Code of Ordinances

Because it rec­og­nizes the impor­tance of good health and good phys­i­cal con­di­tion to the per­for­mance of duties and to the avoid­ance of injury by deputy per­son­nel, the Mer­it Com­mis­sion encour­ages all deputy per­son­nel to main­tain good phys­i­cal con­di­tion by a reg­i­men of exer­cise and/or oth­er means.

(Gen­er­al­ly See 55 ILCS 5/3–8001 to 5/3–8017)

If an emer­gency exists, the Sher­iff may make tem­po­rary appoint­ments not to exceed six­ty (60) days when nec­es­sary and if funds are avail­able, with such actions to be report­ed to the Mer­it Com­mis­sion and the appoint­ment to be made when prac­ti­ca­ble from lists of eli­gi­bles main­tained by the Mer­it Commission.

In cas­es of finan­cial emer­gen­cies in the Sheriff’s Depart­ment, the Sher­iff shall lay off deputies to rec­ti­fy such emer­gency after tak­ing into account employ­ee com­pe­tence and senior­i­ty, sub­ject to appeal to the Mer­it Com­mis­sion.  The Mer­it Com­mis­sion shall make final and bind­ing deci­sions in cas­es of appeals.

Deputy per­son­nel who feel that they have a griev­ance per­tain­ing to work assign­ments, unfair treat­ment by supe­ri­or offi­cers, or oth­er cause, may file a writ­ten report or com­plaint of their griev­ance with the Sher­iff who will set­tle such griev­ances sub­ject to review by the Mer­it Commission.

Should a for­mer mem­ber desire to again affil­i­ate him­self under the mer­it sys­tem with the Sheriff’s Depart­ment, he must once again meet the basic require­ments for appoint­ment to the Sheriff’s Depart­ment and suc­cess­ful­ly com­plete the screen­ing process in com­pe­ti­tion with all oth­er appli­cants.  Any tenured per­son­nel appoint­ed to fill an unex­pired term of Sher­iff shall retain his tenured posi­tion upon com­ple­tion of his appointive term.

Any mem­ber cov­ered by the mer­it sys­tem who resigns from the Sheriff’s Depart­ment on account of charges against him will not be reinstated.

Leaves of absence with­out pay may be grant­ed by the Sher­iff with con­sent of the Mer­it Com­mis­sion fol­low­ing appli­ca­tion in writ­ing by deputy per­son­nel for any of the fol­low­ing reasons:

(A) Extend­ed ill­ness of deputy per­son­nel or some per­son in their imme­di­ate fam­i­ly for whom they must care.

(B) Extend­ed mil­i­tary or naval ser­vice of the Unit­ed States dur­ing a peri­od of nation­al emergency.

(C) Train­ing in an insti­tu­tion of high­er learning.

(D) Oth­er caus­es accept­able to the Sher­iff with con­sent of the Commission.

All leaves of absence, except for mil­i­tary ser­vice, shall be for a peri­od of one (1) year or less.  Leaves of absence with­out pay shall not be grant­ed to deputy per­son­nel in order for them to trans­fer to some gain­ful occu­pa­tion of their choice and still retain coun­ty ser­vice as a form of “insur­ance” in the event the new job proves unsat­is­fac­to­ry.  When leave of absence with­out pay is grant­ed because of ill­ness, all sick leave must be exhaust­ed before leave begins.  Deputy per­son­nel who have or have on leave of absence accept­ed a posi­tion oth­er than that for which the leave was grant­ed, with­out pri­or approval of the Sher­iff with con­sent of the Com­mis­sion, shall be deemed to have resigned as a Union Coun­ty Deputy Sher­iff.  Deputy per­son­nel who fail to return to their posi­tion on or before the expi­ra­tion date of their leave shall be deemed to have resigned.  The Sher­iff and the Com­mis­sion are the sole judges of the appro­pri­ate­ness of the rea­sons and pur­pos­es for which the leave is request­ed and they alone shall estab­lish the con­di­tions for approval of such a request.

