State Rep. Jack Franks has won his legislative battle about IMRF pensions.

Senate Bill 2701 with his abolition language passed 110-0 Sunday.

It is now in the State Senate waiting for approval of House amendments.

Because the McHenry County Board did not act quickly enough, their June 2nd Human Resources Committee meeting to eliminate participation in the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund and subsequent County Board meeting to ratify that committee’s recommendation will probably be seen as an afterthought by the public.

In the legislative process, the bill sent to the House by State Senator Pam Althoff, which required county board members to keep logs of the hours they work on county business (1,000 required for McHenry County), has the following legislative history:

Senate Amendment 1

Provides that a person who holds elective office as a member of a governing body of a participating municipality shall not be considered a participating employee, unless

(1) the person has elected to become a participating employee;

(2) the governing body has filed a resolution certifying that a person in that position is expected to work more than 600 hours (or 1,000 hours if the participating municipality has adopted a specified resolution); and

(3) the person has submitted logs evidencing that he or she has met the hourly standard.

Requires the resolution to be adopted and filed with the Fund no more than 90 days after the general election in which any member of the governing body was elected.

Requires participating governing body members to file the log with the authorized agent of the participating municipality.

House Amendment 2

Replaces everything after the enacting clause.

Reinserts the provisions of the engrossed bill with the following changes.

Prohibits participation by a person who is an elected member of a county board and is first so elected on or after the effective date of this amendatory Act. [Emphasis added.]

Imposes administrative requirements on current elected county board members.

Requires a participating elected member of a county board to submit time sheets documenting the time spent on official government business.

Provides that the submitted time sheets are exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act. Amends the Freedom of Information Act to make a conforming change. Effective immediately.

House Amendment 3

In the new Section of the Illinois Pension Code relating to participation by elected county board members, deletes the provision exempting the required time sheets from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act. Deletes the corresponding amendment to the Freedom of Information Act.

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None of the non-incumbent Republican County Board candidates said they would participate in the IMRF pension program, if elected.