Saying the governor has wrongly ensconced himself as a statewide “uber-Park Commissioner,” the Naperville Park District has added its name to the ranks of those heading to the courts to volley a legal challenge at Gov. JB Pritzker’s use of emergency powers in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
On May 19, the park district filed a complaint in DuPage County Circuit Court, accusing Pritzker of overstepping the bounds of his powers and trampling on the local authority of park districts to play their role in addressing the health and recreational needs of their residents and taxpayers amid the pandemic.
“… There is a balance to be struck between the social distancing needed to slow the spread COVID-19 (sic) and the opportunities for recreational activity needed to keep individuals healthy and combat child abuse, domestic violence, depression, substance abuse, and suicide,” the Naperville Park District wrote in its lawsuit.
“There are decisions that need to be made that involve the exercise of discretion and judgment, and the Illinois legislature has determined that Naperville Park District Board of Commissioners has the authority to make them.”
The complaint comes as the governor faces a rising tide of resistance across the state to his exercise of emergency powers and rules entered through a mounting number of executive orders issued since Pritzker first declared in early March that the spread of COVID-19 had created a statewide disaster.
Since late April, grumbling has been replaced by complaints filed in courts throughout the state, from state lawmakers, churches, businesses and others.
Many of the complaints center on concerns the governor’s use of allegedly arbitrary executive orders and rules and guidance issued by the agencies under his control have created a constitutional crisis in addition to the state’s ongoing public health and economic crises.
In particular, many of the complaints accuse Pritzker of wrongly interpreting the Illinois Emergency Act to allow him to continue to use his emergency powers, even though the text of the law appears to limit him solely to a 30-day emergency declaration. They particularly find fault in Pritzker’s so-called stay at home orders, which resulted in the closure of thousands of businesses across the state, and the elimination of a wide-range of common societal activities, which the governor deemed “non-essential.”
Pritzker and Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul have argued this should be read as allowing the governor to extend his emergency powers in 30-day increments for as long as he deems the original emergency that triggered the disaster still exists.
Pritzker’s opponents in court have argued, rather, that the law says what it says, and Pritzker needs to obtain permission from the Illinois General Assembly to continue his use of emergency powers.
While litigation on that question continues in various courts, the Naperville Park District Board of Commissioners voted to demand the courts answer a slightly different question:
Whether the governor’s emergency powers give him the authority to simply ignore units of local government, and deny them the ability to craft local policies and rules they believe best enable their communities to join and win the fight against a pandemic.
The complaint points to language from both the federal Centers for Disease Control and Pritzker’s own COVID-19 executive orders, which the park district said demonstrates a need to strike a balance between the responsibility to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19, and the responsibility to continue to combat other dangerous societal ills. The complaint said these other ills, such as depression, suicide, child abuse, substance abuse and domestic violence, have been on the rise since Pritzker issued his stay at home orders. The complaint said recreational programming and recreational opportunities, such as those offered by park districts, can help stem such societal ills.
The Naperville Park District said its programs and parks can be modified to provide the needed societal balance demanded amid the current pandemic environment. But Pritzker and his administration have denied them that chance.
In his executive orders, “Governor Pritzker does not always respect the limits of his power over units of local government like the Naperville Park District," the park district said.
The complaint notes the Illinois General Assembly, through the law known as the Park District Code, granted park districts with “power over the Park District’s property and operations” and “over the Park District’s recreational programs (e.g. golf, tennis, swimming).”
However, Pritzker has ignored that law in asserting emergency control over all aspects of the Naperville community’s use of its parks and recreational facilities, while all but shutting down the park district’s recreational programming.
“… Without any statutory authority in the (Illinois Emergency Management Agency Act) for doing so, Governor Pritzker has wrongfully displaced units of local government from their essential functions and is preventing them from addressing the specific health concerns of their respective communities,” the park district said.
The Naperville Park District has asked the court to declare the governor’s emergency powers do “not include the power to take jurisdictional control over the properties and programs” of a park district. Further, they specifically ask the court to declare the governor’s executive orders and the resulting guidance from state administrative agencies under the governor’s control have “no application to the properties and programs of the Naperville Park District.”
The park district is represented in the action by attorneys with the firm of Ancel Glink, of Chicago.