A Deputy Sher­iff shall be sub­ject to dis­charge who shall par­tic­i­pate in, or encour­age oth­ers to par­tic­i­pate in, any strike or work stop­page grow­ing out of any dis­pute of what­ev­er nature rel­a­tive to wages, terms or con­di­tions of employment.

(A) A Deputy Sher­iff may be dis­charged for par­tic­i­pa­tion while on duty dur­ing reg­u­lar or spe­cial work­ing hours in any of the fol­low­ing acts:

1. Par­tic­i­pat­ing in the orga­ni­za­tion of any polit­i­cal meeting;
2. Solic­it­ing mon­ey from any per­son for any polit­i­cal purpose;
3. Sell­ing or dis­trib­ut­ing tick­ets for polit­i­cal meetings;
4. Assist­ing at the polls in behalf of any par­ty or par­­­ty-des­ig­­­nat­ed can­di­date on any elec­tion day;
5. Using or threat­en­ing to use the influ­ence or author­i­ty of his posi­tion to coerce or to per­suade any per­son to fol­low any course of polit­i­cal action;
6. Ini­ti­at­ing or cir­cu­lat­ing any peti­tions on behalf of a can­di­date or in sup­port of a polit­i­cal issue;
7. Mak­ing con­tri­bu­tions of mon­ey in behalf of any can­di­date for office or any pub­lic or polit­i­cal issue;
8. Dis­trib­ut­ing cam­paign lit­er­a­ture or mate­r­i­al in behalf of any candidate.

(B) A Deputy Sher­iff may, while off duty, while not in uni­form, and on a vol­un­tary basis, par­tic­i­pate in any of the fol­low­ing activities:

1. Vote as he chooses;
2. Express his indi­vid­ual opin­ion on polit­i­cal sub­jects and candidates;
3. Engage in par­ti­san polit­i­cal man­age­ment or campaigning;
4. Make speech­es, write on behalf of a can­di­date or solic­it vot­ers to sup­port or oppose a candidate;
5. Attend a polit­i­cal meet­ing or ral­ly, includ­ing com­mit­tee meet­ings of polit­i­cal orga­ni­za­tions, and serve on a com­mit­tee which orga­nizes or directs activ­i­ties at a par­ti­san cam­paign meet­ing or rally;
6. Sign nom­i­nat­ing peti­tions for a can­di­date in a par­ti­san elec­tion for pub­lic office and orig­i­nate or cir­cu­late such petitions;
7. Dri­ve vot­ers to the polls;
8. Make finan­cial con­tri­bu­tions to a polit­i­cal par­ty or organization;
9. Solic­it and col­lect vol­un­tary polit­i­cal contributions.

The use of coun­­­ty-owned vehi­cles, equip­ment or sup­plies in con­nec­tion with such per­mit­ted activ­i­ties is for­bid­den and will con­sti­tute grounds for discharge.

(C) A Deputy Sher­iff may be appoint­ed a Deputy Sher­iff while hold­ing a pub­lic office or may accept appoint­ment to fill a vacan­cy in an elec­tive office while con­cur­rent­ly serv­ing as a Deputy Sher­iff where no con­flict of inter­est exists.

(D) No Deputy Sher­iff shall be required, as a con­di­tion of his employ­ment or tenure, to work or make con­tri­bu­tions in behalf of any polit­i­cal par­ty or can­di­date for polit­i­cal office.

No mem­ber of the Sheriff’s Depart­ment who is under the juris­dic­tion of the Mer­it Com­mis­sion shall:

(A) Vio­late any law or statute of the­Unit­ed State or this State.

(B) Vio­late any coun­ty or munic­i­pal ordinance.

(C) Vio­late any gen­er­al orders, spe­cial orders, or rules and reg­u­la­tions of the Sheriff’s Depart­ment which are not incon­sis­tent with these Rules, Reg­u­la­tions and Procedures.

(D) Fail to obey a law­ful order.

(E) Be insub­or­di­nate to or show dis­re­spect for a supe­ri­or officer.

(F) Mis­treat a subordinate.

(G) Neglect to per­form his duties effi­cient­ly and effectively.

(H) Engage in any con­duct unbe­com­ing to a mem­ber of the Depart­ment or which tends to reflect dis­cred­it upon the Department.

