99TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
State of Illinois
2015 and 2016
SB3076

 

Introduced 2/19/2016, by Sen. Antonio Muņoz

 

SYNOPSIS AS INTRODUCED:
 
20 ILCS 3305/10  from Ch. 127, par. 1060

    Amends the Illinois Emergency Management Agency Act. Authorizes the board of commissioners in a county having a population of more than 500,000 people to establish police powers within its Office or Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management and to define and prescribe certain employees hired in that Office or Department with peace officers' duties and compensation. Establishes certain training and other requirements that a person must fulfill before he or she is appointed with police powers. Provides that a person with police powers shall have the power to investigate and mitigate threats of manmade disasters, protect the county's critical infrastructure, have access to law enforcement databases, protect the county's emergency assets and personnel that get deployed upon the request of local law enforcement agencies in emergency circumstances, protect county elected officials as requested, and observe and enforce local, county, and State ordinances and laws.


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FISCAL NOTE ACT MAY APPLY

 

 

A BILL FOR

 

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1    AN ACT concerning State government.
 
2    Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
3represented in the General Assembly:
 
4    Section 5. The Illinois Emergency Management Agency Act is
5amended by changing Section 10 as follows:
 
6    (20 ILCS 3305/10)  (from Ch. 127, par. 1060)
7    Sec. 10. Emergency Services and Disaster Agencies.
8    (a) Each political subdivision within this State shall be
9within the jurisdiction of and served by the Illinois Emergency
10Management Agency and by an emergency services and disaster
11agency responsible for emergency management programs. A
12township, if the township is in a county having a population of
13more than 2,000,000, must have approval of the county
14coordinator before establishment of a township emergency
15services and disaster agency.
16    (b) Unless multiple county emergency services and disaster
17agency consolidation is authorized by the Illinois Emergency
18Management Agency with the consent of the respective counties,
19each county shall maintain an emergency services and disaster
20agency that has jurisdiction over and serves the entire county,
21except as otherwise provided under this Act and except that in
22any county with a population of over 3,000,000 containing a
23municipality with a population of over 500,000 the jurisdiction

 

 

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1of the county agency shall not extend to the municipality when
2the municipality has established its own agency.
3    (c) Each municipality with a population of over 500,000
4shall maintain an emergency services and disaster agency which
5has jurisdiction over and serves the entire municipality. A
6municipality with a population less than 500,000 may establish,
7by ordinance, an agency or department responsible for emergency
8management within the municipality's corporate limits.
9    (d) The Governor shall determine which municipal
10corporations, other than those specified in paragraph (c) of
11this Section, need emergency services and disaster agencies of
12their own and require that they be established and maintained.
13The Governor shall make these determinations on the basis of
14the municipality's disaster vulnerability and capability of
15response related to population size and concentration. The
16emergency services and disaster agency of a county or township,
17shall not have a jurisdiction within a political subdivision
18having its own emergency services and disaster agency, but
19shall cooperate with the emergency services and disaster agency
20of a city, village or incorporated town within their borders.
21The Illinois Emergency Management Agency shall publish and
22furnish a current list to the municipalities required to have
23an emergency services and disaster agency under this
24subsection.
25    (e) Each municipality that is not required to and does not
26have an emergency services and disaster agency shall have a

 

 

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1liaison officer designated to facilitate the cooperation and
2protection of that municipal corporation with the county
3emergency services and disaster agency in which it is located
4in the work of disaster mitigation, preparedness, response, and
5recovery.
6    (f) The principal executive officer or his or her designee
7of each political subdivision in the State shall annually
8notify the Illinois Emergency Management Agency of the manner
9in which the political subdivision is providing or securing
10emergency management, identify the executive head of the agency
11or the department from which the service is obtained, or the
12liaison officer in accordance with paragraph (d) of this
13Section and furnish additional information relating thereto as
14the Illinois Emergency Management Agency requires.
15    (g) Each emergency services and disaster agency shall
16prepare an emergency operations plan for its geographic
17boundaries that complies with planning, review, and approval
18standards promulgated by the Illinois Emergency Management
19Agency. The Illinois Emergency Management Agency shall
20determine which jurisdictions will be required to include
21earthquake preparedness in their local emergency operations
22plans.
23    (h) The emergency services and disaster agency shall
24prepare and distribute to all appropriate officials in written
25form a clear and complete statement of the emergency
26responsibilities of all local departments and officials and of

 

 

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1the disaster chain of command.
2    (i) Each emergency services and disaster agency shall have
3a Coordinator who shall be appointed by the principal executive
4officer of the political subdivision in the same manner as are
5the heads of regular governmental departments. If the political
6subdivision is a county and the principal executive officer
7appoints the sheriff as the Coordinator, the sheriff may, in
8addition to his or her regular compensation, receive
9compensation at the same level as provided in Section 3 of "An
10Act in relation to the regulation of motor vehicle traffic and
11the promotion of safety on public highways in counties",
12approved August 9, 1951, as amended. The Coordinator shall have
13direct responsibility for the organization, administration,
14training, and operation of the emergency services and disaster
15agency, subject to the direction and control of that principal
16executive officer. Each emergency services and disaster agency
17shall coordinate and may perform emergency management
18functions within the territorial limits of the political
19subdivision within which it is organized as are prescribed in
20and by the State Emergency Operations Plan, and programs,
21orders, rules and regulations as may be promulgated by the
22Illinois Emergency Management Agency and by local ordinance
23and, in addition, shall conduct such functions outside of those
24territorial limits as may be required under mutual aid
25agreements and compacts as are entered into under subparagraph
26(5) of paragraph (c) of Section 6.

