Executive Report
5-year mental health plan
THE DEPARTMENT of Mental Health
and Developmental Disabilities in June
began distribution of the second draft of its
five-year plan for mental health services, required by legislation enacted in 1974 (Ill.
Rev. Stat., ch. 91 1/2, secs. 100-48 through
100-52). The plan covers the target population for the department's services, staffing
needs, proposed capital development, and
financial needs and projected expenditures.
In addition to regional meetings, statewide
meetings are to be held September 11 in
Springfield, and September 17 in Chicago.
Governor's 'action offices' closed
H.B. 2985, as originally introduced,
would have appropriated $2,186,600 for the
agency. Committee amendments reduced
this by $432,955, but when the bill was
called for passage June 4, it failed to receive
sufficient votes. Legislative critics charged
employees of the offices engaged in political
activity. The offices had a staff of 102 according to the governor, plus 100 volunteers.
FOLLOWING the failure of the legislature
to fund the Governor's Action Office, Gov.
Dan Walker on July 3 announced the closing of GAO community, offices in Alton,
Chicago, Decatur, East St. Louis, Fairfield,
Jacksonville, Marion, Quincy, Peoria,
Rockford, Rock Island, and Sparta. The
governor said these offices had handled approximately 70,000 inquiries on unemployment grants, public aid, tax returns, etc.
Natural gas shortage seen
FARMERS who expect to dry grain were
warned on June 13 to have an alternate
source of fuel by Robert J. Williams, state
director of agriculture. Next year is going to
be worse than this year as far as a shortage
of natural gas goes, according to the gas
companies, he said. He recommended installation of conversion units to propane or
other fuels.
Lake shoreland
THE ILLINOIS Department of Transportation has received a $384,000 federal
grant to develop a coastal management
program for Lake Michigan's 59 miles of
shoreland in this state.
Attorney General's Opinions Meetings must be open Specifically, the attorney general said the
Eastern Illinois University Intercollegiate
Athletic Board is subject to the open
meetings act (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1973, ch. 102)
and a meeting to consider dropping three intercollegiate sports must be open to the
public, and secret voting is prohibited. Generally, the attorney general said all
advisory committees and subcommittees of
governmental bodies, supported in whole or
part by tax revenue, are subject to the open
meetings act, which prohibits closed meetings, except for certain purposes, and
prohibits all secret ballots. Board of Education terms Terms of members of the State Board of
Education began on January 13, 1975, the
date when that board assumed the powers of
the Office of the Superintendent of Public
Instruction. The beginning of a term is not
computed from either the date of their appointment by the governor or from the date
of their Senate confirmation. No revolving fund The Illinois Building Authority is not
authorized to maintain an imprest fund
which is generally called a "revolving fund." Contesting an election A state's attorney may not represent the
parties to a contested election nor can the
county reimburse the challenged individuals
for their legal expenses. Duties of state's attorney "A state's attorney has three statutory
clients: the people, the county board and the
county officers." The state's attorney,
believing a resolution he was requested to
draft by the county board might lead to a
lawsuit, refused to draft the resolution. The
attorney general concurred that the state's
attorney was not required to draft it. The attorney general noted "the appointment of a
special state's attorney is in the discretion of
the court." California ballots The California ballot form may not be
used on a paper ballot, but the vertical listing form of the California ballot coincides
with the Election Code (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1973, Milk container size The Illinois Department of Agriculture
may not permit the sale of milk at retail in
three-quart containers. Purchase of stamps, license plates The ordinary procedure whereby the
county receives goods or services before it
authorizes payment should be followed if at
all possible. Only in those situations where it
is necessary to simultaneously exchange
county funds for goods and services, such as
postage stamps and license plates, may the
county board authorize the payment of
county funds without first receiving a claim
(Ill. Rev. Stat. 1973, ch. 34, par. 605). The
DuPage County Board may set up a
budgetary item for postage stamps and an
item for license plates, and requests for
county funds for these items must be submitted to the county auditor. 'Temporary employment agencies' The "division of private employment
agencies of the Department of Labor has
jurisdiction over so-called 'temporary
employment agencies' for the purpose" of
licensing employment agencies under the
statutes (Ill. Rev. Slat. 1973, ch. 48, par.
