Executive Report

Attorney General Opinions

Putting the farm back into the fair PROBABLY the most important change in the 1980 State Fair to be held August 7-17 at the fairgrounds in Springfield is its renewed emphasis on agriculture. The Department of Agriculture (DOA), which now manages the fair, considers the State Fair part of its total marketing program and wants to restore it to its farming origins. The livestock shows will be spread across the entire week, allowing more people to see the animals and making it easier on exhibitors who will not have to stay for the entire fair. Another change is a bigger farm machinery show, "The Illinois Farm Expo," which has been moved just south of the mile track and will continue throughout the fair. (Moving the farm expo also opens up a new parking lot for 2,200 cars on the northwest fairgrounds.) To attract major manufacturers of big farm equipment, DOA offered the big exhibitors a onetime opportunity to exhibit free of charge. This offended smaller exhibitors who must pay, but DOA points out it is the first time in 20 years that all major manufacturers of farm equipment will be at the fair and that a successful farm expo will help everyone. Admission prices for the 1980 fair have been lowered from last year and are now cheaper than any other State Fair in the Midwest. Admission is $1.50 for adults (13 and over) and 50 cents for children (2-13). After 6 p.m., everyone gets in for 50 cents.

Legal drinking age and home rule

S-1491: Neither the City of DeKalb nor any other municipality, whether a home-rule unit or not, may enact an ordinance establishing the legal age for the possession and consumption of alcoholic liquor. This power has been preempted by the state, A statewide legal drinking age of 21 was validly established by the General Assembly in Public Act 81-212 (to be codified in Ill. Rev. Stat., ch. 43, sec. 133a). Section 12c of Public Act 81-212 provides that the establishment of a legal drinking age is "an exercise of exclusive State power which may not be exercised concurrently by a home rule unit." According to Article VII, sec. 6(h) of the Constitution, "The General Assembly may provide specifically by law for the exclusive exercise by the State of any power or function of a home rule unit other than a taxing power or a power or function specified in subsection (1) of this section." Limitations on taxing power or the power to make local assessments and to levy additional taxes for special services (section 6(1) would require passage by a three-fifths majority of the General Assembly. But the establishment of a minimum age for drinking alcoholic beverages does not fall into this catagory. Therefore, a simple majority was sufficient to pass P.A. 81-212.

Open meetings and collective bargaining

S-1490: A local special education board, at a time when no collective bargaining agreement is in existence, does not have the authority to hold a closed session to discuss whether or not it will extend collective bargaining rights. According to the open meetings act, all meetings of government bodies must be public except collective negotiating matters between public employers and their employees or representatives (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1977, ch. 102, Sec. 42). The collective negotiating exception of the act does not, however, include unilateral deliberations by the employer on the question of whether to extend negotiating rights. There can be no collective negotiations between employers and employees before there has been a decision of the employer to extend negotiating rights.

University police officers

S-1489: The Champaign County sheriff may not authorize the University of Illinois police to enforce state and local law whenever a violation comes to their attention. The jurisdiction of the University of Illinois police extends only to the protection of university properties or personnel (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1977, ch. 144, sec. 28). Therefore, the University of Illinois police are peace officers, as defined by the Criminal Code (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1977, ch. 38, sec. 2-13), only within their particular jurisdiction, and they may not be given blanket authority to enforce state or local laws unless specifically requested by state or local law enforcement officials. However, a university police officer does not have to ignore a criminal violation which occurs in his presence, even if such violation is not of direct interest to the university. Like other citizens, university police officers may make citizen's arrests.

34/August 1980/Illinois Issues