ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
August
3,
1995
ILLINOIS ENVIRONMENTAL
PROTECTION AGENCY,
Complainant,
v.
)
AC
95—47
(IEPA No.
370-95-AC)
ALLIED WASTE
)
(Administrative Citation)
INDUSTRIES,
INC..,
Respondent.
CONCURRING OPINION
(by J. Theodore Meyer):
I concur with the majority’s opinion and order in this case;
however,
I believe that attorney’s fees and costs should be
included in all penalties imposed in administrative citations.
Section
42(f)
of the Environmental Protection Act
(Act)
provides that the Board may award costs
and reasonable attorney’s
fees in cases brought on behalf of the citizens of Illinois.
(415 ILCS 5/42(f)
(1992)).
This section should be construed
broadly and include administrative citation penalties brought by
the State,
or by any unit of local government vested with the
authority to impose such citations,
pursuant to Section 4(r)
of
the Act.
In addition to reasonable attorney’s fees and costs,
indirect expenses such as
travel time,
administrative support,
printing,
copying and overhead should also be pursued.
After
all,
the time spent by complainant’s attorney in prosecuting this
matter certainly could have been used to handle other matters.
Also,
the now common practice by state and local governments of
charging a “user fee” to those who use
a service
(such as paying
for photocopies)
is certainly a cost that should be imposed on a
party who has violated the Act.
This case presented an
opportunity for the complainant to submit an affidavit of all
costs,.
and
I believe that the Board should have taken this
opportunity to reimburse the Illinois Environmental Protection
Agency.
In this case,
the administrative citation neither requests
the imposition of such costs and fees nor explains whether some
percentage of costs and fees was figured into the penalty.
AttorneysT
fees and costs incurred during the administrative
citation process should be pursued on behalf of the Illinois
taxpayer,
and
I urge the parties to bear this
in mind in future
negotiations
in this case.
T~4~oreMe~er
Board Member
I, Dorothy M.
Gunn,
Clerk of the Illinois Pollution Control
Board, hereb~~certify tha~the above concurring opinion was filed
on the
9~’—
day of
_______________,
1995.
0
Dorothy M. Gu~p, Clerk’
Illinois Pollution Control Board