Digital Commons Network^™

Modernizing Local Service Delivery Systems: Local Efficiency Assessment Program, Norman Walzer, Andy Blanke

Reports, Whitepapers, Articles, and Other Publications

With rural governments in mind, CGS Senior Research Scholar Norman Walzer and Research Associate Andy Blanke have developed Guidebook to Modernizing Local Service Delivery Systems, where they discuss the Local Efficiency Assessment Program (LEAP), and the Local Government Efficiency Assessment Dashboard. Concerns about rising costs of local public services, property tax increases, the large number of governments in Illinois, and stagnant or shrinking populations have caused local public officials especially in rural areas to re-examine arrangements for providing public services. Existing delivery systems started under substantially different travel and communications environments. County populations are now smaller in many instances than …

Digital Media Usage During The 2018 Midterm Elections Among Illinois State Senate Elections, Christine Wang

Honors Capstones

The objective of this research is to examine the role that digital media usage plays in elections, specifically the Illinois State Senate Elections during the 2018 midterms. This research argues that the use of multiple digital mediums can affect election percentages at the end of the campaign. Taking into account the fact that the target base of each campaign varies across Illinois, the greater usage of multiple digital mediums to reach voters will correlate with a positive rise in election percentage regardless of target base. This study examines the possibility that if the communication remains consistent in both messaging and …

Insights Into Rising Pension Costs In Illinois Municipalities, Andy Blanke, Norman Walzer

Reports, Whitepapers, Articles, and Other Publications

This article examines the funding status of downstate (which includes suburban) Illinois police and fire pension funds in relation to professional recommendations, the numbers of participants, benefits, actuarial assets and liabilities. In addition, relationships between municipal characteristics and changes in funding rations are analyzed to provide insight into the factors associated with changes in funding ratios. This article concludes with a discussion of potential approaches for addresses rising pension costs with possible implications for Illinois.

Contextual Parentage, Jeffrey A. Parness

College of Law Faculty Publications

A parentage determination can be used in a dispute over child custody/visitation/parental responsibility allocation opportunities, over child support duties, over heirship in probate, or over standing to pursue tort remedies.

Presuit Discovery And Evidence Preservation In Illinois Circuit Courts, Jeffrey A. Parness, Jessica Theodoratos

College of Law Faculty Publications

Once a civil action has been commenced in an Illinois Circuit Court, lawyers and their clients who are parties must preserve evidence relevant to the pending claims. Under Professional Conduct Rule (RPC) 8.4(d), lawyers may not "engage in conduct that is prejudicial to the administration of justice." Under RPC 8.4(a), a lawyer must not assist or induce others to engage in such conduct. Further, RPC 3.4(a) demands that a lawyer not act in ways that "unlawfully obstruct another party's access to evidence or unlawfully alter, destroy or conceal a document or other material having potential evidentiary value."

Journal Of Local Government Shared Service Best Practices Second Edition, Evelyn Sanguinetti

Reports, Whitepapers, Articles, and Other Publications

As a result of the 2015 Task Force on Unfunded Mandates and Government Consolidation, CGS assisted the Lieutenant Governor’s office in conducting a survey of best practices in shared services among Illinois local governments. Two surveys were conducted in 2016 and 2017, documenting examples of local collaboration and resource sharing underway in school districts, municipalities, townships, and special districts.

Policy Profiles Vol. 18 No. 1 June 2018, Northern Illinois University Center For Governmental Studies, Norman Walzer, Brian Harger

Policy Profiles

The Future of Rural Illinois: Predicaments and Possible Solutions

Division In The Illinois Appellate Court: What Is The Appropriate Standard Of Review For Alleged Prosecutorial Misconduct During Closing Argument?, Ryan T. Harding

Northern Illinois University Law Review

The Illinois Appellate Court is divided on whether to apply de novo review or an abuse of discretion standard when evaluating alleged prosecutorial misconduct during closing argument. This article concludes that de novo review is the proper standard of review under current Illinois law. However, as a matter of policy, this article recommends that (1) abuse of discretion review should normally apply to the trial court's determination that a defendant was not substantially prejudiced by the State's closing argument; (2) de novo review should apply when the trial court's determination that a defendant was not substantially prejudiced turned on a …

A Briefing: Promise & Programs In Rural Illinois, Norman Walzer, Rural Partners: The Voice Of Rural Illinois Connecting People And Communities With Resources

Reports, Whitepapers, Articles, and Other Publications

Population projections show that rural Illinois will face serious issues in the next decade and beyond, with population declines, shrinking young population cohorts, and increasing proportions of elderly that may retire and/or move out of Illinois, closing many small businesses that have provided essential services for many years. This may result in loss of tax revenues needed to support infrastructure, education, and other services important to maintaining local quality of life in some areas. Anticipating these changes and designing programs to take advantage of resources and opportunities now will help avert more serious issues in the future. For nearly three …

Municipal Fiscal Responses In The Post-Recessional Era, Norman Walzer, Andy Blanke

Reports, Whitepapers, Articles, and Other Publications

This article examines the fiscal challenges Illinois municipalities faced following the 2009 recession and the ways in which they responded. In order to shed light on the strategies and actions employed during this post-recession period, Census of Governments’ data were used to identify the impacts on municipal revenues and expenditures from 2007 to 2017, and over 90 mayors and managers of Illinois municipalities were also surveyed. The results suggest that state aid to municipalities did not keep pace with inflation between 2007 and 2015, and the most common strategies used to maintain balanced budgets were increasing water and sewage charges …

The Birth Of The Movement To Prohibit The Unauthorized Practice Of Law, Laurel A. Rigertas

Faculty Peer-Reviewed Publications

Despite its omnipresence in the field, there is no comprehensive history of the legal profession's effort to prohibit the unauthorized practice of law ("UPL"), by persons or entities who do not have a license to engage in such work. Drawing on original historical research, this article provides the most comprehensive view, to date, of the birth of the modem movement to prohibit the unauthorized practice of law. While bar associations' efforts to prohibit the unauthorized practice of law exploded nationwide in the 1930s, they sowed the seeds for the movement during the several decades preceding the Great Depression. Focusing on …

A Baseline Osteological Analysis Of Prehistoric Human Skeletal Remains Recovered From The Terminal Archaic Morse Site (11-F-220), Fulton County, Illinois, Matthew Shawn Kinzer

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This thesis examines the prehistoric human skeletal remains recovered from the Terminal Archaic Morse site that was excavated during the late 1950’s and early 1960’s. The project was led by Drs. Dan Morse and Georg Neumann, with assistance provided by Ms. Louise Robbins to oversee the recovery of the skeletal remains, as well as a host of various other workers and volunteers. Since the conclusion of fieldwork over fifty years ago, only a modest number of articles describing the findings from the site have been published.

In light of this circumstance, the focus of this study provides an overview of …