December 2012 - Parks & Recreation - 16

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HOW WE DID IT

Safety Trumps Conﬁdentiality
Persistence leads to success in a three-year legislative journey
BY SUE OMANSON AND SAMEER A LUTHMAN

ACH SUMMER, THOUSANDS OF CHILDREN participate in recreation
at the Naperville (Illinois) Park District, and the district hires approximately 200 teens to staff many of these programs. As a major employer
of youth in Naperville, the district's practice of engaging teens is a win-win for
youth and recreation.

In fall 2009, with the idea of ensuring
the safety of children in its programs,
Naperville Park District Commissioner
Ron Ory voiced his concern that park
districts do not receive information
from criminal background checks of
minors. He observed that the district
could be unknowingly hiring a staff
member who has abused other children. At the time, only schools had access to information concerning juvenile
offenders. Illinois law allows police to
share with Naperville schools conﬁdential information concerning a minor's
arrest or conviction for unlawful use of
a weapon, controlled substance violations, forcible felonies, and other serious
offenses. Naperville Park District legal
counsel Derke Price advised that legislation would be needed to give park districts this same access to information.
The district's Legislative Committee
identiﬁed juvenile background information legislation as one of its top priorities for 2010, hoping for a new law
by year's end. This goal seemed within
reach, even though only a small percentage of bills succeed in the General
Assembly each year.
By February 2010, Representative
Michael Connelly had introduced HB
5146 to address the need for the legislation; it was assigned to the Juvenile
Justice Reform Committee. Naperville
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Parks & Recreation

Park District Commissioner Suzanne
Hart and Attorney Price testiﬁed at the
committee hearing in Springﬁeld, but
all were disappointed to see the bill fail
to pass out of committee. Opponents
challenged the legislation as a threat to
the policies and privacy of the juvenile
justice system.

chamber. The Legislative Committee
learned, however, that due to an arcane parliamentary rule, neither bill
reached the opposite chamber in time
for ﬁnal passage.
Not willing to give up so close to success, commissioners Gerry Heide and
Mike Reilly continued to speak with
legislators about the issue. In February 2012, Sen. Wilhelmi, who planned
to leave the Senate in March, enlisted
Sen. John Mulroe (D) to sponsor the
same bill with a new number (SB 3809);
SB 3809 passed both houses unani-

Keys to success included maintaining good
relationships with legislators, focusing on the
one issue, learning from the opposition, and
seeking bipartisan support.
Throughout the remaining months
of 2010, Commissioner Hart continued
to talk with legislators concerning the
issues and gradually won their support.
As a result of the concerns expressed in
those conversations, Attorney Price tailored the scope of the bill to include only
certain adjudications of delinquency
and added safeguards concerning the
handling of that information.
By January 2011, Senator A.J. Wilhelmi (D) and Representative Darlene
Senger (R) sponsored parallel bills with
the new scope and safeguards. SB 2286
(Wilhelmi) passed the Senate 55-1 on
April 15 and HB 3129 (Senger) passed
the House 86-22 on April 14. With victory in sight, the next step was to reconcile the bills for approval by the opposite

| DECEMBER 2012 | WWW.NRPA.ORG

mously and was signed into law on
June 22, 2012.
Keys to success included maintaining good relationships with legislators,
focusing on the one issue, learning
from the opposition, and seeking bipartisan support. Park district commissioners spoke with legislators, as
elected official to elected official, while
staff and legal counsel supported the
effort through analysis, research, and
partnership with IAPD.
Sue Omanson is Community
Development Manager for Naperville Park
District (somanson@napervilleparks.org),
Sameera Luthman is Director of
Marketing and Communications for
Naperville Park District (sluthman@
napervilleparks.org).

December 2012 - Parks & Recreation

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