Public Act 93-0589
SB524 Enrolled LRB093 06445 BDD 10976 b
AN ACT concerning fire protection.
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
represented in the General Assembly:
Section 5. The Fire Protection District Act is amended
by changing Sections 6 and 16.06 as follows:
(70 ILCS 705/6) (from Ch. 127 1/2, par. 26)
Sec. 6. The trustees shall constitute a board of
trustees for the district for which they are appointed, which
board of trustees is declared to be the corporate authority
of the fire protection district, and shall exercise all of
the powers and control all the affairs and property of such
district. The board of trustees at their initial meeting and
at their first meeting following the commencement of the term
of any trustee shall elect one of their number as president
and one of their number as secretary and shall elect a
treasurer for the district, who may be one of the trustees or
may be any other citizen of the district and who shall hold
office during the pleasure of the board and who shall give
such bond as may be required by the board. Except as
otherwise provided in Sections 16.01 through 16.18, the board
may appoint and enter into a multi-year contract not
exceeding 3 years with a fire chief and may appoint any
firemen that may be necessary for the district who shall hold
office during the pleasure of the board and who shall give
any bond that the board may require. The board may prescribe
the duties and fix the compensation of all the officers and
employees of the fire protection district. A member of the
board of trustees of a fire protection district may be
compensated as follows: in a district having fewer than 4
full time paid firemen, a sum not to exceed $1,000 per annum;
in a district having more than 3 but less than 10 full time
paid firemen, a sum not to exceed $1,500 per annum; in a
district having either 10 or more full time paid firemen, a
sum not to exceed $2,000 per annum. In addition, fire
districts that operate an ambulance service pursuant to
authorization by referendum, as provided in Section 22, may
pay trustees an additional annual compensation not to exceed
50% of the amount otherwise authorized herein. The
additional compensation shall be an administrative expense of
the ambulance service and shall be paid from revenues raised
by the ambulance tax levy. The trustees also have the
express power to execute a note or notes and to execute a
mortgage or trust deed to secure the payment of such note or
notes; such trust deed or mortgage shall cover real estate,
or some part thereof, or personal property owned by the
district and the lien of the mortgage shall apply to the real
estate or personal property so mortgaged by the district, and
the proceeds of the note or notes may be used in the
acquisition of personal property or of real estate or in the
erection of improvements on such real estate. The trustees
have express power to purchase either real estate or personal
property to be used for the purposes of the fire protection
district through contracts which provide for the
consideration for such purchase to be paid through
installments to be made at stated intervals during a certain
period of time, but, in no case, shall such contracts provide
for the consideration to be paid during a period of time in
excess of 25 years. The trustees have express power to
provide for the benefit of its employees, volunteer firemen
and paid firemen, group life, health, accident, hospital and
medical insurance, or any combination thereof; and to pay for
all or any portion of the premiums on such insurance. Such
insurance may include provisions for employees who rely on
treatment by spiritual means alone through prayer for healing
in accord with the tenets and practice of a well recognized
religious denomination. To encourage continued service with
the district, the board of trustees has the express power to
award monetary incentives, not to exceed $240 per year, to
volunteer firefighters of the district based on the length of
service. To be eligible for the incentives, the volunteer
firefighters must have at least 5 years of service with the
district. The amount of the incentives may not be greater
than 2% of the annual levy amount when all incentive awards
are combined. The board of trustees has express power to
change the corporate name of the fire protection district by
ordinance provided that notification of any change is given
to the circuit clerk and the Office of the State Fire
Marshal. The board of trustees has full power to pass all
necessary ordinances, and rules and regulations for the
proper management and conduct of the business of the board of
trustees of the fire protection district for carrying into
effect the objects for which the district was formed.
(Source: P.A. 91-948, eff. 1-1-02.)
(70 ILCS 705/16.06) (from Ch. 127 1/2, par. 37.06)
Sec. 16.06. Eligibility for positions in fire
department; disqualifications.
(a) All applicants for a position in the fire department
of the fire protection district shall be under 35 years of
age and shall be subjected to examination, which shall be
public, competitive, and free to all applicants, subject to
reasonable limitations as to health, habits, and moral
character; provided that the foregoing age limitation shall
not apply in the case of any person having previous
employment status as a fireman in a regularly constituted
fire department of any fire protection district, and further
provided that each fireman or fire chief who is a member in
good standing in a regularly constituted fire department of
any municipality which shall be or shall have subsequently
been included within the boundaries of any fire protection
district now or hereafter organized shall be given a
preference for original appointment in the same class, grade
or employment over all other applicants. The examinations
shall be practical in their character and shall relate to
those matters which will fairly test the persons examined as
to their relative capacity to discharge the duties of the
positions to which they seek appointment. The examinations
shall include tests of physical qualifications and health.
No applicant, however, shall be examined concerning his
political or religious opinions or affiliations. The
examinations shall be conducted by the board of fire
commissioners.
(b) No person shall be appointed to the fire department
unless he or she is a person of good character and not a
person who has been convicted of a felony in Illinois or
convicted in another jurisdiction for conduct that would be a
felony under Illinois law, or convicted of a crime involving
moral turpitude. No person, however, shall be disqualified
from appointment to the fire department because of his or her
record of misdemeanor convictions, except those under
Sections 11-6, 11-7, 11-9, 11-14, 11-15, 11-17, 11-18, 11-19,
12-2, 12-6, 12-15, 14-4, 16-1, 21.1-3, 24-3.1, 24-5, 25-1,
28-3, 31-1, 31-4, 31-6, 31-7, 32-1, 32-2, 32-3, 32-4, 32-8,
and subsections (1), (6), and (8) of Section 24-1 of the
Criminal Code of 1961.
(Source: P.A. 89-52, eff. 6-30-95; 90-481, eff. 8-17-97.)