Ancel Glink Diamond Bush DiCianni & Krafthefer, P.C.

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Latest from Ancel Glink Diamond Bush DiCianni & Krafthefer, P.C.

  Tuesday, August 13, 2019     The Illinois Governor just signed legislation making it easier for municipal officials to complete the required Open Meetings Act training. Under current law, all elected and appointed members of public bodies in the state of Illinois must complete the electronic OMA training offered by the Illinois Attorney General within 90 days of taking office. Previous amendments to the OMA authorized  officials in park districts, school districts, drainage districts and others to satisfy the training requirement through alternative programs. Pursuant to P.A. 101-814, an elected or appointed official on a public body of a…
Tuesday, August 06, 2019     The second FOIA case decided last week is Walker v. Bruscato, 2019 IL App (2d) 170775. Walker had filed multiple FOIA requests with the Winnebago States Attorney’s Office for records pertaining to his murder indictment. The first request asked for a copy of the grand jury transcript. The second request asked for a “current or previous list of the types and categories of records available for inspection and copying maintained in your office.” His third request asked for a copy of the record of indictments in May and June of 2001. His fourth…
  Thursday, August 01, 2019     We don’t see a lot of FOIA cases out of the appellate courts but two were issued yesterday that offer some guidance to public bodies on challenges to FOIA denials. In Barner v. Fairburn, 2019 IL App (3d) 180742, Barner sued the Canton Police Department after the Department denied his FOIA request for a copy of dispatch transcripts for a particular time-period on May 12, 2015, as well as other police records during that time period. The Department provided a copy of an incident report but not the dispatch recording, stating in its…
  Wednesday, July 31, 2019     After three months without a binding opinion from the PAC Office of the Illinois Attorney General, the PAC issued an opinion finding a municipality in violation of FOIA for failing to respond to a union’s FOIA request for various records pertaining to a bargaining unit and finances of the municipality. PAC Op. 19-006. Not only did the municipality fail to respond to the FOIA request, it also did not respond to the PAC’s request for review. Nothing new or helpful in this binding opinion except another reminder that public bodies have an obligation…
  Tuesday, July 30, 2019     In 2014, the Village of Winnetka adopted a storm water ordinance that imposed a fee on the owners of property in the Village in order to provide a dedicated funding source for various improvements to the Village’s storm water system. That fee was calculated based on the “equivalent runoff value” (ERU) of 3400 square feet of impervious surface area on lots within the village. No fee was assessed on properties with less than 170 square feet of impervious surface area, and roads, sidewalks, and alleys were also not subject to the fee. Properties that…
  Monday, July 29, 2019     On July 19, 2019, the Governor signed P.A.101-109 enacting significant amendments to the state Raffles and Poker Runs Act that modify, and in some cases relax, requirements for local raffle regulations. Illinois municipalities may want to review their current raffles regulations and consider amendments consistent with the amended Raffles Act. One of the more significant amendments is that raffle chances can now be sold statewide, which is a substantial change from the previous language that restricted the sale to the locality where licensed. Another change is to expand the list of eligible organizations to…
  Friday, July 26, 2019     The Illinois Governor signed P.A. 101-104 into law last week amending the Township Code relating to the process for filling vacancies in township office.  Under the new law, if there is a vacancy in the office of Township Supervisor, then a Township Board trustee must be appointed as deputy supervisor to perform the ministerial functions of the supervisor’s job until the vacancy is filled. Once the vacancy is filled, the deputy supervisor appointment is terminated.  The law also clarifies the duties of the temporarily appointed deputy for other vacant offices as well. If that…
Thursday, July 25, 2019       On July 19, 2019, the Governor signed into law Public Act 101-0099 (HB 2993) making it more difficult for Illinois Library Districts to annex property that is unserved by tax-supported public library service. Prior to the bill’s passage, a Library District could annex property simply by adopting an ordinance, providing an opportunity for the public to provide comment, and posting adequate notice. The property had to be (i) located within a municipality or school district that was entirely or partially within the district, (ii) contiguous with the district, and (iii) unserved by any…
  Wednesday, July 24, 2019     Last week, Governor Pritzker signed Senate Bill 1536 into law as Public Act 101-0114.  P.A. 101-114 amends the Illinois Municipal Code to establish certain restrictions on the imposition of term limits on municipal offices. The new law specifies that term limits can only be imposed prospectively (counting service in office only after a referendum is adopted) and not retroactively (counting someone’s service in office prior to a referendum being adopted). It also prohibits municipalities from counting service in one elected office to block service in a completely new office. The new law applies to any term…
Tuesday, July 23, 2019     Last week, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals decided two cases challenging local ordinance requirements that commercial buildings be equipped with fire-alarm systems. The cases addressed various claims by Alarm Detection Systems (ADS) that these local ordinances violate state and federal laws and the constitution because they require commercial buildings to contract directly with only one alarm system provider. In both cases, the local government bodies had entered into exclusive agreements with Tyco Integrated Security, LLC, a competitor of ADS. With the exception of a Contracts Clause claim, the court rejected ADS’ arguments, and…
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  Monday, July 22, 2019     Sometimes, you want to “listen” to your news rather than read it, and we have a recommendation for a podcast episode hosted by ELGL. In this episode of ELGL’s GovLov Podcast titled “Legal Challenges to Parking Enforcement,” Ancel Glink attorneys ShawnTe Raines and Matt DiCianni talk about the recent court ruling about the use of chalk in parking enforcement. They also touch on a few other legal issues at the local level.   You can access the podcast by clicking on the title below: Podcast: Legal Challenges to Parking Enforcement …
  Friday, July 19, 2019     Planners, lawyers, and land use professionals won’t want to miss this upcoming webinar hosted by the American Planning Association’s Planning & Law Division on the recent Supreme Court’s takings decision in Knick.  See below for details: What the Supreme Court’s Knick Decision Did and Did Not Change Tuesday, July 30, 2019 1 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. Eastern Timenoon – 1:30 p.m. Central Time CM I 1.50 I LawCLE 1.50 through Illinois State Bar In June, a divided Supreme Court overturned part of a longstanding precedent that generally required plaintiffs alleging unconstitutional takings to first try…
  Monday, July 15, 2019     A few miscellaneous new Illinois laws were signed into law last Friday that may affect units of local government, including the following: P.A. 101-0041 amends the Fire Protection District Act to require a fire protection district to post on its website notices of any proposal to award any contract for work that will exceed $20,000. The amendment also removes a requirement that other notices be published in a daily newspaper. P.A. 101-0047 amends the non-home rule municipal sales tax statute to extend the time period for non-home rule municipalities to use the local sales tax revenues…
  Thursday, July 11, 2019     Public bodies should be aware of an unreported appellate court case holding that a public body could not impose fees in response to a FOIA request where the public body did not respond to the request in a timely manner.  Varan v. White. Varan had filed a FOIA request with the Secretary of State’s office for various records. The state did not respond to the request until six months later, and informed Varan that he had to pay $19,711.55 for the requested records, which was calculated based on a $25 charge per record. Varan…
  Wednesday, July 10, 2019     You may recall that we briefly reported on this case the day it was issued, with the promise that we would provide more details on the ruling in a future blog post.  So, here it is! In a dispute that arose over a cemetery, the U.S. Supreme Court recently buried longstanding precedent and held that takings-claim plaintiffs may now sue directly in federal court. The controversial ruling came down in Knickv. Township of Scott, where a cemetery owner claimed that a township ordinance requiring her to keep her land “open and accessible to…