Illinois General Assembly - Full Text of HB1314

LRB104 05842 BDA 15873 b

104TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
State of Illinois
2025 and 2026
HB1314

Introduced 1/28/2025, by Rep. Suzanne M. Ness

SYNOPSIS AS INTRODUCED:

5 ILCS 430/70-5

Amends the State Officials and Employees Ethics Act. In provisions requiring governmental entities to adopt ordinances or resolutions regulating specified ethical concerns, provides that a governmental entity may create an ethics commission to satisfy the requirements.

A BILL FOR

AN ACT concerning government.

Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly:

Section 5. The State Officials and Employees Ethics Act is amended by changing Section 70-5 as follows:

(5 ILCS 430/70-5)

Sec. 70-5. Adoption by governmental entities.

(a) Within 6 months after the effective date of this Act, each governmental entity other than a community college district, and each community college district within 6 months after the effective date of this amendatory Act of the 95th General Assembly, shall adopt an ordinance or resolution that regulates, in a manner no less restrictive than Section 5-15 and Article 10 of this Act, (i) the political activities of officers and employees of the governmental entity and (ii) the soliciting and accepting of gifts by and the offering and making of gifts to officers and employees of the governmental entity. No later than 60 days after the effective date of this amendatory Act of the 100th General Assembly, each governmental unit shall adopt an ordinance or resolution establishing a policy to prohibit sexual harassment. The policy shall include, at a minimum: (i) a prohibition on sexual harassment; (ii) details on how an individual can report an allegation of sexual harassment, including options for making a confidential report to a supervisor, ethics officer, Inspector General, or the Department of Human Rights; (iii) a prohibition on retaliation for reporting sexual harassment allegations, including availability of whistleblower protections under this Act, the Whistleblower Act, and the Illinois Human Rights Act; and (iv) the consequences of a violation of the prohibition on sexual harassment and the consequences for knowingly making a false report. Within 6 months after the effective date of this amendatory Act of the 101st General Assembly, each governmental unit that is not subject to the jurisdiction of a State or local Inspector General shall adopt an ordinance or resolution amending its sexual harassment policy to provide for a mechanism for reporting and independent review of allegations of sexual harassment made against an elected official of the governmental unit by another elected official of a governmental unit.

(b) Within 3 months after the effective date of this amendatory Act of the 93rd General Assembly, the Attorney General shall develop model ordinances and resolutions for the purpose of this Article. The Attorney General shall advise governmental entities on their contents and adoption.

(c) As used in this Article, (i) an "officer" means an elected or appointed official; regardless of whether the official is compensated, and (ii) an "employee" means a full-time, part-time, or contractual employee.

(d) Notwithstanding any other provisions of this Section, a governmental entity may create an ethics commission to satisfy the requirements of subsection (a).

(Source: P.A. 100-554, eff. 11-16-17; 101-221, eff. 8-9-19.)