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PAGE 5-PLAINDEALER-FRI.. DECEMBER4. 1^70 The Proposed Constitution / PART n EDITOR'S NOTE: Election day for the proposed new Illinois constitution is Dec. 15. As an aid to voters, this is the fourth in a series of explanatory ar-, tides by the center for Gov­ ernmental Studies at Northern Illinois university in DeKalb. THE CONSTITUTIONAL ATTACK ON DISCRIMINATION Racism, segregation, dis­ criminatory practices and ev­ en ethnic jokes are targets of the several new civil rights pro­ visions in the proposed Illin­ ois constitution of 1970. In part, these provisions re­ flect our common, nation-wide experiences with such social problems. And in part, they re­ flect recent legal and political development at the national lev­ el, especially the civil rights statutes enacted by Congress. The location of these civil rights provisions in the pro­ posed Illinois bill of rights is unique. Historically, a bill of rights was considered nec­ essary in order to impose re­ straints on the exercise of gov­ ernmental powers and to pre­ vent arbitrary and tyrannical acts by public officials. A new purpose has been added with inclusion of the civ­ il rights provisions. Not only are restraints imposed on pub­ lic authorities but a responsi­ bility -- the responsibility for enforcing civil rights guar­ antees in the private sector of society. Four provisions of the pro­ posed bill of rights are direct­ ed against discriminatory prac­ tices. While a primary concern involves discrimination on ra­ cial grounds, these provisions are also concerned with dis­ criminatory actions affecting women, the handicapped, or based upon religious affiliation or national origin. Section 17 prohibits discrim­ ination in employment and in the sale or rental of property. While this section states that these "rights are enforceable without action by the General Assembly," the latter is in­ vited to prescribe in law "rea­ sonable exemptions relating to these rights and provide ad­ ditional remedies for their vi­ olation." The open occiqpancy provision obviously is derived from re­ cent developments in various parts of the United States. It is also similar in purpose to the national Civil Rights Act of 1968. New though the open occupan­ cy provision may appear to be, however, it is not new in fact. In 1866, Congress provided for the rights of black Americans to own, lease, rent, sell and convey property ~ a feature of an earlier civil rights law which was scarcely acknowledged for 102 years. Then, in 1968, the Supreme Court used that pro­ vision in the century-old statute in rendering the first, national open occupancy decision. The prohibition on discrimin­ ation in employment also close­ ly parallels recent national de­ velopments. In enacting the Civ­ il Rights Bill of 1964, Congress included an equal employment opportunities section in an ef­ fort to cope with job problems encountered by women and per­ sons from minority back­ grounds. Section 17 also con­ tinues Illinois' commitment to fair employment practices and provides a new constitutional base for the state's Fair Em­ ployment Practices Commis­ sion. Section 18 seeks to reinforce the rights of women in areas other than employment, ft for­ bids state and local authorities and school districts from deny­ ing equal protection of the laws on account of sex. "Hire the handicapped -- if s good business," a slogan on public service posters in recent years, may be said to be ser­ ved by Section 19 of the new bill of rights. This section seeks assurances of housing and job opportunities for the physically handicapped and those who are mentally retarded but trained or trainable. Section 19 pro­ vides that the handicapped "shall be free from discrim­ ination unrelatedtoabilityinthe hiring and promotion practices of any employer." Since there is no provision authorizing legislation to im­ plement Section 19, we may as­ sume that it is self-operating. However, there might be doubts as to the effectiveness of a pro­ vision which is so brief and which lacks clear standards, ft would thus appear that, if the new constitution is adopted, statuatory guidelines should be established by the General Assembly. The last civil rights pro­ vision, Section 20, seeks to pro­ mote individual dignity by pro­ hibiting "communications that portray criminality, depravity or lack of virtue in" any ra­ cial, religious, or ethnicgraq>, or which 'tend to promote vi­ olence,' hatred and hostility to­ ward such a group. Somewhat similar was an Ill­ inois statute enacted after the race riots of 1919. This law, forbidding group libel, was up­ held by the UJS. Supreme Court in 1952. Speaking for the court, Justice Frankfurter said, "From the murder of the abo­ litionist Lovejoy in 1837 to the Cicero riots of 1951, Illinois has been the scene of exacer­ bated tension between races, often flaring into violence and destruction." On many of these occasions, Frankfurter contin­ ued, degrading utterances con­ tributed to violence, a matter with which the General Assem­ bly was concerned. While racial tensions persist as a principal reason for this provision being included, we may safely conclude that eth­ nic jokes were also considered by the delegates. After all, it was not so long ago that a national agency declared "Po­ lish" jokes to be offensive and forbidden by national civil rights legislation. THE 1970 CONSTITUTION AND COUNTY GOVERNMENT More local control over the organization and powers of county government distin­ guishes the counties section of the proposed Illinois constitu­ tion. Under the present 100-year- old constitution the election of certain county officials, such as the sheriff, clerk and treasur­ er, is required. The proposed constitution retains these three elected offices; but, italsoper- mits voters in a county to de­ cide if they want to continue to elect these officials, as well as others (such as coroner and assessor), or to have them ap- INTRODUCING: The 1971 NSU "TOMORROWS CAR HERE TODAY" Power by TWIN ROTARY (NSU-WANKEL) ENGINE THE YEAR NSUR080 SEE IT & DRIVE IT AT MOTOR SALES PPen Weekdays till 8P.M. Sun. 10A.M.