(I) Leave his assign­ment with­out per­mis­sion or with­out being prop­er­ly relieved, or be absent from duty with­out leave or appro­pri­ate permission.

(J)  Will­ful­ly destroy or dam­age any Depart­ment prop­er­ty or use such prop­er­ty with­out authority.

(K) Receive, solic­it or attempt to solic­it mon­ey or any­thing of val­ue for per­form­ing or fail­ing to per­form any assigned duty.

(L) Dis­sem­i­nate or release infor­ma­tion con­cern­ing essen­tial police mat­ters except where prop­er­ly autho­rized to do so.

Any mem­ber of the Sheriff’s Depart­ment who shall be found guilty of vio­lat­ing any of the rules and reg­u­la­tions here­inafter set forth shall be sub­ject to dis­ci­pli­nary action by the Sher­iff and the Mer­it Commission.

(A) Com­plaints.  In all cas­es where the Sher­iff desires a sub­or­di­nate to be dis­ci­plined beyond the mea­sures pre­scribed, he shall file with the Com­mis­sion in writ­ing a com­plaint in quin­tu­pli­cate, set­ting forth a plain and con­cise state­ment of the facts upon which the com­plaint is based and the spe­cif­ic sec­tion or sec­tions of these Rules, Reg­u­la­tions and Pro­ce­dures which the accused mem­ber is charged with violating.

(B) Hear­ings on Charges.  All hear­ings shall fol­low these procedures:

1. All hear­ings shall be public;
2. At the time and place of hear­ing, the Sher­iff and the accused may be rep­re­sent­ed by coun­sel if either so desires;
3. All pro­ceed­ings before the Com­mis­sion dur­ing the hear­ing shall be record­ed by a reporter employed by the Commission;
4. The record of all hear­ings before the Com­mis­sion shall be tran­scribed by the reporter and placed in the subject’s Mer­it Board file;
5. All wit­ness­es shall be sworn by the Com­mis­sion Chair­man or anoth­er mem­ber of the Com­mis­sion pri­or to testifying;
6. The Com­mis­sion shall first hear the wit­ness­es sub­stan­ti­at­ing the charges which have been made.  There­after, the accused may present and exam­ine those wit­ness­es whom he 
   desires the Com­mis­sion to hear.  All par­ties shall have the right to exam­ine and recall witnesses;
7. The Com­mis­sion may hear and con­sid­er all rel­e­vant evi­dence and shall not be bound by the strict rules on admis­si­bil­i­ty of evi­dence applic­a­ble in Courts of law.

(C) Deci­sion on Charges.  After the Com­mis­sion shall have made its find­ings and deter­mined its order, it shall mail to the accused mem­ber by reg­is­tered or cer­ti­fied mail, return receipt request­ed, a notice of the find­ing and order of the Com­mis­sion.  A copy of the notice shall be mailed to the Sheriff.

(D) Sub­poe­na.  The Sher­iff and the accused sub­or­di­nate, or their respec­tive coun­sel, may at any time before the hear­ing, apply to the Com­mis­sion for sub­poe­na to be direct­ed to spe­cif­ic per­sons requir­ing them to pro­duce at the hear­ing books, papers, records, and such oth­er things as may be rel­e­vant at the hear­ing.  The appli­ca­tion shall spec­i­fy the names and address­es of the per­sons to be sub­poe­naed and the doc­u­ments and things which they are required to pro­duce.  The request­ed sub­poe­na will be issued.  Sub­poe­na issued by the Com­mis­sion shall be served by the Sheriff’s Department.

(E) Fil­ing of Papers.  For the pur­pose of these Rules, Reg­u­la­tions and Pro­ce­dures, the fil­ing date of any paper shall be the date it was received by the Com­mis­sion office.

(F) Form of Papers.

