Welcome to Township Officials of Illinois
Read the President's Message
Read the Executive Director's Message
Overview of the Association Video click here
On Thursday, April 22, the TOI Board of Directors met for their regular board meeting. At that meeting TOI President Danny Hanning announced that TOI Executive Director Bryan E. Smith, after 35 years as an employee with the Association, with 25 of those years as Executive Director, had submitted a letter of his intent to not renew his employment contract when it expires on August 31 but to instead retire. The Board, with deep regret, accepted Bryan’s decision.
The Board of Directors then unanimously voted to appoint Associate Director Jerry B. Crabtree, effective September 1, as TOI’s new Executive Director. Jerry has served for 16 years as Associate Director and comes well prepared.
Congratulations to both Bryan Smith and Jerry Crabtree!
Governor Pritzker has now signed Senate Bill 2135 into law (now Public Act 101-0640). Here is a link to the full bill: Senate Bill 2135 - PA 101-0640
The major part of this bill affecting local governments is revisions to the Open Meetings Act concerning remote attendance during a disaster declaration.
Some main points are:
- A quorum does not need to physically be at the meeting location
- At least one member of the public body, chief legal counsel, or chief administrative officer must be physically present at the regular meeting place.
- All votes held remotely shall be done by roll call vote.
- A verbatim recording must be kept of all meetings held in this fashion.
- If public attendance is not possible, the public must be able to hear the meeting “contemporaneously”, requiring the public body to offer a telephone call in number or web link (i.e. Zoom) to hear the meeting.
- Nothing has changed regarding Public Comment at Board meetings so this must still be a part of any meeting held.
If you have any questions I encourage you to contact your township attorney
Notice to public body members and Open Meetings Act (OMA) designees who are required by section 1.05 of OMA (5 ILCS 120/1.05) to complete the Public Access Counselor's (PAC) electronic training curriculum:
The PAC web page is presently being repaired, therefore the OMA electronic training, as well as the Freedom of Information Act electronic training, are inaccessible. There is no set completion date for the website repairs at this time. Please note public body members and designees are not penalized for failure to complete the electronic training within the statutory time periods.
Please call 1-877-299-3642 if you have any questions or concerns
COVID-19 and Townships Resource Page
How to handle Federal Stimulus Checks and GA
TOI COVID-19 Pandemic Update May 27, 2020
*Handouts for June 17 Virtual Event*
HB 2096 (Public Act 101-0632) Goes Into Effect (ANNUAL TOWN MEETING)