PRESIDENTS MESSAGE

Illinois Municipal League Committees Meet By BOB ANSTINE, Mayor, Macomb President, Illinois Municipal League

In the past several weeks I have participated in several of the League's Committee sessions. These committees are an important part of the League's structure.

The Legislative Committee met in Chicago January 27, 1989 to consider legislative proposals from member cities. Several legislative items were recommended to the League's Executive Committee. Our legislative efforts start with municipal officials submitting ideas for legislative change which will make operation of municipal governments more effective and efficient. Those ideas are debated and refined by the League's Legislative Committee which is a group of about fifty municipal officials including Mayors, Village Presidents, Managers, Aldermen, Village Trustees, Clerks, Treasurers, Finance Officers and Municipal Attorneys.

The Legislative Committee makes recommendations to the Board or Executive Committee which then establishes the League's proactive positions for the coming year. As always the time spent on legislation must be divided between work on the proactive proposals and reaction to detrimental legislation introduced by other groups and legislators.

At the February 8, 1989 League Public Works Committee meeting in Springfield, Director Bernie Killian, of the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency and his staff, addressed the committee regarding budget constraints being suffered by IEPA in providing "free" water analysis to public water supplies. Legislation introduced in the last session of the General Assembly would have relieved IEPA of providing any "free" analysis and would have required public water suppliers to pay all costs associated with the state and federal water analysis requirements. A subcommittee of the I.M.L. Public Works Committee was appointed to investigate and propose a recommendation for assuring adequate funding for continued water analysis by IEPA.

This is an example of the terrific technical work being accomplished by the Public Works Committee which is comprised of approximately 30 city and village engineers. The committee meets regularly with the staff of the Bureau of Local Roads and Streets of the Illinois Department of Transportation and more and more often with the Illinois EPA staff to review and comment on proposed regulations from those agencies. This latest project involving review of the growing cost of water testing and the search for a reasonable solution will be one that all of us operating water systems will be watching closely in the coming weeks.

The Executive Committee met in Rosemont on February 15, 1989 to act upon recommendations from the Legislative Committee and meet with Don Jones, Deputy Director, National League of Cities, Washington, D.C., who is responsible for the League's national search for a Legislative Affairs Director. The search will begin immediately. The Executive Committee decided that the search would be concluded and the selection made during the League's July Board Meeting.

All member cities and villages are encouraged to visit the League Offices in the newly remodeled building at 500 East Capitol Avenue in Springfield. The building was formally dedicated on March 4th. Central business districts have traditionally been important to cities and villages. Your Board of Directors has purchased, remodeled and moved its offices to a highly visible location just three blocks directly east of the State of Illinois Capitol Building in downtown Springfield. The building was chosen because of its short distance to the Illinois General Assembly and Legislative Offices. It will rapidly become quite an asset to all Illinois villages and cities in our continual liaison with state government officers, General Assembly members and staff, state administrative departments and other agencies and boards of State government. •

March 1989 / Illinois Municipal Review / Page 5