot certification was required. Sands later agreed to testify, but the board ruled her testimony irrelevant because Gov. Thompson had already agreed to throw out the signatures.

Federal prison suit settled

A civil suit filed by the U.S. Justice Department charging racial discrimination in Illinois prisons was settled July 27 when U.S. District Court Judge J. Waldo Ackerman signed a consent decree spelling out requirements of an affirmative action plan. Both the parties in the suit, the U.S. Justice Department and the Illinois Department of Corrections (DOC), agreed to the decree aimed at preventing unequal punishment or cell assignments based on racial or ethnic background. Equality must also be guaranteed in work assignments and promotions or advancements of residents regardless of race. The state is to keep detailed records proving compliance with the affirmative action plan it agreed to develop within 45 days.

The suit, filed in December 1976, charged

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the state with permitting racial discrimination, overcrowding, unsanitary living conditions and substandard medical care in Illinois prisons. Federal funds could have been cut off, but discrimination charges were not officially proven or admitted to by the DOC. And the decree assures federal access to state prisons to monitor compliance for three years. The consent decree settled only that portion of the suit involving racial discrimination. Other counts were dismissed by Ackerman.

Illinois Items

More than $2 million worth of abandoned property is missing from the Department of Financial Institutions (DFI). The DFI takes custody of the property or financial assets held by banks or other financial institutions if they remain unclaimed. On August 30 a former DFI employee, Michael C. Modrich, and his wife, Ange, were indicted by a Cook County grand jury on charges they took more than $35,000 of the missing property. Modrich, formerly assistant superintendent of abandoned property in Chicago, was relieved of his duties as the investigation progressed. State and federal agencies, along with the Cook County state's attorney's office are continuing their investigation of the thefts.

Currently, the department is trying to locate more than 4,000 persons and organizations which have over $2.6 million due them from insurance policies that have matured but have never been claimed.

The DFI has also initiated a study to revise the state's outdated consumer finance laws. A bipartisan committee, headed by former Appellate Judge Lawrence X. Pusateri of Chicago, has been formed and expects to report its recommendations to the governor before January 1979.

State workers under the governor's jurisdiction received a $40-a-month pay raise retroactive to July 1, 1977. The 55,000 union and non-union employees got a lump sum payment in September for the first 12 months covered by the increase. The annual total cost of the pay hike will be $28 million. The fiscal 1978 portion was paid from various state and federal funds. The funds to pay for the increase in fiscal 1979 will be taken from agency budgets or when savings occur in other areas.

Gov. Thompson released the remaining $10 million in capital development funds for the next phase of construction at the Hillsboro Correctional Center. To complete construction of both the Hillsboro and Centralia correctional facilities the General Assembly must grant more bonding authority to the Capital Development Board. Both centers are hoped to be in operation by fall 1980, but Hillsboro is being given priority due to opposition in Centralia.

Composed of local citizens, the Centralia Prison Opposition Group has succeeded in placing an advisory referendum concerning the prison site on the November ballot in Clinton County. The group is also scheduled to meet the Gov. Thompson September 28. On September 5, a suit filed by the prison opposition group with former Gov. Dan Walker as its attorney was dismissed by U.S. District Court Judge J. Waldo Ackerman.

The Department of Insurance released in July a list of complaint ratios for automobile, fire, homeowners' and mobile homeowners' insurers in Illinois in 1977. Of the 15,375 complaints investigated by the department, the highest number — 7,208 — concerned automobile insurance; there were 1,110 complaints involving homeowner insurance. The department is checking into several insurance companies whose 1976 ratios seemed to be too high, and more examinations will result from the 1977 complaint ratios.

Shelter care facilities received a $26-a-month increase in payments for Illinois public aid recipients effective in July. The increase is financed by state and federal funds and will cost $1.2 million a year of which the state will pay $690,000. Shelter care facilities provide limited care to residents, helping them remain independent and stay out of nursing homes. The increase affects some 4,000 people.

One of two major types of smoke detectors uses ionizing radiation to activate an alarm, and this poses an unnecessary health hazard, according to the Independent Voters of Illinois (IVI). Due to this appliance's use of radioactive materials, the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) requires that the public return these units to the manufacturer or to the NRC for disposal. The Chicago City Council's ordinance requiring the installation of smoke detectors in buildings three or more stories high permits the use of the radioactive appliance. The IVI urged Mayor Michael Bilandic in August to ban the use of this type of smoke detector. As of September 7, the mayor had not responded.

The changeover to five-year license plates for passenger cars and a staggered registration system is underway. The 1979 license plates, which can be displayed beginning December 1, 1978, will stay on the car or its replacement through 1983. Car owners will purchase new stickers for the plates each year. The Secretary of State's Office expects the multi-year plates to save the state $21 million during the first five years. The changeover to staggered registration will take two years, and after 1980 annual registration for passenger cars will fall due in the nine months of March through November.

A total of $150,000 in grant funds for local energy conservation projects is being made available to Illinois communities by the Illinois or Institute of Natural Resources (IINR). The institute will evaluate the proposals submitted to it and award the funds. Grants will range from about $7,000 to $15,000. The IINR and the Department of Local Government Affairs began distributing applications in August.

The management of federal wastewater treatment plant grants has been turned over to the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA) by the USEPA effective in August. The agreement between the two agencies means that grant applicants will only have to deal with state officials.

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