-4P.M. Rte. 120, 3 miles east of McHenry PH.815-385-3330 All Renaults Have 12 Month Unlimited Mileage Warranty SAVE *350 UsT.S.'S' [rhejiconoj^ pointed. The new constitution even gives voters the option of eliminating any county of­ fice, as well as changing the terms of office (presently set at four years). As a result of recent de­ cisions by the U.S. Supreme Court, the members of the county board must be chosen on the basis of "one man, one vote." This requires that the •reas from which the board members are elected must be substantially equal in popula­ tion. This presents no problems for the seventeen counties in southern Illinois governed by a three-man commission e- lected at-large. However, these court decisions did lead the Constitutional Convention to make some adjustments in the section on Cook county govern­ ment. Hie proposed constitution drops the requirement that there must be 15 Cook county commissioners, with ten e- lected from Chicago, and five from the rest of the county. As suburban Cook county con­ tinues to grow and Chicago's population to decline, the sub­ urbs will have more than (me • third of the county population. They would then be underrep- resented wi th on ly f ive of f i f ­ teen board members. The proposed constitution re­ tains the two separate at-large elections, one in Chicago and one in the suburbs. However, the document spells out meth­ ods by which alternative sys­ tems of election may go into effect. One is the division of, the county into single mem­ ber election districts, which may be done by board action. Any other method rffust re­ ceive approval by a majority of voters in both Chicago and the suburbs. Thus, both Demo­ cratic Chicago and Republican suburbia have some assurance that no new plan of election of board members will place its party at a disadvantage. Except for Cook and the sev­ enteen southern counties, Ill­ inois counties are presently governed by a board of super­ visors, with each supervisor elected from a township. This system has given the less pop­ ulous townships somewhat more • voting weight on boards than the more populous townships. This is true even though the more people a township has, the more representation it is permitted on a board. Thus, according to a recent state law, by 1971, counties must replace town­ ships with election districts e- qual in population or.the coun- ty may choose W elect each board member at-large. These considerations raise the question of whether town­ ships should continue to oper­ ate. The proposed constitution, like the present one, permits voters in a county to elim­ inate townships entirely or to merge several townships. This gives constitutional sanction to the ^phasing out" of township government. Many view this "forgotten level of local government" as outdated and unnecessary, especially in urban areas. It is argued that counties can do the job more economically and efficiently. However, the township system has its defenders. They main­ tain that townships perform im­ portant services more respon- sively than a county govern­ ment because they are closer to the people. Such services in­ clude rural highway snow re­ moval and the administration of welfare. Not only the organization bui also the powers of counties would be more flexible under the proposed constitution. Counties in Illinois developed primarily as administrative arms of state government. Their officials are charged by the state with such tasks as keeping the peace, conducting elections and recording deeds. For other services, however, the county traditionally has been oriented to those areas not en­ compassed by municipal gov­ ernment -- that is, the unin­ corporated parts of the county. Over the years, counties have responded to some of the needs of all of their residents. Coun­ ties have established, for ex­ ample, hospitals, homes for the aged and forest preserves. The proposed constitution permits counties to receive home rule powers similar to those given cities and villages over 25,000 population. Under home rule plans, local citizens and their representatives are permitted to determine for themselves the powers and functions to be assumed by lo­ cal units. This option, then, offers an opportunity for the re­ definition of the county's role, and the assumption of some new services. However, to acquire home rule status, county voters must elect a chief executive officer. Presently this is done only in Cook county. Under the new doc­ ument, voters in all counties would be given constitutional authority to establish such an office. It is argued that without centralized policy leadership and administrative coordin­ ation, a county could not handle the added responsibilities im­ plied by home rule. Generally, the new constitu­ tion is designed to help create stronger county government. Stronger county government is intended to lessen the incentive for residents in the unincor­ porated parts of the county to establish new municipalities as well as to set up special dis­ tricts for such services as fire protection. The inability of county government to provide adequate services has induced what many see as an unde­ sirable proliferation of units of local government: Illinois now has more units of local govern­ ments than any other state. To help stop this prolifer­ ation, the proposed constitu­ tion authorizes counties to im­ pose additional taxes on those in the county receiving spe­ cial services. This kind of tax­ ing power is not permitted un­ der the present constitution. The purpose of this new provi­ sion is to forestall the es­ tablishment of special districts, for services needed in only one part of a county. HONORED ON RETIREMENT -- Allen J. Petersen, center, was presented with a gold plated motor from two of his long time supervisors, Alex Mikulecky, left, and Robert Eldridge. Mr. Petersen, past president of the Rae Motor corporation and one of the three founders twenty-four years ago, was surprised at a retirement party at his home recently by thirty-two of his office personnel. 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