Court Opinion

ID: 9740036
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 20:26:23.280515+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:15.447484
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE DOYLE, dissenting: I respectfully dissent from the majority’s conclusion that the claimant was not a member of the “immediate personal staff” of the State’s Attorney. In doing so, I readily concede that the Act has a broad remedial purpose and that the exemption at issue should be given narrow application. Nevertheless, it is evident that the legislature recognized that individuals occupying certain positions should not be afforded relief under the Act. Just as we are careful to effectuate the broad remedial purpose of the Act, so must we be deliberate in giving meaningful application to those expressly crafted exceptions to that purpose. Section 2 — 101(A)(2)(c) of the Act exempts members of the immediate personal staff of an elected public official. Unfortunately, there is no statutory definition of the phrase “immediate personal staff.” The majority emphasizes the difference between the language of the Act and a similar exemption in title VII wherein the term “personal staff” is used. The opinion characterizes the word “immediate” as a restrictive qualifier and concludes that the word implies a legislative intent to exempt only those employees who “interact directly with the elected official without some intervening layer of supervisors.” I cannot attribute such a narrow, mechanical meaning to the term “immediate.” The question of whether someone is a member of the immediate personal staff cannot and should not be determined by such a limited, although superficially tempting, litmus test. The mere intervention of a supervisor, or lack thereof, will not, in many cases, dietate the true relationship between the claimant and the State’s Attorney, which relationship I believe to be critical in deciding whether to deny certain individuals the protection of the Act. I am also troubled by the implication present in the majority opinion that the office of State’s Attorney is commonly structured in a hierarchical fashion. While that may be true in some more populated counties in our State, by and large, the majority of counties have much smaller and more intimate State’s Attorney’s offices which lack the structure of their larger counterparts. More importantly, there is a broad range of size and organization present in the various State’s Attorney’s offices statewide. In some there are many intermediate supervisors; in some there are a few; and in some there are none. This brings me to my second concern with the approach espoused by the majority. It does not establish a rule that is applicable across the board. Those assistant State’s Attorneys who serve in a small office with no supervisor between them and the State’s Attorney will be excluded from the protection of the Act while assistant State’s Attorneys performing essentially the same functions in larger offices will be able to obtain relief under the Act. I cannot believe that was a result intended by the legislature in creating the exemption at issue here. Furthermore, pursuant to the majority’s holding, we may now be generating a potential field of litigation for the purpose of determining whether someone is a supervisor or subject to supervision in a variety of different organizational settings throughout the various State’s Attorney’s offices. I believe the better approach is to resolve the question in terms of the general relationship of assistant State’s Attorneys to State’s Attorneys as defined by statute and the practical realities of the State’s Attorney’s office. Section 4 — 2003 of the Counties Code provides that assistant State’s Attorneys are “to be named by the State’s attorney of the county, and when so appointed shall take oath of office in like manner as State’s attorneys, and shall be under the supervision of the State’s attorney.” (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1989, ch. 34, par. 4 — 2003.) The legislative purpose in creating the office of assistant State’s Attorney was to provide an official who should have full power to act in the case of the absence or sickness of the State’s Attorney, or in the case of his being otherwise engaged in the discharge of the duties of office, in the same manner and to the same extent that the State’s Attorney could act. (People v. Nahas (1973), 9 Ill. App. 3d 570, 576.) An assistant State’s Attorney is generally clothed with all the powers and privileges of the State’s Attorney, and all acts done by him or her in that capacity must be regarded as if done by the State’s Attorney. People v. Audi (1978), 61 Ill. App. 3d 483, 485; Nahas, 9 Ill. App. 3d at 575-76. Our supreme court has held that an assistant State’s Attorney is not a mere agent to perform a particular act or duty but is an officer for the performance of the general duties of the office of State’s Attorney. (People ex rel. Landers v. Toledo, St. Louis & Western R.R. Co. (1915), 267 Ill. 142, 146.) The position of assistant State’s Attorney is an office and not a mere employment. (People ex rel. Landers, 267 Ill. at 145.) Assistant State’s Attorneys exercise some portion of the sovereign power of the State, and the duties of the position are continuous without regard to the particular person who holds the office. People ex rel. Landers, 267 Ill. at 145-46. I believe this foregoing language properly characterizes the position of assistant State’s Attorney as an integral part of the State’s Attorney’s office and one that occupies a status comparable to the State’s Attorney in many respects. Assistant State’s Attorneys represent the State in criminal and civil matters, exercise discretion in various aspects of a criminal prosecution, maintain contact with the public and work directly with other branches of local government such as law enforcement, the court system and county officials. It is apparent that the position of assistant State’s Attorney, whether in a rural or metropolitan county, is one uniquely tied to the office of State’s Attorney. The State’s Attorney depends upon the assistant State’s Attorneys to carry out under public scrutiny many functions that would otherwise be undertaken by himself or herself. In my view, it is this closely dependent partnership which transcends the usual concept of an employer-employee arrangement and sets the position of assistant State’s Attorney apart from other employees in the State’s Attorney’s office. In light of the nature of the position of assistant State’s Attorney and the unique relationship of that position to the State’s Attorney, I would conclude that an assistant State’s Attorney is a part of the State’s Attorney’s immediate personal staff and thus exempt from the provisions of the Act. Finally, I disagree with the majority’s partial reliance on Federal court decisions construing a similar exemption under title VII. Because the two acts are not the same and, as the majority recognizes, are only “loosely analogous,” I would not primarily be guided by the Federal decisions construing title VII. This is so notwithstanding the fact that of those cases addressing the question all have held that an assistant State’s Attorney is part of the “personal staff” and thus exempt from title VII coverage. See Teneyuca v. Bexar County (5th Cir. 1985), 767 F.2d 148; Ramirez v. San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office (9th Cir. 1981), 639 F.2d 509; Wall v. Coleman (S.D. Ga. 1975), 393 F. Supp. 826. For the foregoing reasons, I would affirm the order of the circuit court granting summary judgment in favor of the State’s Attorney of Lake County.