197a et seq). Strip-mining control by counties The Department of Mines and Minerals
may issue a permit to allow strip-mining
without regard to local zoning ordinances,
since the statutory requirements for the permit basically are that the company have a
reclamation plan where it plans to stripmine. But, the permit may not necessarily
enable the holder to engage in surface mining operations in disregard of a valid local
zoning ordinance. Superintendent not on board The Illinois Board of Education, which
has taken the place of the elected superintendent of public instruction, does not have the
statutory authority to appoint the state
superintendent of education to serve on the
Board of Higher Education. The attorney
general makes this conclusion by analyzing
the construction of the statutes, some enacted prior to the new Constitution, which (Continued on page 284)
September 1975 / Illinois Issues / 283
S-917 to Paul C. Komada, state's attorney, Coles County, 6/30/75
S-913 to Jack Witkowsky, chairman, State
Board of Education, 6/17/75
S-918 to Robert G. Cronson, auditor
general, 6/20/75
S-919 to A. Randolph Comba, state's attorney, Bureau County, 6/20/75
S-921 to Gerry L. Dondanville, state's attorney, Kane County, 6/20/75
NP-895A to Jack Hoogasian, state's attorney, Lake County, 6/11/75
S-923 to Robert J. Williams, director,
Department of Agriculture, 6/20/75
S-930 to John J. Bowman, state's attorney,
DuPage County, 6/24/75
S-912 to Donald A. Johnson, director,
Department of Labor, 6/11/75
S-914 to Russell T. Dawe, director, Department of Mines and Minerals, 6/19/75
S-915 to James M. Furman, executive director, Board of Higher Education, 6/20/75
Attorney General
eliminated the elective office of superintendent and established a board of education to
assume the duties of the superintendent. In a related opinion (S-916 to Jack
Witkowsky, chairman, State Board of
Education, 6/20/75), the attorney general
said, "I am of the opinion that the State
Board of Education has not been granted the
statutory power to succeed the Superintendent of Public Instruction as a member of
the following boards, committees, commissions and councils, nor may the State
Board of Education appoint a representative to these various governmental agencies." The list includes: Commission on
Children, Technical Advisory Committee on
Aging, Dangerous Drugs Commission,
Board of Trustees of the Teachers' Retirement System, Interagency Council on the
Bikeways Program, Education Commission
of the States, Illinois Educational Council,
Illinois Community College Board, Adult
and Continuing Educational Council, Advisory Board to the Division of Conservation Education, School Study and Survey
Commission, Illinois Telecommunications
Commission, Illinois Educational Development Board, Capitol City Planning Commission, Civil Defense Advisory Council,
Board of Trustees of the University of
Illinois, Board of Higher Education, Board
of Regents, Board of Trustees of Southern
Illinois University, Board of Governors of
State Colleges and Universities. The attorney general noted pending
legislation that would name the state superintendent of education (who is appointed as
the chief administrator for the Office of
Education) as a member of the School Study
and Survey Commission (H.B. 1107) and
Board of Higher Education (H.B. 1554).
{Continued from page 283)
Judicial Rulings
U.S. Supreme Court
Rights of confined mental patients IN A UNANIMOUS opinion by Justice
Stewart, the court held that it is unconstitutional for a state to confine, for the sake of
confinement, "a nondangerous individual
who is capable of surviving safely in freedom by himself or with the help of willing
and responsible family members or friends."
The decision prompted a statement by Dr.
LeRoy P. Levitt, Illinois director of mental
health and developmental disabilities, that
the opinion would be "carefully studied,"
but that on the basis of preliminary reports,
it appeared that the Illinois mental health
department had been observing the spirit of the decision for at least three years. The case involved Kenneth Donaldson,
civilly committed to a Florida state hospital
and kept in custody for 15 years. "The
evidence at the trial showed that the hospital
staff had the power to release a patient, not
dangerous to himself or others, even if he remained mentally ill and had been lawfully
committed. Despite many requests, [Dr. J.
