Bill Text: IL SB0172 | 2011-2012 | 97th General Assembly | Introduced

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: Amends the Regulatory Sunset Act. Makes a technical change in a Section concerning the short title.

Spectrum: Slight Partisan Bill (Republican 3-1)

Status: (Passed) 2011-08-16 - Public Act . . . . . . . . . 97-0418 [SB0172 Detail]

Download: Illinois-2011-SB0172-Introduced.html

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AN ACT concerning government.
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
represented in the General Assembly:
Section 5. The Soil and Water Conservation Districts Act is
amended by changing Section 26a as follows:
(70 ILCS 405/26a) (from Ch. 5, par. 131a)
Sec. 26a. Any 25 or more owners of lands lying within the
boundaries of any district organized under the provisions of
this Act may file, with the Department, a petition proposing
the consolidation of such district with one or more adjoining
soil conservation districts. Such petition shall set forth: (1)
the names of the districts proposed to be consolidated, and (2)
the proposed name of the consolidated district.
Within 30 days after such petition is filed the Department
shall submit the proposal to the directors of each district
proposed to be consolidated. The Directors of each such
district, shall within 30 days thereafter, adopt and forward to
the Department a resolution approving or disapproving the
proposed consolidation.
If the directors of all of the said districts approve the
proposals to consolidate such districts, it shall be the duty
of the Department to give 10 days notice of the holding of a
referendum by causing such notice to be published at least once

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in one or more newspapers having general circulation within the
district and to hold a referendum within each such district
upon the proposition or the proposed consolidation. Except as
otherwise provided in this Act, the proposition shall be
submitted in accordance with Section 28-3 of the Election Code.
The question at such referendum shall be submitted upon
ballots in substantially the following form:
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Place an X in the square opposite the proposition for which you
desire to vote.
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For approval of the proposed
consolidation of (here insert names
of districts to be consolidated)
into one soil and water
conservation district.
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Against approval of the
proposed consolidation of (here
insert names of districts to be
consolidated) into one soil and
water conservation district.
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Only owners or occupiers of land, or both, lying within the
districts are eligible to vote in such referendum and each
shall have one vote. Eligible voters may vote in person or by

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absentee ballot.
If a majority of the votes cast in the referendum in each
of such districts are cast in favor of the proposed
consolidation and if the Department determines that such
consolidation is administratively practicable and feasible,
the Chairmen of the directors of the said districts shall
present to the Secretary of State through the Department an
application for a certificate of organization of the
consolidated district. The application shall be signed and
sworn to by all of the said chairmen, and shall set forth the
names of the constituent districts, the proposed name of the
consolidated district, and the location of the office of the
consolidated district. The said application shall be
accompanied by the statement from the Department which shall
set forth (and such statement need contain no details other
than the mere recitals) that a petition for the consolidation
of the said district was filed, that the proposed consolidation
was, by resolution, approved by the governing bodies of all of
such districts, that a referendum was held in each of the said
districts on the question of the proposed consolidation, and
that the result of such referendum showed a majority of the
votes cast in each district to be in favor of the proposed
consolidation.
The Secretary of State shall receive and file such
application and statement and shall record them in an
appropriate book of record in his office. When the application

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and statements have been made, filed, and recorded as herein
provided, the consolidation of such districts shall be deemed
affected and the consolidated district shall constitute a
public body, corporate and politic, vested with all the power
of soil and water conservation districts. The Secretary of
State shall make and issue to the signers of the application a
certificate, under the seal of the State, of the due
organization of the said consolidated district, and shall
record such certificate with the application and statement. A
copy of the statement and certificate of organization, duly
certified by the Secretary of State, shall be recorded with the
recorder of the county in which the office of the consolidated
district is located.
Notwithstanding the other provisions of this Act, if
petitions and resolutions to consolidate districts under this
Section are filed with the Department before January 1, 2012
and if the Director determines that the consolidation is
administratively practicable and feasible, then the Director
may approve the consolidation without the necessity of holding
a referendum under this Section, which shall be deemed to have
the same effect as if the referendum had been held and
approved.
Upon a consolidation of districts, the directors of all
such districts shall continue to hold office and serve as a
temporary governing body of the consolidated district until the
members of a permanent governing body have been elected and

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have qualified. The provisions of Sections 19, 20 and 21 of
this Act that relate to the number, and to the nomination,
election and organization of members of the governing bodies of
soil and water conservation districts shall govern the
selection of the members of the permanent governing body of a
consolidated district.
Upon the issuance, by the Secretary of State, of a
certificate of organization to a consolidated district,
property belonging to the constituent district shall become the
property of the consolidated district. All contracts
theretofore entered into, to which the constituent districts
are parties, shall remain in force and effect for the period
provided in such contracts. The consolidated districts shall be
substituted for each constituent district as party to such
contracts, and shall be entitled to all benefits and subject to
all liabilities under such contracts and shall have the same
right and liability to perform, to require performance, to sue
and to be sued thereon, and to modify or terminate such
contracts by mutual consent or otherwise, as the constituent
district would have had. Any indebtedness, claim, demand or
right owing or belonging to any of the constituent districts
shall vest in and become due to the consolidated district,
which shall have the right to demand, sue for, recover and
enforce the same in its own name. Upon a consolidation of
districts, all land-use regulations theretofore adopted and in
force and effect within any of the constituent districts shall

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remain in force and effect throughout the territory for which
they were originally adopted, until repealed, amended,
supplemented, or superseded by action of the consolidated
district.
(Source: P.A. 83-358.)