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Municipal Law Q&A Test your knowledge of municipal practices and procedures with the questions and answers below. Click here to submit a question to Ancel Glink.
Municipal Q&A - October 2005
Can an Illinois governmental body either by ordinance or referendum provide for the recall of its elected officials?
ANSWER:
No. The State of Illinois has never been a State with broad recall power over elected officials. For many years, the Commission form of government, a little used form in Illinois, contained a provision allowing for a recall of the elected Commissioners. In a rather strange decision, an Appellate Court struck this provision saying that it was inconsistent with all of the other forms of government. In a strange way, that is like saying that the Manager system is inconsistent with the other forms of government because it has a Manager. Nonetheless, that appears to be the law and in a 1981 case, Williamson v. Doyle, 103 Ill.App. 3d 770, the Appellate Court held that a provision within the State Constitution, that allows both home rule and non-home rule municipalities to determine by referendum the manner of the selection of their officers, does not allow a recall procedure since it is a manner of "de-selection" and does not comfortably fit into any of the categories in the constitutional section which allows referenda in the case of municipalities, which relate to their officers. No other governmental body is given constitutional authority to proceed in this manner.
The Legislature certainly could authorize recall petitions but it does not appear ready to act in that way. Instead of recall, we have elections, generally every four years. In addition, for elected officials, bad performance cannot result in a reduction in salary during a term. Finally, in many cases, efforts of the other governmental officials to remove the powers statutorily granted to allegedly poorly performing elected officials would generally be rebuffed by the Court. Pick your elected officials carefully - they will be around for awhile.
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Question and Answers at the 2002 Illinois Muncipal League
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Are political discussions subject to the Open Meetings Act?
What can be done about IMRF Overfunding?
How can a municipality regulate wireless internet service providers?
How can governments counter unionization?
Where can I find an outline of zoning and planning issues?
Question and Answers at the 2001 Illinois Muncipal League
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Question and Answers at the 2000 Illinois Muncipal League
Conference
How are closed session Minutes taken, approved and reviewed?
Will insurance companies and governmental pools cover claims
for "regulatory takings?"
Who gets to choose the municipal attorney?
How are the Open Meetings Act and FOIA impacted by municipal
elections?
Must you engage in collective bargaining if you employ 20 regular
employees and 20 summer employees?
When can a political party nominate by caucus?
Can a governmental body hold a retreat?
When can a municipality use a recapture agreement?
Can a governmental body reconsider actions previously taken?
Can a public body hold a meeting with less than 48 hours' notice?
Must the resignation of a police officer be accepted by the corporate
authorities?
Is the mayor required to appoint an officer for the full period
of her term?
In a village with a president and six trustees, the vote to approve
an ordinance authorizing the execution of an annexation agreement is 3-yes, 2-no
and 1-absent. Does the president vote? Does the ordinance pass?
And many more...
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