B.] O'Connor [the hospital superintendent]
refused to allow that power to be exercised
in Donaldson's case. At the trial, O'Connor
indicated that he had believed that
Donaldson would have been unable to make
a 'successful adjustment outside the in
stitution,' but could not recall the basis for
that conclusion. O'Connor retired as superintendent shortly before this suit was filed
[in federal district court]. A few months
thereafter, and before the trial, Donaldson
secured his release and a judicial restoration
of competency, with the support of the
hospital staff." The jury returned a verdict for Donaldson
against O'Connor and a codefendant and
awarded damages of $38,500, including
$10,000 in punitive damages. However,
because the jury had not received an
instruction having to do with whether
O'Connor "knew or reasonably should have
known that the action he took within his sphere of official responsibility
would violate the constitutional rights" of
Donaldson, the case was returned to the
Court of Appeals for reconsideration of
O'Connor's possible immunity as a state official. "For purposes of this question, an official has, of course, no duty to anticipate
unforeseeable constitutional developments,"
the Supreme Court said. The trial court had allowed an instruction to the jury that "a person who is involuntarily civilly committed to a mental institution does have a constitutional right to
receive such treatment as will give him a
realistic opportunity to be cured" and the
Court of Appeals approved this, but the
Supreme Court found there was no reason
to decide whether this was the law. In addition, Chief Justice Burger, in a concurring
opinion, said he saw no basis for "the theory
that a State may lawfully confine an individual thought to need treatment and
justify that deprivation of liberty solely by
providing some treatment. Our concepts of
due process would not tolerate such a 'tradeoff.' " Approximately 2,600 patients have been
involuntarily committed to the Illinois mental health agency, Dr. Levitt said. "All
receive appropriate treatment and care and
are reviewed periodically. To our
knowledge, there are no patients being held
against their will that are considered non-dangerous or able to care for themselves. Price fixing by bar association
A MINIMUM fee schedule applicable to
legal services and established by the state
bar association violates the antitrust laws,
the court held in an opinion by Chief Justice
Burger. The service involved was a title examination. In so holding, the court set aside
the finding of the Court of Appeals that the
practice of law is a profession and not subject to the Sherman Act. "In the modern
world it cannot be denied that the activities
of lawyers play an important part in commercial intercourse, and that anticompetitive activities by lawyers may exert a restraint on commerce," the Supreme Court said. In Illinois, the State Bar Association
withdrew a minimum fee schedule in March
1973 and advised all local bar associations
to do so, an ISBA spokesman said. He
added that the former schedule was never
mandatory.
O'Connor v. Donaldson, decided June 26, 1975
Goldfarb v. Virginia State Bar, decided June .
16, 1975
Effective date of pay raise bill THE COURT underscored a statutory
provision on the effective date of legislation
in ruling on a bill raising the pay of certain
state employees (primarily, those under the
governor). The legislature in 1974 had provided for a pay raise of $100 per month for
these employees (H.B. 2851), to be effective
September 1, 1974. But, the governor did
not act on the bill until September 5 when he
used his amendatory veto to reduce the increase to $50 per month. Not until
December 4 did the legislature reject the
governor's recommendations and override
the veto, so that the bill became law (P.A.
78-1254). The employees affected had received the
$50 increase from September 1 through
December 31 and then the $100 increase
beginning January 1. Suit was brought for
the added $50 per month for the last three
months of 1974. The court allowed it only
for the period from December 4 to
December 31, holding that P.A. 78-1254 did
not become effective until December 4 when
the override was complete. The court cited
the statutory provision as to effective dates
of laws: "if the effective date provided in the
terms of the bill is prior to the date the bill
becomes a law then the date the bill becomes
a law shall be the effective date" (Ill. Rev.
Stat., ch. 131, sec. 22). The court intimated
that it might have been possible for the
legislature to make a pay increase bill retroactive, but it could not find evidence of
legislative intent to do so. The opinion let stand without comment
the $50 per month increases prior to the
effective date, December 4. In effect a"
amendatory veto—eventually overturned by
the legislature—was given the effect of
during this interim period. ˛
284 / Illinois Issues / September 1975
Illinois Supreme Court
People ex rel. v. Walker, decided June 30,
1975