Legal/Legislative Scene

Senate Bill 1510 Held in the House By Peter M. Murphy IAPD General Counsel

On Tuesday. June 14, 1994, Senate Bill 1510 was called fora final vote. While the bill did not receive sufficient votes to pass, it did receive the required number of votes to remain on the calendar on the order of postponed consideration.

This means that the bill can be called for a vote again before the legislature adjourns sine die in January of 1995.

The debate on Senate Bill 1510 was vigorous and many positive comments were made about Illinois Park Districts and Forest Preserves and their need for the important legislative authority provided by Senate Bill 1510. The tax cap issue remains a highly political one, however, and this overshadowed the debates on the merits of the bill.

Members of the Illinois Association of Park Districts have worked extremely hard to educate members of the legislature about how critical the passage of Senate Bill 1510 is to park district survival. The progress of Senate Bill 1510 this year demonstrates that the work our park and forest preserve districts have done on this issue has succeeded but must continue.

This critical issue is one that the Association has worked continuously on since the inception of the property tax cap. It is our intention to continue to press for the passage of this conservative and reasonable piece of legislation which restricts park district and forest preserve bonding authority to the tax cap's limitation. While significant attention has been focused on Senate Bill 1510, a variety of other issues have been addressed by your Association.

THE OPEN MEETINGS ACT

This year the Illinois General Assembly passed an extensive amendment to the Illinois Open Meetings Act, which inserted a policy clause into the act declaring it to be the policy of the State of Illinois that its citizens be given advance notice of the right to attend all meetings at which any business of a public body is discussed. Exceptions to the public's right to attend exist only in those limited circumstances where the General Assembly has specifically determined that the public interest would be clearly endangered or the personal privacy or guaranteed rights of individuals would be clearly in danger of unwarranted invasion. In addition, it was declared that the provisions for exceptions to the Open Meetings Act shall be strictly construed against closed meetings. Examples of situations in which a public body may hold a closed meeting include some of the following:

1) The appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance or dismissal of specific employees of the public body, including hearing testimony on a complaint lodged against an employee to determine its validity;

2) Collective negotiative matters between the public body and its employees or their representatives or deliberations concerning salary schedules for one or more classes of employees;

3) The selection of a person to fill a public office, or the discipline, perfor

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mance or removal of an occupant of a public office when the public body is given power to remove the occupant under law or ordinance;

4) The purchase or lease of real property for the use of the public body;

5) The setting of a price for the sale or lease of property owned by the public body;

6) The sale or purchase of securities, investments or investment contracts;

7) Litigation, when an action against, affecting or on behalf of the particular public body has been filed and is pending before a court or administrative tribunal, or when the public body finds that an action is probable or imminent, in which case the basis for the finding shall be recorded and entered into the minutes of the closed meeting;

8) The establishment of reserves or settlements of claims as provided in the Local Governmental and Governmental Employees Tort Immunity Act; and

9) Self evaluation, practices and procedures or professional ethics, when meeting with a representative of a statewide association of which the public body is a member.

The amendment to the Open MeetingsAct also redefines an "employee" as a person employed by a public body whose relationship with the public body constitutes an employer/employee relationship and who is not an independent contractor.

The amendment reiterates that no final action may be taken at a closed meeting and that final action must be preceded by a public recital of the nature of the matter being considered or other information that will inform the public of the business being conducted.

In addition, there is a new requirement that an agenda for each regular meeting must be posted at least forty-eight hours in advance of the holding of the meeting. However, the requirement of a regular meeting agenda shall not preclude the consideration of items not specifically set forth in the agenda.

The time in which a civil action for non- compliance with the act may be filed has been extended from forty-five to sixty days. In addition, the public notice requirement of any special meeting must now be given forty-eight hours in advance rather than twenty-four hours as previously required.

Note that this legislation does not include the onerous provisions of previous bills such as personal civil fines and a verbation transcript of closed meetings.

I.M.R.F.

Another issue being addressed by your Association includes the development of a position on the I.M.R.F. Early Retirement Incentive (E.R.I.), which would permit units of government to elect to participate in the E.R.I. program. The current proposal would permit eligible employees to purchase the five years of additional service credit, and their age would be enhanced by an equivalent amount. In addition, the legislation as currently drafted provides that:

• Employees would have to pay 4.5% for each year up to five years purchased.

• Eligible employees could request retirement by 7/1 of the year the incentive is offered. In order to be eligible for the subsequent thirteenth check, participating employees must be age fifty with twenty years of service.

• Enhancements cannot be used in determining age and service credit for E.R.I. eligibility, but may be used for retirement eligibility.

• Employee contributions can be paid in a single sum at the time of retirement or may be deducted from the annuity in twenty-four equal installments.

• Any person who has forfeited early retirement enhancement would not be eligible to participate in future early retirement incentives.

This legislation, while in bill form, will not advance until after additional refinements have been made and not earlier than the veto session.

RESEARCH PROJECTS

Several interesting studies have recently been released regarding park and recreation services.

A study entitled, "Healing America's Cities: Why We Must Invest in Urban Parks" has been published by the Trust for Public Land.

This study concludes that crime drops in areas where adequate park and recreation activities are available. It further demonstrates that urban recreation and sports programs are a proven and cost effective means of preventing crime and delinquency.

