Amends the Public Utilities Act. Provides that the Illinois Commerce Commission shall conduct a comprehensive workforce analysis study of each electric utility to determine the adequacy of the total in-house staffing in each job classification or job title critical to maintaining quality reliability and restoring service in each electric utility's service territory. Provides that each report shall contain a yearly detailed comparison beginning with 1995 and ending in 2006 of certain ratios for each electric utility. Provides that the ratios shall be reported from each utility's named service area, district, division, outlying area, village, municipality, reporting point, or region. Provides that the analysis shall determine the total number of contractor employees for the same time frame and shall be conducted in the same manner as the in-house analysis. Provides that the Commission may hold public hearings while conducting the analysis to assist in the adequacy of the study. Requires the Commission to hold public hearings on the study and present the results to the General Assembly no later than January 1, 2008. Provides that the Commission shall require electric utilities to develop and implement strategies to attract and retain workers and remedy any deficiencies found by the study. Provides that the Commission shall develop and implement rules to require each electric utility to employ an adequately sized, well-trained in-house utility work force, including, but not limited to, benchmarks for employee staffing levels for each classification and employee training for each classification. Effective immediately.
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Creates the Prescribed Burning Act. Allows for the prescribed burning of certain land under specified circumstances when approved by a certified prescribed burn manager. Provides that no property owner or his agent, conducting a prescribed burn pursuant to the requirements of the Act, shall be liable for damage or injury caused by fire or resulting smoke, unless gross negligence is proven or unless conducted without the approval of a prescribed burn manager. Provides that the Department of Natural Resources, in consultation with the Office of the State Fire Marshall, shall promulgate rules to implement the Act. Provides that nothing in the Act shall be construed as requiring certification as a prescribed burn manager to conduct prescribed burning on one's own property or on the lands of another with the landowner's permission. Effective immediately.
Amends the Illinois Act on the Aging. Provides that the Department on Aging shall establish a program to ensure the availability of congregate or home-delivered meals in communities with populations of under 5,000 that are not located within large urban counties. Sets forth the requirements for the program. Requires the Department to file a report with the General Assembly and the Illinois Council on Aging by January 1 of each year. Effective immediately.
Amends the Personnel Code. Grants a State employee subject to the Code who is a veteran 4 days of leave per year (in addition to any currently available sick leave) to visit a veterans hospital for examination of a military service-connected disability (now, 2 days per year).
Amends the Southern Illinois University Management Act. Provides that the Illinois Ethanol Research Advisory Board shall establish and operate, subject to specific appropriation for the purpose of providing facility operating funds, the National Corn-to-Ethanol Research Center at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville as a State Biorefining Center of Excellence. Sets forth the purposes and goals of the Center.
Amends the Livestock Management Facilities Act. Provides that solid livestock waste stacking structures shall be sized to store not less than the amount of waste generated during 3 months of facility operation at design capacity (now 6 months).
Amends the Critical Health Problems and Comprehensive Health Education Act. Requires the State Board of Education to establish and administer a matching grant program to pay for half of the cost that a school district incurs in training those teachers and other school personnel who express an interest in becoming qualified to administer emergency cardiopulmonary resuscitation or in learning how to use an automated external defibrillator.
Amends the Municipal Code. In a Section that prohibits an adult entertainment facility from being located within 1,000 feet of a school, day care center, cemetery, public park, forest preserve, public housing, and place of religious worship, provides that "adult entertainment facility" includes an adult bookstore or adult video store that derives 20% or more of its profits from the commercial sale, dissemination, or distribution of sexually explicit material, shows, or other exhibitions (instead of an adult bookstore or adult video store whose primary business is the commercial sale, dissemination, or distribution of sexually explicit material, shows, or other exhibitions).
Amends the Energy Assistance Act. Changes the repeal date of provisions creating the Supplemental Low-Income Energy Assistance Fund from December 31, 2007 to December 31, 2013. Effective immediately.
Amends the Abused and Neglected Child Reporting Act. Provides that reports of suspected child abuse or neglect made to the central register through the State-wide, toll-free telephone number shall be immediately transmitted to the appropriate local law enforcement agency. Provides that all oral reports made by the Department of Children and Family Services to local law enforcement personnel and the office of the State's Attorney of the involved county shall be confirmed in writing within 24 (instead of 48) hours of the oral report. Provides that the Department shall adopt rules expressly allowing law enforcement personnel to investigate reports of suspected child abuse or neglect concurrently with the Department, without regard to whether the Department determines a report to be "indicated" or "unfounded" or deems a report to be "undetermined". Effective immediately.