August 29, 2003

To the Honorable Members of the

Illinois Senate

93^rd General Assembly

Pursuant to Article IV, Section 9(e) of the Illinois Constitution of 1970, I hereby return Senate Bill 699, entitled “AN ACT concerning electronic transmissions”, with the following specific recommendations for change:

on page 2, by replacing lines 16 through18 with “conference, or other electronic means, all locations at which members of the public may attend must be disclosed in the agenda.  An agenda for each regular meeting shall be”; and

on page 5, line 22, by deleting “special, emergency,”; and

on page 5, by replacing lines 26 and 27 with “place designated in the notice of the meeting, a public body may allow a member of that body to attend the meeting by electronic means if the”; and

on page 6, line 16, after “law”, by inserting “other than a hearing conducted under Article 9 or 10 of the Election Code”.

Several of these changes are required to give the necessary flexibility to the State Board of Elections to conduct their electoral board meetings and campaign disclosure hearings within the limited timeframe required by the Election Code.  With these changes, Senate Bill 699 will have my approval.  I respectfully request your concurrence.

Sincerely,

ROD R. BLAGOJEVICH

Governor