1. All papers filed in any pro­ceed­ing shall be type­writ­ten or print­ed and shall be on one side of the paper only.
2. If type­writ­ten, the lines shall be dou­ble spaced, except that long quo­ta­tions shall be a sin­gle spaced and indented.
3. All papers shall be eight and one-half (8 ½) inch­es wide and eleven (11) inch­es long and shall have inside mar­gins of not less than one (1) inch.
4. The orig­i­nal of all papers filed shall be signed in ink by the par­ty fil­ing the paper or by his counsel.
5. If papers are filed by an attor­ney, the attorney’s name, address, and tele­phone num­ber shall appear thereon.

(G) Con­tin­u­ance of Hear­ing.  No hear­ing shall be con­tin­ued at the request of any of the par­ties there­to or their coun­sel, unless such request is either made oral­ly to the Chair­man of the Com­mis­sion or received in writ­ing at the Mer­it Com­mis­sion office in Jones­boro, Illi­nois, at least five (5) days before the date for which the hear­ing is scheduled.

(A) By the Sher­iff.  The Sher­iff, with­out the fil­ing of charges with the Com­mis­sion, may take the fol­low­ing dis­ci­pli­nary mea­sures for infrac­tions of these Rules, Reg­u­la­tions and Procedures:

1. Rep­ri­mand a sub­or­di­nate orally;
2. Rep­ri­mand a sub­or­di­nate in writ­ing and place a copy in his Mer­it Com­mis­sion file;
3. Assign to a sub­or­di­nate extra duty in his reg­u­lar assign­ment or oth­er­wise, with or with­out pay, not to exceed eight (8) hours in any one (1) week or forty (40) hours in any three (3) month peri­od;
4. Sus­pend a sub­or­di­nate for any rea­son­able peri­od of time not to exceed a total of thir­ty (30) days with­in a twelve (12) month peri­od.  The Sher­iff may sus­pend any sub­or­di­nate for a peri­od in addi­tion to the above lim­it­ed thir­ty (30) days only after charges against that mem­ber have been filed with the Com­mis­sion on those charges.

All oth­er dis­ci­pli­nary mea­sures by the Sher­iff will become a part of the deputy’s Mer­it Com­mis­sion file.  No oth­er dis­ci­pli­nary mea­sures shall be tak­en by the Sher­iff except by the Order of the Commission.

(B) If the Com­mis­sion, after a hear­ing upon charges, shall make a find­ing of guilty, it may order any of the fol­low­ing dis­ci­pli­nary mea­sures which in the opin­ion of the Com­mis­sion the offense merits:

1. Sus­pen­sion for a peri­od not to exceed a total of one hun­dred eighty (180) days in any twelve (12) month period;
2. Reduc­tion in rank;
3. Dis­charge and removal from the Sheriff’s Department.

(C) If the Com­mis­sion, after a hear­ing upon charges, shall make a find­ing of not guilty, it shall require the Sheriff’s Depart­ment to:

1. Restore the accused to duty forth­with at the rank and posi­tion from which he was suspended;
2. Make pro­vi­sion to con­tin­ue the accused’s senior­i­ty as if it had nev­er been interrupted;
3. Assure that the accused is prop­er­ly reim­bursed for any loss of salary.  The dif­fer­ence between any monies earned at oth­er employ­ment while under sus­pen­sion and the accused’s reg­u­lar salary shall pro­vide the basis for such reim­burse­ment.  The Com­mis­sion also here­by pro­hibits the Sher­iff from using his own pow­er of dis­ci­pline in such a man­ner as to pun­ish a man who has been found not guilty of charges by the Commission.

Lists of qual­i­fied shall be pre­pared and promi­nent­ly post­ed at the com­ple­tion of each pro­mo­tion­al screen­ing by the Com­mis­sion.  These lists shall group the qual­i­fied per­sons.  Such lists shall remain in force for two (2) years or until exhaust­ed, whichev­er is shorter.

After suc­cess­ful­ly com­plet­ing the above pro­mo­tion­al pro­ce­dure, the employ­ee shall be cer­ti­fied as tenured at the appro­pri­ate posi­tion and rank by the Commission.

To be eli­gi­ble for pro­mo­tion to a high­er posi­tion, a candidate:

(A) Must have served suc­cess­ful­ly as a Deputy Sher­iff for a peri­od of not less than one (1) year.

