The biggest and best ever. That is the description many attendees used to describe the 83rd Annual Conference of the Illinois Municipal League. More than 3000 municipal officials and spouses from across Illinois attended the conference held September 19-22 in Chicago. Over 100 exhibitors also participated in the conference to showcase their products or services.

In terms of program topics offered, this conference easily surpassed all preceding conferences. Forty-one programs were presented addressing such diverse and timely issues as The Telecommunications Act of 1996, Removing the Mystique from Municipal Finance, Recycling in Illinois, Property Tax Caps, Tourism/Downtown Festivals and Internet/New Technologies: Applications for Municipalities.

Friday morning's Opening General Session offered a mix of local, state and national leaders -Illinois Congressman Richard Durbin, candidate for the U.S. Senate; Greg Lashutka, Mayor of Columbus, Ohio, and President of the National League of Cities; Paul Vallas, Chief Executive Officer of the Chicago Public Schools; State Representative Bill Balthis (79th district); and Dennis Whetstone, Director of the Illinois Department of Commerce and Community Affairs.

Two very popular leadership luncheons were held at the conference. Ann Smith, Associate Chancellor of the University of Illinois at Chicago, spoke on "Leadership in the New Millenium." Ted Gaebler, coauthor of the best-selling book Reinventing Government, detailed new methods people around the world have developed to positively change government.

As in past years, several municipal associations met in conjunction with the conference and held individual sessions and programs for their members. Participating were the Municipal Clerks of Illinois, Municipal Attorneys, the Illinois Municipal Treasurers Association and the Illinois Fire and Police Commissioners.

The Sunday Closing Session featured remarks by State Comptroller Loleta Didrickson; Tom Cochran, Executive Director of the U.S. Conference of Mayors; and IML President Greg Sparrow. The session also provided the passing of the gavel from President Sparrow to new IML President Frank Clinton, Mayor of Paris.

Conference attendees enjoyed themselves at Thursday's Get Acquainted Reception, Saturday's President's Reception and at the Annual Banquet with entertainment provided by Bill Acosta, the "Man of a Thousand Voices."

General Session
Like last year, stopping unfunded mandates was the rallying cry among speakers at the General Session. After President Sparrow gaveled the session to order, Congressman Richard Durbin addressed the mandates issue. "What's good for the goose is good for the gander," he said. "If the state sends you a responsibility, it should help pay for it."

NLC President Greg Lashutka, in his remarks, talked about federal mandates. "We have unfinished business on unfunded mandates. We need to improve the quality of debate in Washington on mandates which will help you at the local level."

Rep. Bill Balthis, the House sponsor of the Unfunded Mandates Constitutional Amendment, told listeners "Unfunded mandates is a local issue, not a partisan political issue. You have the best fix on how to handle the problem. It is time for us to say enough is enough. It is time to do what is right."

DCCA Director Whetstone characterized unfunded mandates as a "30-year problem." Mandates, he said, are "death by paper cuts. We must stop them."

The last speaker, Chicago public schools CEO Paul Vallas, said "All too often, the debate against unfunded mandates comes across as an argument by municipalities against providing certain services. The lesson from schools in general and the Chicago Public Schools specifically, is that freedom from state mandates produces not fewer services, but better services."

Annual Business Meeting
A number of important resolutions were approved at the Saturday business meeting. Among them;

- The Illinois Municipal League will continue a vigilant fight against unfunded mandates until the General Assembly heeds our request for a constitutional amendment.

- The Municipal League supports telecommunication legislation that provides:

•regulatory powers over telecommunication service providers in order to protect municipal infrastructure;

•assurance that municipalities will receive compensation for use of the public right-of-way from all users of such right-of-way;

• fees, taxes and other revenue streams to municipalities from current and emerging telecommunications service providers;

•that municipalities receive an appropriate allocation of the use in all advanced telecommunications resources; and

• equal access to all citizens of the state.

