A bill requiring the Little Calumet River Basin Development Commission to submit an annual budget to the Lake County Council passed out of committee Tuesday.
Sen. Dan Dernulc, R-Highland, and Sen. Rick Niemeyer, R-Lowell, authored Senate Bill 40 that would require the commission to submit an annual budget before Sept. 1 of each year for a nonbinding review.
The bill would also require the commission to submit an annual expenditure and activity report to the council before Nov. 1 of each year. The bill would go into effect July 1 if signed into law.
The Senate Local Government Committee amended the bill to change language stating the council should approve the commission’s budget to nonbinding review of the budget.
At the Local Government Committee, Dernulc testified that the commission hadn’t done anything wrong. Dernulc said he was the commission’s president and hired the current executive director.
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“The purpose of this bill is just to give some type of oversight to an elected body for review,” Dernulc said. “This will also keep some transparency for the commission.”
The bill was then reassigned to the Senate Committee on Tax and Fiscal Policy, which approved the bill Tuesday.
Niemeyer said Tuesday the bill would require the commission to present the council with its budget similar to the way the library, township trustees and other organizations do.
“I think it’s a good transparency bill because it’s on the taxpayer’s bill. Six of the councilmen are (representing) part of the Little Cal Basin so they should be able to look at that budget every year and look at the expenditures,” Niemeyer said.
The bill passed 13-0 out of committee Tuesday. It will now move to the whole Senate for consideration.
Dan Repay, the executive director of the Little Calumet River Basin Development Commission, said Dernulc has talked to the commission about the bill.
“We understand that people want to see what’s going on and we don’t have an issue with doing that,” Repay said of submitting reports and a budget to the council.
The Little Calumet River Basin Development Commission manages a flood control project and works with the communities along the watershed to make sure the water stays and moves where it is supposed to, Repay said.
The commission has been transparent, Repay said, with meeting videos posted to its website. Repay said the commission will track the bill as it moves through the legislature, and if it becomes law, the commission will follow it.
“We’re watching it, but we’re still remaining focused on what we have to do here. It’s not going to change what we do on a daily basis,” Repay said.