ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD

August

3,

1995

SANGI\MON COUNTY,

Complainant,

v.

)

AC 95-48

(SCDPH—95-AC—8)

TOWN

AND

COUNTRY

BANK

)

(Administrative Citation)

TRUST #TA250,

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 county.

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.

Attorneys’

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.

J.dhe~~~eyer

Bo

d Member

---

I,

Dorothy M.

Gunn,

Clerk of the Illinois Pollution Control

Board, hereby certify that the above concurring opinion was filed

on the

~

day of

________________,

1995.

,

p

Dorothy M. ~‘unn, Clerk

Illinois Pollution Control Board