{
  "id": 2568551,
  "name": "ROBERT KOERNER, Petitioner-Appellee, v. MUNICIPAL OFFICERS ELECTORAL BOARD OF COAL CITY et al., Respondents-Appellants",
  "name_abbreviation": "Koerner v. Municipal Officers Electoral Board",
  "decision_date": "1990-10-18",
  "docket_number": "No. 3-90-0145",
  "first_page": "54",
  "last_page": "57",
  "citations": [
    {
      "type": "official",
      "cite": "205 Ill. App. 3d 54"
    }
  ],
  "court": {
    "name_abbreviation": "Ill. App. Ct.",
    "id": 8837,
    "name": "Illinois Appellate Court"
  },
  "jurisdiction": {
    "id": 29,
    "name_long": "Illinois",
    "name": "Ill."
  },
  "cites_to": [
    {
      "cite": "312 N.E.2d 231",
      "category": "reporters:state_regional",
      "reporter": "N.E.2d",
      "opinion_index": 0
    },
    {
      "cite": "57 Ill. 2d 367",
      "category": "reporters:state",
      "reporter": "Ill. 2d",
      "case_ids": [
        5407159
      ],
      "opinion_index": 0,
      "case_paths": [
        "/ill-2d/57/0367-01"
      ]
    },
    {
      "cite": "410 N.E.2d 1",
      "category": "reporters:state_regional",
      "reporter": "N.E.2d",
      "year": 1974,
      "opinion_index": 0
    },
    {
      "cite": "81 Ill. 2d 308",
      "category": "reporters:state",
      "reporter": "Ill. 2d",
      "case_ids": [
        5481853
      ],
      "year": 1974,
      "opinion_index": 0,
      "case_paths": [
        "/ill-2d/81/0308-01"
      ]
    },
    {
      "cite": "520 N.E.2d 626",
      "category": "reporters:state_regional",
      "reporter": "N.E.2d",
      "year": 1980,
      "opinion_index": 0
    },
    {
      "cite": "121 Ill. 2d 236",
      "category": "reporters:state",
      "reporter": "Ill. 2d",
      "case_ids": [
        3201226
      ],
      "year": 1980,
      "opinion_index": 0,
      "case_paths": [
        "/ill-2d/121/0236-01"
      ]
    },
    {
      "cite": "309 N.E.2d 576",
      "category": "reporters:state_regional",
      "reporter": "N.E.2d",
      "opinion_index": 0
    },
    {
      "cite": "57 Ill. 2d 50",
      "category": "reporters:state",
      "reporter": "Ill. 2d",
      "case_ids": [
        5408257
      ],
      "opinion_index": 0,
      "case_paths": [
        "/ill-2d/57/0050-01"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "analysis": {
    "cardinality": 401,
    "char_count": 7717,
    "ocr_confidence": 0.785,
    "pagerank": {
      "raw": 4.03580807328026e-08,
      "percentile": 0.08224842452204742
    },
    "sha256": "a73038a74b2336e9c841c6a5c6d81a4414a9d60afe6532cc949727585bc95aea",
    "simhash": "1:98d6fb350a88fe12",
    "word_count": 1257
  },
  "last_updated": "2023-07-14T21:56:36.258665+00:00",
  "provenance": {
    "date_added": "2019-08-29",
    "source": "Harvard",
    "batch": "2018"
  },
  "casebody": {
    "judges": [],
    "parties": [
      "ROBERT KOERNER, Petitioner-Appellee, v. MUNICIPAL OFFICERS ELECTORAL BOARD OF COAL CITY et al., Respondents-Appellants."
    ],
    "opinions": [
      {
        "text": "JUSTICE STOUDER\ndelivered the opinion of the court:\nThe petitioner, Robert Koerner, filed a petition requesting a referendum on the issue of changing the Village of Coal City\u2019s commission form of government to a president-trustee form of government. Under the proposition, the trustees were to be elected from separate districts within the village. The respondent, M.J. McEvoy, filed an objector\u2019s petition with corespondent, the Municipal Officers Electoral Board of the Village of Coal City (Electoral Board or Board). Following a hearing, corespondents Richard W. Roseland, Gerald Provance and Carol Haughtigan, members of the Electoral Board, sustained one of the objections raised by McEvoy and held the petition to be invalid. Petitioner appealed to the circuit court of Grundy County, which reversed the decision of the Electoral Board and ordered the proposition be placed on ballot for the March 20, 1990, election. The vote was in favor of the proposition. The respondents appeal.\nThe facts in the instant case are not in dispute. The Village of Coal City is a non-home-rule municipality with a population under 5,000. The petition asked that the following proposition be submitted to the voters:\n\u201cShall the Village of Coal City be governed by a Village Board con- Yes sisting of a President elected _ at-large and one Village Trustee elected from each of 6 districts? No\u201d\nMcEvoy raised three objections to the petition for referendum. The Electoral Board denied two of the objections. However, the Board sustained McEvoy\u2019s objection that \u201cthe Petition for Referendum does not comply with the statutory provisions for the election of a Board of Trustees for the Village in single member districts.\u201d On appeal, the circuit court held the Board\u2019s ruling was incorrect and that the proposition in the petition was valid. The court ordered that the proposition be placed on the March 20,1990, ballot.\nOn appeal, the parties raise numerous objections and cross-objections. However, we find that our determination on the issue squarely presented to the circuit court makes it unnecessary to reach the other issues raised.\nSection 7 of article VII of the Constitution of the State of Illinois (Ill. Const. 1970, art. VII, \u00a77) provides in pertinent part: \u201cCounties and municipalities which are not home rule units shall have only powers granted to them by law and the powers (1) ***; (2) by referendum, to adopt, alter or repeal their forms of government provided by law; (3) in the case of municipalities, to provide by referendum for their officers, manner of selection and terms of office.