Attorney General Opinions

Open meetings act

In the absence of an express statutory exception, public bodies are required to deliberate in public when they are functioning in a quasi-judicial capacity. This includes quasi-judicial hearings by county boards and governing bodies of municipalities on applications for siting regional pollution control facilities and hearings conducted by regional boards of school trustees on petitions filed. These hearings do not fall under the exceptions to the Open Meetings Act which requires that meetings and deliberations of public bodies must be open to the public (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1981, ch. 102, sec. 42). File No. 83-004

State Employees' Retirement System can build or purchase a building

In the absence of language stating a special meaning, the term "establish" as used in the Illinois Pension Code is interpreted to mean that the Board of Trustees of the State Employees' Retirement System is authorized to either build or purchase an office building. Section 14-135.01 of the Illinois Pension Code (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1981, ch. 108 1/2), authorizes the board to "establish an office or offices for the meetings of the board and for the administrative personnel." The Illinois Supreme Court has consistently interpreted the term "establish" as being defined by its ordinary meaning, which is "to create, to institute, to build" (People ex rel. Reynolds v. A., T. & S.F. Ry Co. (1921), 300 Ill. 415) unless otherwise stated. File No. 83-006.

Specific areas the task force will concentrate on include: inmate population and projections, including the impact of determinate sentencing and early release; community-based corrections; prison housing, including conversion of existing state facilities; classification of inmates; and alternatives to incarceration.

The following task force members were drawn from the legislative sector: Maria Cerda, member of Special Joint Legislative Advisory Committee on Corrections; Rep. John J. Cullerton (D-7, Chicago); Sen. John Grotberg (R-25, St. Charles), State Legislative Committee to Visit and Examine State Institutions, Corrections Subcommittee; Sen. George E. Sangmeister (D-42, Mokena); and Rep. Robert C. "Bob" Winchester (R-118, Rosiclare), State Legislative Committee to Visit and Examine State Institutions, Corrections Subcommittee.

The following members were drawn from state executive agencies: Thomas G. Eynon, chairman, Department of Corrections Adult Advisory Board; Michael P. Lane, director, Department of Corrections; Robert Mandeville, director, Bureau of the Budget; and James B. Zage), director, Department of Law Enforcement.

The following members were drawn from the judicial sector: Richard J. Fitzgerald, chief judge, criminal division, Cook County Circuit Court, and Roy O. Gulley, director, Administrative Office of the Courts.

The following members were drawn from local government: Richard M. Daley, Cook County state's attorney; Jim Doherty, public defender, City of Chicago; Philip B. Elfstrom, former chairman of the Kane County Board and the Criminal Justice Steering Committee of the National Association of Counties; Richard English, warden, Cook County Jail; Stephen D. Fisher, Macon County sheriff and immediate past president of the Illinois Sheriffs' Association; Charles A. Gruber, Quincy police chief, immediate past president of the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police and member of the executive committee of the International Association of Chiefs of Police; and William Roberts, Sangamon County state's attorney, legislative chairman of the Illinois State's Attorneys' Association and Illinois director of the National District Attorneys' Association.

The following members were drawn from interested organizations: Steve Culen, executive director, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Illinois Council 31; Bernie Curran, executive director, SAFER Foundation; Patrick F. Healy, executive director, Chicago Crime Commission; Melody M. Heaps, executive director, Treatment Alternatives to Street Crime Inc.; Gay-Lloyd Lott, former chairman, Illinois State Bar Association (ISBA) Correctional Facilities and Services Committee, former president of the Cook County Bar Association and member of the ISBA Board of Governors; Michael J. Mahoney, executive director, John Howard Association; Joyce F. O'Keefe, chair, League of Women Voters of Illinois Criminal Justice Committee, and member of the Adult Advisory Board to the Department of Corrections.

32/July 1983/rilinois Issues