Executive
Report

Department of Central Management Services
proposed by executive order

A NEW superagency, consolidating the departments of Personnel and Administrative Services and a new lead agency for criminal justice to replace the Illinois Law Enforcement Commission will be created if the General Assembly does not oppose or revise Gov. James R. Thompson's two executive orders issued April 1. The Department of Central Management Services (Executive Order No. 1, 1982) would become effective July 1; the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority would come into existence April 1, 1983. Both continue what is now a Thompson tradition of using executive orders to reorganize the state bureaucracy. In accordance with the 1970 Constitution, the legislature has 60 days in which to act on the orders, after which they will take effect automatically.

The proposed Department of Central Management Services (DCMS) builds on the governor's first executive order (No. 1, 1977) which combined the departments of General Services and Finance to form the present Department of Administrative Services. Another more recent order (No. 2, 1981) continued consolidation by giving the Department of Personnel responsibility for the state's risk management functions and other employee benefit programs. Creation of DCMS is consistent with the 1976 Bonniwell Commission recomendations in its "Report on Orderly Government," though the governor did not adopt one option listed in the report — shifting the functions of the Capital Development Board to a construction division in the new superagency. The governor's office confirmed that the board was considered for inclusion, but it was felt that the board's presence as an independent agency should be continued.

As a result of the reorganization, several hundred state employees in Personnel and Administrative Services will either be laid off or reassigned, Sally Ward of the governor's office said, but some of the shifts will occur because of program and service reductions already underway and not specifically linked to the reorganization. For example, she pointed out that the Department of Personnel's field office positions in major code agencies are being "reduced drastically" because of changes in processing personnel transactions. But the consolidation move will, she said, substantially reduce personnel by providing a single management focus to state government support services.

The Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority would be responsible for improving the state's criminal justice system through program development, computer services and policy support. Composed of top state and local law enforcement and judicial officials as well as public members, the 15-member authority would have access to all criminal records available to Illinois law enforcement agencies. Since federal Law Enforcement Administration funding for which the Illinois Law Enforcement Commission (ILEC) has state administrative reponsibility is being phased out, the authority would absorb ILEC's Police Management System, which serves city police departments, and the Prosecutors' Management Information System, which serves the Cook County state's attorney and other prosecutors throughout the state upon request. The legislature is considering transferring other ILEC functions involving youth services to the Department of Children and Family Services, as proposed by S.B. 1500, sponsored by Sens. Aldo A. DeAngelis (R., Olympia Fields) and John D'Arco (D., Chicago).

Also to be abolished, effective January 1, 1983, is the Criminal Justice Information Council which was established in 1977. Some of its duties, such as those related to monitoring criminal history information and hearing appeals by individuals concerning their criminal history records, will be absorbed by the Criminal Justice Information Authority.

Members of the authority from state agencies and the Chicago and Cook County criminal justice systems would include: the attorney general, the directors of the departments of Corrections and Law Enforcement, the Cook County sheriff and state's attorney, and the superintendent of the Chicago Police Department. Judicial members would include the chief judge of the Cook County Circuit Court, an Illinois Supreme Court justice and a circuit judge of a county other than Cook; the latter two members would be appointed by the chief justice of the state Supreme Court. Members appointed by the governor would include a sheriff and a state's attorney from a county other than Cook, a chief of police and three members from the general public.

— Cheryl Frank

Visually Handicapped Institute to stay open through fiscal '83

Gov. James R. Thompson announced April 22 that the Illinois Visually Handicapped Institute will remain open through fiscal 1983; in February he had ordered the Department of Rehabilitation Services to close the institute; in March he said it would remain open until the end of fiscal 1982 (see May magazine, p. 39). In making this new announcement the governor said that he was not yet satisfied that adequate training services could be found in the community. The institute will be funded with $400,000 from the Federal Vocational Rehabilitation Services that is being matched by $100,000 in state money. In addition, the state will commit another $267,000 in new general revenue funds for the coming year. There will also be a reallocation within the department's operation budget of federal vocational rehabilitation funds totaling $253,000.

Attorney General Opinions

Domestic violence shelters

Marriage license and divorce court fees which will be turned over in part to the state Domestic Violence Shelter and Service Fund should be collected and deposited in the ordinary way by local officials. Clarifying an ambiguity in the domestic relations and domestic shelters act, the attorney general said the fees should be deposited by the county clerks and circuit court clerks with the country treasurer. It is then the duty of the county treasurer to pay $10 of each deposited marriage fee and $5 of each marriage dissolution fee into the state treasury for the fund. (File No. 81-043)

Land used for 'open space'

Land which falls within the definition of "open space purposes" in the Revenue Act of 1939 should not be assessed as farmland, nor should it be valued as land suitable for developmental purposes. The act defines "land for open space purposes" as more than 10 acres of land used exclusively for maintaining or enhancing natural or scenic resources; protecting air, streams or water supplies; or promoting conservation of soil, wetlands, beaches or marshes. The definition specifically excludes land used primarily for residential purposes. (File No. 82-004)

Indemnifying regional school trustees

Counties cannot agree to contract to indemnify members of a regional board of school trustees as it is neither authorized nor required by The School Code. The code does provide that, when requested to, a qualifying state's attorney may act as legal representative of the regional board of school trustees located in his county. (IL. Rev. Stat. 1979, ch. 122, sec. 6-21). Counties are authorized by statute to indemnify sheriffs or their deputies, and are granted discretionary authority to indemnify other officers or employees of the county. (File No. 82-007)

June 1982 | Illinois Issues | 35