\u201d\nThe Illinois Municipal Code (Code) provides for a president-trustee form of government for villages and incorporated towns. (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1989, ch. 24, par. 3 \u2014 5\u20141 et seq.) The Code contemplates a board of trustees comprised of six members, although villages with a population under 5,000 may elect by referendum to have only four trustees. (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1989, ch. 24, pars. 3 \u2014 5\u20142, 3 \u2014 5\u20142a.) In villages with a population of 5,000 or more, the village can be divided \u201cinto 6 compact and contiguous districts of approximately equal population,\u201d with each district represented by one trustee elected from that district. Ill. Rev. Stat. 1989, ch. 24, pars. 3 \u2014 5\u20145, 3 \u2014 5\u20146.\nThe issue in this case is whether the Village of Coal City, with a population under 5,000, can adopt a president-trustee form of government which divides the municipality into districts for purposes of electing trustees.\nMuch of the parties\u2019 arguments in this case center on the powers of home rule units verses the powers of non-home-rule units. However, the Illinois Constitution grants both home rule and non-home-rule units the power to \u201cadopt, alter or repeal\u201d their form of government \u201cprovided by law.\u201d (Ill. Const. 1970, art. VII, \u00a7\u00a76(f), 7(2).) We need not reach the issue of whether the scope of that power is different depending on the government unit\u2019s status as home rule or non home rule. The decision in the instant case rests solely on an interpretation of a non-home-rule unit\u2019s powers under article VII, section 7.\nThe respondents contend that the circuit court erred in reversing the Electoral Board\u2019s decision, because the Village of Coal City cannot adopt a form of government which is contrary to the provisions of the Illinois Municipal Code, namely that dividing into trustee districts is limited to villages with a population of 5,000 or more. In response, the petitioner points to the fact that article VII, section 7(2), of the Constitution allows non-home-rule units to \u201calter\u201d the forms of government provided by the legislature in the Illinois Municipal Code. The petitioner argues that the 5,000-person population requirement is a provision which a village can alter in order to meet the specific needs of the municipality.\nWe do not read the term \u201calter\u201d in section 7(2) as allowing local governmental units to completely abrogate the basic requirements for forms of government set forth in the Illinois Municipal Code. The 5,000-person population requirement in sections 3 \u2014 5\u20145 and 3\u2014 5 \u2014 6 of the Code are not provisions which can be altered by a municipality. The population requirement rests on the legislature\u2019s judgment that villages with populations under 5,000 persons are not large enough to be divided into separate districts. To allow a municipality to \u201calter\u201d this requirement would render sections 3 \u2014 5\u20145 and 3 \u2014 5\u20146 meaningless. The population requirement is a basic provision of the statute governing the president-trustee form of government. The requirement cannot be \u201caltered\u201d by a municipality.\nThe petitioner\u2019s reliance on Clarke v. Village of Arlington Heights (1974), 57 Ill. 2d 50, 309 N.E.2d 576, is misplaced. In Clarke, the Illinois Supreme Court upheld a home rule municipality\u2019s power to increase the number of trustees from six to eight, when the statute (v. Rev. Stat. 1989, ch. 24, par. 3 \u2014 5\u20142) provides for six trustees. The issue of whether a municipality can alter the number of trustees to meet its particular needs is distinguishable from the question of whether a municipality must meet certain basic requirements of the statutes before it can adopt a particular form of government. The other cases cited and relied on by the parties to support their respective arguments (League of Women Voters v. County of Peoria (1987), 121 Ill. 2d 236, 520 N.E.2d 626; Boytor v. City of Aurora (1980), 81 Ill. 2d 308, 410 N.E.2d 1; Taylor v. County of St. Clair (1974), 57 Ill. 2d 367, 312 N.E.2d 231) are similarly distinguishable and of little help in determining the issue before us.\nWe also find no merit to petitioner\u2019s contention that dividing into trustee districts is simply a \u201cmanner of selection\u201d which municipalities are allowed to select under section 7(3) of article VII.\nIn sum, we find the petition was invalid because it proposed a form of president-trustee government which, because of its population, the Village of Coal City could not adopt.\nTherefore, the judgment of the circuit court of Grundy County is reversed and remanded with directions that the circuit court affirm the decision of the Electoral Board and vacate the results of the election.\nReversed and remanded with directions.\nSCOTT and GORMAN, JJ., concur.",
        "type": "majority",
        "author": "JUSTICE STOUDER"
      }
    ],
    "attorneys": [
      "Arthur C. Thorpe, of Klein, Thorpe & Jenkins, Ltd., of Chicago, and John M. Tira, of Tira & Tira, of Coal City (Patrick A. Lucansky, of counsel), for appellants.",
      "Rosenthal, Murphey, Coblentz & Janega, of Chicago (Peter D. Coblentz, of counsel), for appellee."
    ],
    "corrections": "",
    "head_matter": "ROBERT KOERNER, Petitioner-Appellee, v. MUNICIPAL OFFICERS ELECTORAL BOARD OF COAL CITY et al., Respondents-Appellants.\nThird District\nNo. 3\u201490\u20140145\nOpinion filed October 18, 1990.\nArthur C. Thorpe, of Klein, Thorpe & Jenkins, Ltd., of Chicago, and John M. Tira, of Tira & Tira, of Coal City (Patrick A. Lucansky, of counsel), for appellants.\nRosenthal, Murphey, Coblentz & Janega, of Chicago (Peter D. Coblentz, of counsel), for appellee."
  },
  "file_name": "0054-01",
  "first_page_order": 76,
  "last_page_order": 79
}