ISBA Director of Legislative Affairs Jim Covington reviews legislation in Springfield of interest to ISBA members. This week he covers Condominium Property Act (House Bill 2644), Decriminalization of cannabis (House Bill 218), Common-Interest Community Association Act (Senate Bill 1344), Personal Information Protection Act (Senate Bill 1833), Binding arbitration (Senate Bill 1229) and Juveniles in care of State (House Bill 3507). More information on each bill is available below the video.

Condominium Property Act. House Bill 2644 (Cassidy, D-Chicago; Steans, D-Chicago) deletes a provision in current law that allows unit owners to enforce a provision in a declaration that would otherwise be void and ineffective if at least 75% of the owners approve at a any time after the election of the first unit-owner board of managers. Governor Rauner vetoed this because he believes that this is an unnecessary restriction on the rights of condominium owners with respect to their property.

Decriminalization of cannabis. House Bill 218 (Cassidy, D-Chicago; Noland, D-Elgin) imposes a minimum fine of $55 and a maximum fine of $125 for possession of 15 grams or less of cannabis. (2) Establishes a per se standard for Cannabis-DUI of 15 nano/milliliter of blood or 25 nano/milliliter of saliva in system instead of a trace of cannabis. (3) Allows for alternative ways to test for cannabis DUI using “any bodily substance” (including saliva) for testing. This is an expansion from current law of breath, blood, and urine. (4) Keeps ordinance and civil violation dispositions of minors confidential to reflect the intent of the Juvenile Court Act and limit collateral damage to minors.

Governor Rauner issued an amendatory veto HB 218 to make the following changes, which the General Assembly must either accept or override. If the General Assembly does neither, the bill is dead. The amendatory veto does three things:

(1) Reduces the amount of cannabis subject to this civil proceeding 10 grams instead of 15 grams.

(2) Increases the fine from a minimum of $55 to $100 and the maximum of $125 to $200.

(3) Reduces the DUI per se standard from 15 nano/milliliter of blood to 5 nano/milliliter.

Common-Interest Community Association Act. Senate Bill 1344 (Haine, D-Alton; Beiser, D-Alton) provides that no action to incorporate a common-interest community as a municipality may commence until an instrument agreeing to incorporation has been signed by 51 percent (instead of two-thirds) of the members.

Governor Rauner vetoed this bill because he believes Illinois should maintain the higher threshold for initiating the incorporation process because we already have more units of local government than anyone else.

Personal Information Protection Act. Senate Bill 1833 (Biss, D-Skokie; Williams, D-Chicago) expands the type of information that triggers a breach notification to consumers, including medical information outside of federal privacy laws, biometric data, contact information if combined with identifying information, and login credentials for online accounts.

The bill also requires entities holding sensitive information to take reasonable steps to protect the information, to post a privacy policy describing their data collection practices, and to notify the Attorney General’s office when breaches occur.

Governor Rauner amendatorily vetoed this bill to make these changes.

(1) It would delete “consumer marketing information” and “geolocation information” from the definition of protected personal information.

(2) It would require notice to the Attorney General within 45 calendar days instead of 30 business days from a breach of privacy.

(3) It would delete the requirement that the operator of any website post a privacy policy.

Binding arbitration. Senate Bill 1229 (Harmon, D-Oak Park; Smiddy, D-Port Byron) amends the Illinois Public Labor Relations Act to require binding arbitration if there is an impasse after mediation for an expired collective bargaining agreement between a unit or units of employees and State agencies.

Juveniles in care of State. House Bill 3507 (Gabel, D-Evanston; Trotter, D-Chicago) amends the Juvenile Court Act and the Children and Family Services Act to require DCFS to continue to provide services assisting abused and neglected youth from the ages of 18 to 21 that are in the care and wardship of the court. Governor Rauner vetoed this bill because he believed this was an unfunded mandate that placed a significant financial burden on DCFS.