Local Government Law Bulletin
Separation of Church and City? Prayer at Public Meetings
The United States Supreme Court recently held by a narrow 5-4 majority in Town of Greece v. Galloway that a town’s practice of opening public meetings with a religious prayer was not a violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. The Court ultimately...
Hail to the Chiefs
Congratulations to three of our local police chiefs who are retiring this summer. Their hard work, dedication, and service has helped keep our communities safe over the years. While we will miss their exceptional leadership, we look forward to working with the new...
Internship Programs: Paid or Unpaid?
The summer is soon approaching and soon, if not already, college and high school students will hit the pavement and come knocking for interviews and jobs while they are off school. Their goal: to make some money or, at a minimum, to pad their resumes. While...
Strict Procedural Compliance in Administrative Adjudication/Code Hearing Proceedings
The First District Appellate Court rendered a decision in Stone Street Partners, LLC v. The City of Chicago Department of Administrative Hearings that invalidated the City of Chicago’s administrative adjudication judgment against a corporation for some noteworthy...
Schlossberg Appointed to Local Government Law Section Council
Ruth Alderman Schlossberg has been appointed to her third term on the Illinois State Bar Association Local Government Law Section Council. Schlossberg now has served the ISBA — a 33,000 member organization — in this role since 2012. Currently, there are 28 members on...
New PAC Open Meetings Act Opinion
In its first binding opinion of the year, the PAC has revisited an earlier problematic decision and has, perhaps, made things even more difficult for public bodies. As we previously reported, the Public Access Counselor (“PAC”) issued an opinion in 2013 involving the...
Outlawing Police Ticket Quotas
Senate Bill 3411 was approved by an overwhelming majority of the State Senate last week (57-1) and now moves on to the House. Here is what SB 3411 generally means for local governments if it becomes law: Police departments may not use the number of citations an...
College Campuses: A Potentially Target-Rich Environment for Organized Labor
Now that the Final Four is set and many a bracket has been busted, it seems appropriate that ZRFM’s Local Government Law Bulletin would offer a brief commentary on a recent development impacting college sports (even if it has little to do with local government!):...
It’s Your Money, Recover It for Free!
Two years ago, Illinois instituted the Local Debt Recovery Program (“Program”), which allows local governments to intercept a debtor’s state income tax returns, state payroll, lottery winnings, contract payments and most other state payments, which the local...