(B) At the time of exam­i­na­tion for pro­mo­tion, must not be in any of the fol­low­ing categories:

1. under sus­pen­sion;
2. on leave of absence, except for mil­i­tary ser­vice; or
3. on inac­tive duty due to disability.

(C) Must pos­sess above aver­age per­for­mance eval­u­a­tions for the pre­vi­ous year.

(D) Must be found to be in accept­able phys­i­cal con­di­tion after a thor­ough med­ical exam­i­na­tion, which exam­i­na­tion shall be paid for by the County.

After meet­ing these min­i­mal stan­dards, the candidate:

1. Must file a for­mal appli­ca­tion with the Commission;
2. Take and suc­cess­ful­ly pass any writ­ten, oral, or phys­i­cal pro­mo­tion­al exam­i­na­tion for the appro­pri­ate rank and posi­tion offered by the Commission;
3. Be adjudged to be qual­i­fied and placed upon a list of qual­i­fied appli­cants by the Commission;
4. Be select­ed from the qual­i­fied list and appoint­ed to the appro­pri­ate posi­tion and rank by the Sher­iff when a vacan­cy or vacan­cies exist;
5. Serve suc­cess­ful­ly a pro­ba­tion­ary peri­od of one (1) year dur­ing which time he is sub­ject to be returned to his tenured rank by the Sher­iff after writ­ten noti­fi­ca­tion of cause is filed with the Commission.

Deputy Sher­iffs who work at least thir­­­ty-five (35) hours per week on a reg­u­lar basis shall be con­sid­ered full time employ­ees under the Union Coun­ty Code cre­at­ing the Mer­it Commission.

All present­ly employed Deputy Sher­iffs shall have full sta­tus under the Union Coun­ty Code cre­at­ing the Mer­it Com­mis­sion, as amend­ed, who have suc­cess­ful­ly attend­ed an approved course of instruc­tion in law enforce­ment duties, or do so with­in twelve (12) months of the effec­tive date of said Code or with­in that peri­od pass a qual­i­fy­ing exam­i­na­tion admin­is­tered by the Mer­it Com­mis­sion.  The approved course of instruc­tion is the basic police train­ing course cer­ti­fied by the Illi­nois Local Gov­ern­men­tal Law Enforce­ment Offi­cers’ Train­ing Board.

The respon­si­bil­i­ties of the Mer­it Com­mis­sion include:

(A) Prepar­ing and post­ing promi­nent­ly a list of all qual­i­fied can­di­dates at the com­ple­tion of each entry screen­ing process.  These lists will be main­tained for two (2) yearsor until the list is exhaust­ed, whichev­er comes first.  Tests will be held as may be nec­es­sary with a qual­i­fied can­di­date able to retain his or her sta­tus on said qual­i­fied list by advis­ing the Mer­it Com­mis­sion of his or her intent to do so.

(B) Noti­fy­ing all qual­i­fied can­di­dates of their accept­abil­i­ty and that they are being placed on the qual­i­fied list.

(C) With­in fif­teen (15) days, any qual­i­fied can­di­date who declines to accept an appoint­ment will be replaced for said appoint­ment by anoth­er qual­i­fied can­di­date.  A refusal to accept an appoint­ment does not con­sti­tute grounds for removal from the qual­i­fied list.

In con­sid­er­ing appli­cants, the Mer­it Commission:

(A) May give pref­er­ence to per­sons who have hon­or­ably served in the mil­i­tary or naval ser­vices of the­Unit­ed States.

(B) May cer­ti­fy for appoint­ment as a Deputy Sher­iff more per­sons than there are vacan­cies to be filled at the time of such cer­ti­fi­ca­tion.  In such cas­es, the Sher­iff may ini­tial­ly select from this group those to fill the exist­ing vacan­cies and shall, from date of cer­ti­fi­ca­tion, as addi­tion­al vacan­cies occur, appoint oth­ers from the remain­ing group;

(C) Is autho­rized to waive one or more of the require­ments set forth here­in for appli­cants who have served in and been hon­or­ably dis­charged from any branch of the mil­i­tary ser­vice, or who have served with anoth­er Sheriff’s Depart­ment, a police depart­ment, or any oth­er law enforce­ment agency;

(D) Shall not con­sid­er an applicant’s polit­i­cal affil­i­a­tion, race, sex, or religion.

