Hoffman Estates Professional Firefighters Ass'n v. Village of Hoffman Estates

711 N.E.2d 1109, 305 Ill. App. 3d 242, 238 Ill. Dec. 448
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedJune 23, 1999
Docket1-98-0489
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 711 N.E.2d 1109 (Hoffman Estates Professional Firefighters Ass'n v. Village of Hoffman Estates) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hoffman Estates Professional Firefighters Ass'n v. Village of Hoffman Estates, 711 N.E.2d 1109, 305 Ill. App. 3d 242, 238 Ill. Dec. 448 (Ill. Ct. App. 1999).

Opinion

JUSTICE BURKE

delivered the opinion of the court:

Defendants, the Village of Hoffman Estates, a municipal corporation, and the Village’s mayor, trustees, manager, finance director, and clerk/treasurer (the Village) appeal from an order of the circuit court granting plaintiff Hoffman Estates Professional Firefighters Association (the Association) and its president Charles O’Connor’s motion for summary judgment and denying the Village’s motion for summary judgment. The court’s order required the Village to comply with section 11—10—2 of the Illinois Municipal Code (Code) (65 ILCS 5/11—10—2 (West 1996)) by creating a foreign fire insurance board 1 (Board), and upon doing so, to turn over to the Board all foreign fire insurance tax proceeds authorized and collected by the Village pursuant to section 11—10—1 of the Code (65 ILCS 5/11—10—1 (West 1996)) “from January 1, 1985, to the present.”

On appeal, the Village argues that it was not subject to the requirements of section 11—10—2 to create the Board and fund it with the proceeds of the foreign fire insurance tax “from January 1, 1985 to the present” because the Village: (1) was not required by statute “to create and fund the Board prior to 1990”; (2) the State Mandates Act (30 ILCS 805/1 et seq. (West 1996)) relieved the Village from complianee with the statutory requirement to create and fund the Board with foreign fire insurance tax proceeds after the 1990 amendment; and (3) the collective bargaining agreement between the Village and the Association barred the Association from bringing a cause of action against the Village to make it pay the tax proceeds to the Association from 1990 to 1995. For the reasons set forth below, we reverse and remand.

The Association is a labor association affiliated with the International Association of Firefighters, AFL-CIO, CLC. The Association was organized to provide for the “general welfare” of the Hoffman Estates firefighters and the Hoffman Estates fire department. The Village is an Illinois municipality which has an organized fire department. The Village’s population is less than 50,000.

Section 11—10—1 of the Code, prior to and since 1990, is entitled, “Foreign Fire Insurance Company Fees,” and provides for the Village’s collection of a tax, not to exceed 2% of the gross receipts from fire insurance, upon property situated within the Village where fire insurance is provided by an insurance company not incorporated under the laws of Illinois. 65 ILCS 5/11—10—1 (West 1996). The Village levied the tax from 1985 until 1997, collected the proceeds, and placed them in the firefighters’ pension fund. According to the Village, the amount of taxes collected by it from 1985 through 1996, and the 1997 estimated amount, was $283,483.

The parties’ dispute arose in 1996 when the Association requested that the Village transfer the foreign fire insurance tax proceeds to the Hoffman Estates’ fire department pursuant to section 11—10—2 of the Code. The Village refused to transfer the funds to the fire department and continued to collect the tax. As a result, the Association filed a complaint for a writ of mandamus and declaratory judgment on February 18, 1997, to require the Village to create the Board and turn over to the Board all foreign fire insurance tax proceeds the Village collected pursuant to section 11—10—1 “from January 1, 1985, to the present.” The Association alleged in its complaint that the Village did not transfer the collected tax proceeds to the firefighters’ pension fund or to the fire department, but instead transferred the tax proceeds into the Village’s “General Fund.”

The Village filed a motion for summary judgment, arguing that prior to the 1990 amendment of section 11—10—2 it had the option of paying the fire insurance tax proceeds to the fire department treasurer or to the firefighters’ pension fund, and it opted to pay into the pension fund. The Village further argued that upon amendment of the statute and the elimination of the option to pay the tax proceeds to the firefighters’ pension fund, it did not comply with section 11—10—2 because the statute “is a violation of’ the State Mandates Act (30 ILCS 805/1 et seq. (West 1996)). More specifically, the Village maintained that the creation of the Board, under the amended statute, created a personnel mandate within the meaning of the State Mandates Act because the Village would have to pay overtime wages to firefighter members elected to the Board for their service on the Board pursuant to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). 29 U.S.C. § 203(e)(4)(a) (1994). The Village therefore argued that since section 11—10—2 is a personnel mandate that is not exempted from reimbursement by the state to local governments under the State Mandates Act, the Village was not required to comply with the statute because no appropriation for reimbursement had been made by the General Assembly for additional costs that the Village alleged it would incur.

In response, the Association contended that section 11—10—2 prior to 1981, the effective date of the State Mandates Act, was not subject to the State Mandates Act because the Act only applies to legislation enacted after its effective date. The Association also argued that to the extent any amendments to section 11—10—2 after 1981 “violate” the State Mandates Act, only the amendment is invalid and the statute would be left in force as it was prior to the amendment. Therefore, the Association maintained that the Village was required to “enact an ordinance providing for the election of foreign fire insurance tax board officers” and “turn over to the [Association] *** all foreign fire insurance tax proceeds *** collected by [the Village] *** from January 1, 1985 until the present.” The Association also claimed that the Village’s position, that it was not until the 1990 amendment that its home rule unit authority was preempted, was “based upon a fundamental misapprehension of the nature of home rule unit authority.” The Association maintained that “home rule units must obey all laws which do not contain an express home rule preemption unless and until a conflicting ordinance is enacted” and, since the Village never enacted an ordinance that in any way conflicted with the terms of section 11—10—2, the Village was at all times bound to obey the statute. The Association further argued that the FLSA was irrelevant to a violation of the State Mandates Act because the FLSA “excludes the [Board] officers from the definition of employees” since the officers’ services on the Board would not be the same services for which they are employed by the Village as firefighters. The Association also argued the FLSA was irrelevant to a “violation” of the State Mandates Act because an employment relationship would not exist between the Village and the Board due to the fact that the Village would not have control of hiring and firing the members elected to the Board, control over the manner in which work is performed, fixing of wages, and maintaining of employment records.

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711 N.E.2d 1109, 305 Ill. App. 3d 242, 238 Ill. Dec. 448, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hoffman-estates-professional-firefighters-assn-v-village-of-hoffman-illappct-1999.