 

 

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1    (j) In carrying out the provisions of this Act, each
2political subdivision may enter into contracts and incur
3obligations necessary to place it in a position effectively to
4combat the disasters as are described in Section 4, to protect
5the health and safety of persons, to protect property, and to
6provide emergency assistance to victims of those disasters. If
7a disaster occurs, each political subdivision may exercise the
8powers vested under this Section in the light of the exigencies
9of the disaster and, excepting mandatory constitutional
10requirements, without regard to the procedures and formalities
11normally prescribed by law pertaining to the performance of
12public work, entering into contracts, the incurring of
13obligations, the employment of temporary workers, the rental of
14equipment, the purchase of supplies and materials, and the
15appropriation, expenditure, and disposition of public funds
16and property.
17    (k) Volunteers who, while engaged in a disaster, an
18exercise, training related to the emergency operations plan of
19the political subdivision, or a search-and-rescue team
20response to an occurrence or threat of injury or loss of life
21that is beyond local response capabilities, suffer disease,
22injury or death, shall, for the purposes of benefits under the
23Workers' Compensation Act or Workers' Occupational Diseases
24Act only, be deemed to be employees of the State, if: (1) the
25claimant is a duly qualified and enrolled (sworn in) as a
26volunteer of the Illinois Emergency Management Agency or an

 

 

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1emergency services and disaster agency accredited by the
2Illinois Emergency Management Agency, and (2) if: (i) the
3claimant was participating in a disaster as defined in Section
44 of this Act, (ii) the exercise or training participated in
5was specifically and expressly approved by the Illinois
6Emergency Management Agency prior to the exercise or training,
7or (iii) the search-and-rescue team response was to an
8occurrence or threat of injury or loss of life that was beyond
9local response capabilities and was specifically and expressly
10approved by the Illinois Emergency Management Agency prior to
11the search-and-rescue team response. The computation of
12benefits payable under either of those Acts shall be based on
13the income commensurate with comparable State employees doing
14the same type work or income from the person's regular
15employment, whichever is greater.
16    Volunteers who are working under the direction of an
17emergency services and disaster agency accredited by the
18Illinois Emergency Management Agency, pursuant to a plan
19approved by the Illinois Emergency Management Agency (i) during
20a disaster declared by the Governor under Section 7 of this
21Act, or (ii) in circumstances otherwise expressly approved by
22the Illinois Emergency Management Agency, shall be deemed
23exclusively employees of the State for purposes of Section 8(d)
24of the Court of Claims Act, provided that the Illinois
25Emergency Management Agency may, in coordination with the
26emergency services and disaster agency, audit implementation

 

 

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1for compliance with the plan.
2    (l) If any person who is entitled to receive benefits
3through the application of this Section receives, in connection
4with the disease, injury or death giving rise to such
5entitlement, benefits under an Act of Congress or federal
6program, benefits payable under this Section shall be reduced
7to the extent of the benefits received under that other Act or
8program.
9    (m) (1) Prior to conducting an exercise, the principal
10    executive officer of a political subdivision or his or her
11    designee shall provide area media with written
12    notification of the exercise. The notification shall
13    indicate that information relating to the exercise shall
14    not be released to the public until the commencement of the
15    exercise. The notification shall also contain a request
16    that the notice be so posted to ensure that all relevant
17    media personnel are advised of the exercise before it
18    begins.
19        (2) During the conduct of an exercise, all messages,
20    two-way radio communications, briefings, status reports,
21    news releases, and other oral or written communications
22    shall begin and end with the following statement: "This is
23    an exercise message".
24    (n) The board of commissioners in a county having a
25population of more than 500,000 people may establish police
26powers within its Office or Department of Homeland Security and

 

 

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1Emergency Management and may define and prescribe certain
2employees hired in that Office or Department with peace
3officers' duties and compensation. Every employee in that
4Office or Department appointed or hired may be vested with
5police powers and is hereby authorized to act as a conservator
6of the peace within that county and shall have the power to
7investigate and mitigate threats of manmade disasters, protect
8the county's critical infrastructure, have access to law
9enforcement databases, protect the county's emergency assets
10and personnel that get deployed upon the request of local law
11enforcement agencies in emergency circumstances, protect
12county elected officials as requested, and observe and enforce
13local, county, and State ordinances and laws, such as are
14conferred upon and exercised by the police of organized cities
15and villages, but such employees with such police powers, when
16acting within the limits of any municipality. No person
17employed in such Office or Department of Homeland Security and
18Emergency Management shall have peace officer status or
19exercise police powers, unless he or she has successfully
20completed the basic police training course mandated and
21approved by the Illinois Law Enforcement Training Standards
22Board or the Board waives the training requirement by reason of
23the investigator's prior law enforcement experience or having
24already completed the basic police training course in
25compliance with the Board. Before a person is appointed with
26such police powers, his or her fingerprints shall be taken and

 

 

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1transmitted to the Department of State Police. The Department
2of State Police shall examine its records and submit to the
3Office or Department of Homeland Security and Emergency
4Management any conviction information on file with the
5Department of State Police. No person shall be appointed with
6such police powers if he or she has been convicted of a felony
7or any other offenses concerning moral turpitude.
8    The county board may establish any other reasonable
9eligibility requirements for authorizing employees of the
10Office or Department of Homeland Security and Emergency
11Management with such police powers; however, no person may be
12appointed under this Section unless that person is at least 21
13years of age. Employees with police powers under this Section
14shall be paid a salary and be reimbursed for actual expenses
15incurred in the course of his or her duties. The county board
16shall approve the salary and actual expenses and appropriate
17the salary and expenses in a manner prescribed by law or
18ordinance.
19(Source: P.A. 94-733, eff. 4-27-06.)