Appli­cants for the appoint­ment as Deputy Sher­iff to the Sheriff’s Depart­ment, in addi­tion to meet­ing stan­dards pre­scribed by the Illi­nois Com­piled Statutes con­cern­ing Deputy Sher­iff, must:

(A) Be at least twen­­­ty-one (21) years of age at the time the person’s appli­ca­tion is received by the Com­mis­sion.  A birth cer­tifi­cate shall be fur­nished, if request­ed by the Com­mis­sion.  The Com­mis­sion takes the posi­tion that the phys­i­cal dex­ter­i­ty required of a Deputy Sher­iff is rea­son­ably relat­ed to age and will most like­ly be pos­sessed by an employ­ee in that age range, thus result­ing in bet­ter job per­for­mance and few­er injuries to Deputy Sheriffs;

(B) Be a high school grad­u­ate or have a cer­tifi­cate of equivalency;

(C) Be no less than 5’6” and no more than 6’6” in height if a male, and no less than 5’1” and no more than 5’11” in height if a female.

(D) Have weight in pro­por­tion­ate to height;

(E) Pos­sess a valid Illi­nois Driver’s License at the time of writ­ten application;

(F) Pass a phys­i­cal exam­i­na­tion by a physi­cian accept­able to the Mer­it Com­mis­sion, and, in addition:

1. Eye test, 20/30 with cor­rec­tive lenses;
2. Meet such oth­er men­tal, med­ical and phys­i­cal stan­dards as may be pre­scribed from time to time by the Com­mis­sion.  Any phys­i­cal exam­i­na­tion shall be paid for by the applicant.

(G) Be accept­able to the Com­mis­sion fol­low­ing an inves­ti­ga­tion of back­ground, rep­u­ta­tion and character;

(H) Be accept­able to the Com­mis­sion after oral interview;

(I) Be adjudged as qual­i­fied by the Com­mis­sion and placed on a list of qual­i­fied applicants;

(J) Be appoint­ed from the qual­i­fied list, by the Sher­iff when a vacan­cy or vacan­cies exist;

(K) Serve suc­cess­ful­ly a one (1) year pro­ba­tion­ary peri­od, dur­ing which time he is sub­ject to removal by the Sher­iff, at will.  The Com­mis­sion shall be noti­fied by the Sher­iff in writ­ing of the cause or caus­es of removal;

(L) Be a res­i­dent of the State of Illi­nois for one (1) year, and the Coun­ty of Union for thir­ty (30) days; proof of res­i­den­cy is required;

(M) Fur­nish a copy of mil­i­tary ser­vice dis­charge, draft sta­tus and/or lot­tery num­ber.  If nec­es­sary, sign a release for any infor­ma­tion the Com­mis­sion may request from applicant’s mil­i­tary file;

(N) Pass a pre-employ­­­ment poly­graph test, if requested;

(O) Agree to attend an approved course or cours­es for law enforce­ment offi­cers, as may be required by statute or by the Sher­iff, and grad­u­ate from such course or courses.

The rank of Deputy Sher­iff is the sole point of entry into the Depart­men­tal Mer­it System.

The ranks of Cap­tain, Lieu­tenant and Sergeant are con­sid­ered posi­tions rather than assign­ments and per­sons meet­ing the require­ments of the qual­i­fi­ca­tions and appoint­ment pro­ce­dures stat­ed else­where in these Rules, Reg­u­la­tions and Pro­ce­dures can attain tenure in these posi­tions.  The Sher­iff, if appoint­ed to an unex­pired term from the ranks of tenured per­son­nel, reverts back to his tenured posi­tion and rank at the end of his term.

