City of Breese issued the following announcement on Aug. 13.
Today, the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) announced 1,549 new confirmed cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois with 41,362 test specimens reported in the last 24 hours. Laboratories have reported a total of 3,147,703 tests administered in Illinois to date. IDPH has reported a total of 196,948 cases, including 7,657 deaths, including 20 deaths in the last 24 hours, in Illinois. Preliminary seven-day statewide positivity for cases as a percent of total tests from August 4 through August 10 is 4.1%. Cases by county can be found on the state’s coronavirus website at coronavirus.illinois.gov.
Today, the Illinois Supreme Court entered an order (available via this link) staying the contempt hearing in Bailey v. Pritzker, scheduled for Friday, August 14, in Clay County. The Court has also stopped any further proceedings until it rules on the Governor’s motion to have the Supreme Court address the underlying issue. This essentially halts the legal actions against the Governor’s executive orders in the Bailey case until a new hearing; a hearing on that motion has yet to be set.
Today, the General Assembly’s Joint Committee on Administrative Rules (JCAR) approved IDPH’s emergency rulemaking regarding the use of face coverings. IDPH’s emergency rulemaking is available via this link. A fact sheet regarding these rules is available via this link. Governor JB Pritzker, during his press briefing announcing the rules last week, stated that the rules provide multiple opportunities for compliance before any penalty is issued and are a commonsense way to enforce public health guidelines.
If your municipality does not wish to enforce the rulemaking, the county sheriff, local public health department or IDPH may enforce the rulemaking. A municipality may refer any complaints received alleging a violation of the rulemaking to the local public health department or IDPH. Violations of this rulemaking can only be brought against businesses, not individuals.
The following enforcement process will apply under the new rules:
· First, businesses will be given a warning in the form of written notice and encouraged to voluntarily make “reasonable efforts” to comply with public health guidance.
Second, businesses that do not voluntarily comply will be given an order to have some or all of their patrons leave the premises as needed to comply with public health guidance and reduce risks.
· Third, if the business continues to refuse to comply, the business can receive a class A misdemeanor citation and be subject to a fine ranging from $75-$2,500.
If your municipality does not wish to enforce the rulemaking, the county sheriff, local public health department or IDPH may enforce the rulemaking.
As a resource for municipalities, the Illinois Municipal League’s (IML) legal staff has drafted a model ordinance (PDF version available via this link) instituting a face covering requirement and enforcement at the local level. An editable version of that model ordinance is available via this link. This was first provided to our members and posted on our dedicated COVID-19 website on April 22 and may be of additional interest to your community at this time, as efforts to continue to contain the spread of the virus are being considered.
JCAR also approved the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity’s (DCEO) amended rulemaking (available via this link) implementing the Local CURE program, which is the distribution of local funding from the federal CARES Act. IML reiterated our opposition to the rulemaking in a letter (available via this link) yesterday to JCAR.
My statement from today’s action is available via this link and shown below:
“Today’s rulemaking by DCEO and the Administration is both unfortunate and untimely. It is unfortunate that the state has chosen its own bureaucracy over the betterment of its communities, by disallowing local governments from using their allotted CARES Act funds in full compliance with federal guidelines. And it is untimely in that the state continues to withhold millions of federal dollars that were intended to aid suffering local governments, aid that was enacted by Congress and the President almost five months ago, on March 27.”
As a reminder, on Wednesday, August 12, at 10:00 a.m. CT, DCEO and their third party administrator will be hosting a technical assistance webinar for the Local CURE program. The webinar will provide additional information regarding eligible expenses and the process for submitting reimbursement requests. Register for the webinar via this link.
The Local CURE program is only available for municipalities in the 97 counties that did not receive direct funding from the federal government in the CARES Act. Municipalities within Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake and Will counties should contact their county government for additional information regarding how each county intends to share their federal CARES Act allocation with municipalities. IML has asked each of the five counties to develop a process to share funding with their municipalities. An example of those letters is available via this link.
On Saturday, President Donald Trump announced his signing of four executive orders in response to the breakdown of congressional negotiations over another round of federal stimulus efforts in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The four orders addressed unemployment, deferring payroll taxes, student loans and evictions. Each of the orders are linked below:
· Executive Order Regarding Unemployment
· Executive Order Regarding Payroll Taxes
· Executive Order Regarding Student Loans
· Executive Order Regarding Evictions
On Monday, Governor Pritzker and the Illinois Housing Development Authority announced the creation of an Emergency Rental Assistance Program (available via this link) and an Emergency Mortgage Assistance Program (available via this link). The Governor’s press release announcing the programs is available via this link.
It is recommended that all communities comply with the Governor’s executive orders for the protection of their residents throughout this public health crisis. If a municipality wishes to deviate from the executive orders, municipal officials should consult with their legal counsel or retained attorney prior to taking any formal or informal action that would conflict with the executive orders, as that could create liability exposure to the municipal government or those municipal officials.
IDPH is providing daily updates on their COVID-19 website (available via this link) regarding the metrics used to determine each phase of the Governor’s “Restore Illinois” plan (available via this link). Those metrics include COVID-19 admissions to the region’s hospitals, the region’s COVID-19 test positivity rate and the available surge capacity at the region’s hospitals. IDPH is now providing metrics for each individual county (available via this link).
IML is posting all of this information and more on our COVID-19 resources page available at iml.org/covid.
The State of Illinois’ central website for COVID-19 is available at coronavirus.illinois.gov.
The Illinois Municipal League will continue to distribute timely, reliable and pertinent information as it becomes available or on an as-needed basis. Please feel welcome to share these messages with municipal officials and others in your community. As always, thank you for your dedication to your community. Please feel welcome to contact me at any time, for any reason. Thanks.
BRAD COLE | Executive Director
ILLINOIS MUNICIPAL LEAGUE
500 East Capitol Avenue | PO Box 5180 | Springfield, Illinois 62705
phone: 217.525.1220 | cell: 618.201.7320 | fax: 217.525.7438
email: bcole@iml.org | personal: brad.cole@hotmail.com | www.iml.org
Original source can be found here.
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