- Members of the Municipal League support electric deregulation legislation that recognizes municipalities' ability to enter into franchise agreements, ownership and control of rights-of-way in their corporate limits, right of local taxation and an open fair competitive service; and

- The League goes on record as encouraging the General Assembly to address the problems of

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school funding, introduce a new and comprehensive approach to the school funding problem and consider increased options for financing local units of government.

At the election of officers, Mayor Frank Clinton of Paris was elected IML president, Mayor Neil Dillard of Carbondale was elected first Vice President and Mayor David McDowell was re-elected Sergeant-at-Arms.

Association Sessions
The Municipal Attorneys, in a two-part session, featured topics for their members on Current Issues in Economic Development, The Mood of our Courts on Sexual Harassment and The Telecommunications Act of 1996.

Frederick Talbott, Professor for the Practice of Management at Vanderbilt University, gave a motivational speech to the Municipal Clerks of Illinois. The Clerks' session also highlighted the Legalities of Optical Disk Storage and offered a legislative update.

The Municipal Treasurers featured presentations on Electric Banking, a live demonstration of the Internet and a review of the duties of treasurers.

The Illinois Fire & Police Commissioners presented speakers on How to Prepare and Submit Annual Budget and Reports and provided a legislative review.

Closing Session
On Sunday, the last day of the conference, State Comptroller Loleta Didrickson discussed the need for upgrading the state accounting system. "The new system will allow us to extract and analyze data quickly and to easily produce a 'snapshot' of spending at any time," she said.

U.S. Conference of Mayors Executive Director Tom Cochran reviewed federal issues of importance to local officials and urged attendees to "stay the course" on the mandates effort in Illinois.

President Sparrow, in his remarks, gave the audience a "call to arms" in the war on mandates. "Today, the future of local government is at a crossroads with federal devolution and restrictions on local tax revenues via property tax caps. The past and recent actions of the federal and state government clearly illustrate that mandates will continue to come without funding with basically no regard for how local officials are to pay for the cost.

"My fellow officials," he continued, "we have come too far to stop now. Let's continue the momentum we have built together. Let's continue to push forward until we are victorious." •

U.S. Conference of Mayors Tom Cochran addresses the Conference as new IML President Frank Clinton looks on

CONFERENCE EXHIBIT HALL

October 1996 / Illinois Municipal Review / Page 8

IML President Greg Sparrow welcomes officials to the 83rd Annual IML Conference Attendees visit one of the many booths in the Exhibit Hall Myrna Goldsmith, Project Coordinator of the Cook County Circuit Clerk Peer Jury Program, speaks at a session on "Programs for Citizen Involvement" Conference Planning Committee Co-chair Sheila Schultz, Village President of Wheeling, speaks to attendees

DCCA Director Dennis Whetstone speaks at General Session Rep. Bill Balthis (R-79) makes a point about unfunded mandates U.S. Conference of Mayors Executive Director Tom Cochran confers with Ken Alderson, Executive Director of the IML, and State Comptroller Loleta Didrickson Luncheon speaker author Ted Gaebler

Crowd listens attentively during "Conflicts of Interest" session Paul Vallas, CEO of the Chicago Public Schools, makes a point at the General Session Congressman and U.S. Senate candidate Richard Durbin speaks at the opening General Session Roger Selburg, Division Manager of the Public Water Supplies Division of the IL EPA, speaks at the "Safe Drinking Water Act" session

Sen. Denny Jacobs (D-36) speaks at the "Unfunded Mandates" session State Comptroller Loleta Didrickson talks at Closing Session Columbus Mayor and National League of Cities President Greg Lashutka, addresses attendees at opening General Session CreePredential Committee members at IML Business Meeting, 1 to r, St. Charles Mayor Fred Norris, Libertyville Village President JoAnn Eckmann, Machesney Park Village President Steve Kuhn, and Rock Falls Mayor Glen Kuhlmeier

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