Local Government Law Bulletin
Proposed Bill Would Change FOIA Requirements for Police Body Cameras
Currently, a bill sits before Governor Rauner that would establish criteria for police body cameras. While the bill does not require police departments to utilize these cameras, it does establish regulations for their implementation and use. This new bill sets new and...
Appellate Court Calls into Question Administrative Impound Fees
The Fifth District Appellate Court in Carter v. City of Alton addressed a challenge to the administrative fees assessed by four municipalities for vehicle impoundments. The fees ranged from $100 to $500. The specific basis of the challenge was that the impound fees...
New Case Further Highlights Illinois’s Tort Immunity Act
Recently, an Illinois appellate court determined that a local government was protected from liability under the Tort Immunity Act where the municipality’s sewage system flooded residents’ homes. In Nichols v. City of Chicago Heights, the municipality, in response to...
Village of Palatine’s Disclosure of Personal Information Held to Be Permissible
The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals recently upheld the District Court’s judgment in favor of the Village of Palatine in Senne v. Village of Palatine. In Senne, a class of plaintiffs alleged that the Village of Palatine’s use of information on parking tickets placed...
Rodriguez v. United States: The Supreme Court Keeps the Fourth Amendment from “Going to the Dogs”
Last week, the United States Supreme Court addressed the issue of whether police officers may detain a driver of a vehicle for a short period of time in order to await the arrival of drug-sniffing dogs, after all of the lawful purposes of the traffic stop have been...
Schlossberg Appointed to ISBA Local Government Role
In early April, Zukowski, Rogers, Flood & McArdle attorney Ruth Alderman Schlossberg was appointed to a prominent post in the Illinois State Bar Association, an organization of about 30,000 Illinois attorneys. Highly regarded in the field of municipal and local...
Seminar for Local Government Officials
On May 20, 2015, the McHenry County Council of Governments in association with Zukowski, Rogers, Flood & McArdle will be hosting a "Seminar for Local Government Officials." The seminar will be from 5:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. at the Holiday Inn located at 800 South...
Informal Approval of Settlement Agreement by City Council Is Unenforceable
An appellate court, in Meade v. City of Rockford, recently held that a settlement agreement, informally approved by a city council, was unenforceable despite a court having dismissed the case pursuant to the settlement. In coming to this resolution, the court answered...
Local Government Consolidation and Unfunded Mandates Task Force Under Way
The members of the Local Government Consolidation and Unfunded Mandates Task Force (“Task Force”) were selected and began meeting last month. The Task Force was assembled pursuant to Gov. Bruce Rauner’s Executive Order 15-15, is chaired by Lt. Gov. Evelyn Sanguinetti,...