Examples in the study include:

• Calls reporting juvenile crime in Phoenix, Ariz., decreased by 55 percent when recreational facilities stayed open until 2 a.m. in the summer.

• Crime dropped 90 percent in a Philadelphia area after vacant lots were cleaned and gardens planted.

• Juvenile arrests declined by almost one-third in Fort Myers, Fla., after the city began a youth academics and recreation program.

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• Crime decreased after an abandoned recreation center in Newark, N.J. was renovated.

Quoted in the study was Sharpe James, Mayor of Newark, New Jersey and President of the National League of Cities, who stated, "We are going to recreate or we are going to incarcerate, the choice is ours. We cannot afford to put a cop on every comer and we cannot build a jail cell for every youthful offender ... so why do we continue to believe that the answer is strictly in law enforcement?"

In addition, the Colorado Parks and Recreation Association contracted with the University of Northern Colorado for an in- depth study of the economic impact of recreation, parks and leisure services.

Several of the studies' findings include that:

• There is a direct relationship between the quality of life in a community, the value of property and economic growth.

• Increases in the price of residential property are positively affected by the quality of recreation facilities and negatively affected by the distance from them. Proximity to open space improves the visual environment and the quality of life. These two positive attributes result in higher prices for homes and land.

• If recreation facilities are not maintained or if the number of facilities does not increase with growth in population, the quality of life and property values around parks and recreation facilities will suffer.

• Recreation services were one of the five largest contributors to economic growth in the 1970s.

For more information on this study, contact IAPD.

BILL UPDATE PUBLIC ACT 88-545 (HB 2627)

This legislation was introduced to clarify a Second District (DuPage County) Appellate Court decision which required the tax rate levied for tort liability purposes to be limited by the general corporate rate of a political subdivision.

This decision is being construed to have a broad impact on all local units of government.

The Act provides that taxes levied for tort liability purposes are excepted from the rate limitation imposed by law on taxes levied for general corporate purposes by the local public entity authorized to levy a tax under this section.

Further, that taxes a local public entity has levied in reliance on Section 9-107 of the Tort Immunity Act "are excepted under paragraph (1) from the rate limitation imposed by law on taxes levied for general corporate purposes by the local public entity are not invalid because of any provision of the law authorizing the local public entity's tax levy for general corporate purposes that may be construed or may have been construed to restrict or limit those taxes levied, and those taxes are hereby validated. This validation of taxes levied applied to all cases pending on or after the effective date of this amendatory act of 1994."

Last action: Governor approved on June 27.1994 — Public Act 88-0545.

HOUSE BILL 3622 — Giolitto

Amends the Intergovernmental Cooperation Act; requires special districts to give notice of the proposed annexation of territory to each township and county in which the territory is located.

Last action: House second reading.

HOUSE BILL 3820 — McGuire

New Act; the Workplace Safety Committee Act; provides that each public & private employer of at least 50 workers shall establish a safety committee at each of the employer's primary places of work; provides for composition, meetings, records, training of committees, etc.

Last action: House second reading.

HOUSE BILL 3826 — Lindner

Amends Downstate Forest Preserve District Act; authorizes a district located in a county under 400, 000 to sell parcels of land under one acre in size.

Last action: House third reading.

SENATE BILL 1279 — Farley

Adds a purpose clause to theTruth in Taxation used requiring taxing districts to hold public hearings on their intention to adopt an aggregate levy. In addition, it requires taxing districts to publish their intention to adopt an aggregate levy in an amount more than 5% or the percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index, which ever is less over the previous year's levy. The bill also sets a uniform date for filing appropriation ordinances. The uniform date for park districts is the first Monday in December.

Last action: House second reading.

SENATE BILL 1366 — O'Malley

Creates the Municipal Development Impact Fee Act; authorizes municipalities to impose impact fees on developers of property on account of increased costs incurred by the municipality or a school district, park district, library, or fire protection district that are attributable to the development.

Last action: Referred to Rules Committee/Rule 14.

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SENATE BILL 1476 - Syverson

Amends the Election Code and various acts concerning units of local government and school districts; standardizes provisions concerning publication or posting or ordinances and resolutions and filing of petitions with respect to back door referenda; other provisions.

Last action: Senate third reading.

NATIONAL ISSUES

Congress Moves on Park Spending

The House subcommittee on interior appropriations on June 9 recommended modest increases to two programs important to state and local park and recreation systems. The subcommittee, chaired by U. S. Rep. Sidney Yates (D-IL), included $10 million for urban park rehabilitation and $26.25 million for LWCF state assistance. The amounts represent a modest increase in the current level of funding and does not meet the expectations many had based on the promises of a new administration. The full House Appropriations Committee is expected to consider the bill on June 17. House floor action is expected to follow soon thereafter.

LWCF Reviews Continue

Representatives George Miller (D-CA) and Bruce Vento (D-MN) on April 29 convened the second of two workshops on the future of the Land and Water Conservation Fund and the Urban Park and Recreation Recovery program. The legislators are expected to introduce a bill to amend these programs this fall.

The National Park Service's LWCF Review Committee is also continuing to examine the LWCF and urban park programs to recommend ways to rebuild political and fiscal support. Members of the committee are scheduled to meet in Washington, DC in late June and July. A final report will be presented to the Secretary of the Interior's advisory board on national parks in August.

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