ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
June
1,
1995
PEOPLE OF THE STATE
)
OF ILLINOIS,
Complainant,
V.
)
PCB 95—139
(Enforcement-Air)
MBL
(USA)
CORPORATION
)
an Illinois corporation,
)
Respondents.
CONCURRING OPINION
(by
J. Theodore Meyer):
I concur with the majority’s acceptance of the stipulation
and settlement in
this
case.
However,
I continue to be troubled
by the absence of any mention of attorney’s fees and costs
in
these settlement agreements.
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 a
violator of the Act should reimburse the Illinois
taxpayer for all costs incurred by the Attorney General,
including indirect expenses such as travel time,
administrative
support, printing,
copying and overhead.
After all, the time
spent by complainant’s attorney
in prosecuting this matter
certainly could have been used to handle other matters.
In this case,
the complaint requests that the Board impose
such costs and fees; however, the stipulation and settlement does
not refer to this request, nor explain whether some percentage of
costs and fees was figured into the penalty.
I continue to
believe that costs and fees should be pursued on behalf of the
Illinois taxpayer, and urge the parties to bear this in mind in
future negotiations in this case.
In addition, 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 to order the complainant to submit an
affidavit of all costs,
and
I believe that the Board should have
taken this opportunity.
J. Theodore Meyer
Board Member
2
I, Dorothy M. Gunn,
Clerk of the
Illinois Pollution Control
Board, hereby certify th
on the
_______
day of
a~tI~ie~bove
concurring opinion was filed
________
__________________
1995.
~
A.
Dorothy N./~unn,Clerk
Illinois ~6llution
Control Board