For the pur­pos­es of the admin­is­tra­tion and oper­a­tion of the Mer­it Sys­tem of the Union Coun­ty Sheriff’s Depart­ment, the ranks in the Sheriff’s Depart­ment shall be:

Deputy Sher­iff (Cap­tain)

Deputy Sher­iff (Lieu­tenant)

Deputy Sher­iff (Sergeant)

Deputy Sher­iff

A Deputy under this Arti­cle is defined as such Com­mis­sioned Union Coun­ty paid Deputy Sher­iffs who are engaged in patrol, law enforce­ment, and crim­i­nal inves­ti­ga­tion duties and respon­si­bil­i­ties of the Union Coun­ty Sheriff’s Office.  (Ord. No. 12–8‑80)

The Union Coun­ty Board of Com­mis­sion­ers here­by pro­vides for all Union Coun­ty paid deputies, oth­er than spe­cial deputies, employed on a full-time basis in the office of the Sher­iff to be appoint­ed, pro­mot­ed, dis­ci­plined and dis­charged pur­suant to rec­og­nized mer­it prin­ci­ples of pub­lic employ­ment.  (Ord. No. 01–19–81).

At the request of the Sher­iff or at its own dis­cre­tion, the Com­mis­sion may inspect and inves­ti­gate those phas­es of the Sheriff’s Office per­son­nel man­age­ment pro­gram which are with­in its purview.  The Com­mis­sion may report on its find­ings to the Union Coun­ty Board of Commissioners.

The Com­mis­sion shall:

(A) Main­tain such per­son­nel records and files as are nec­es­sary to exe­cute its respon­si­bil­i­ties.  These records and files shall be con­fi­den­tial, except that any offi­cer shall be per­mit­ted, on request, to exam­ine his grad­ed writ­ten exam­i­na­tions and effi­cien­cy reports, and except that, where prac­ti­cal, an unsuc­cess­ful appli­cant shall be informed of the rea­son for his rejec­tion upon writ­ten request for such information.

(B) Keep and main­tain the min­utes of all meet­ings and report the deci­sions ren­dered to appro­pri­ate parties.

(C) Care­ful­ly com­pile and main­tain a tran­script of all dis­ci­pli­nary proceedings.

(D) Keep and main­tain all oth­er records and files nec­es­sary for the prop­er admin­is­tra­tion and oper­a­tion of the Commission’s busi­ness, includ­ing any infor­ma­tion required for com­pli­ance with the requests of the Coun­ty Board of Com­mis­sion­ers for reports of activity.

When­ev­er changes in the Rules, Reg­u­la­tions and Pro­ce­dures of the Com­mis­sion are to be con­sid­ered, all three (3) mem­bers must be in atten­dance.  The Com­mis­sion may revise or amend these Rules and Reg­u­la­tions after the Sher­iff and a rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the Mer­it Deputies have been noti­fied of the pro­posed changes and they have been afford­ed an oppor­tu­ni­ty to com­ment for­mal­ly on such changes.  How­ev­er, a unan­i­mous vote of all three (3) com­mis­sion mem­bers shall be required to revise the Rules, Reg­u­la­tions and Pro­ce­dures of the Commission.

On all mat­ters brought before the Com­mis­sion, the con­cur­rence of at least two (2) mem­bers of the Com­mis­sion shall be nec­es­sary for a deci­sion, and the action of such a major­i­ty shall be the act of the Commission.

At meet­ings, two (2) mem­bers of the Com­mis­sion shall con­sti­tute a quo­rum to con­duct the busi­ness of the Commission.

Oth­er meet­ings of the Com­mis­sion shall be held on call by the Chair­man, or Sher­iff, or upon the call of two (2) mem­bers of the Com­mis­sion.  The Chair­man must noti­fy each of the Com­mis­sion mem­bers, spec­i­fy­ing the time and place of such meet­ings, at least three (3) days pri­or to the meet­ing, except in cas­es of emer­gency and by waiv­er of notice by all mem­bers.  All com­mis­sion meet­ings shall be con­duct­ed under “Robert’s Rules of Order” and the Open Meet­ings Act, as amended.

The Com­mis­sion shall main­tain its office at the Coun­ty Build­ing in Jones­boro, Illi­nois, where its files and records shall be kept.  The Mer­it Com­mis­sion is autho­rized to employ such tech­ni­cal, sec­re­tar­i­al and cler­i­cal assis­tants as may be nec­es­sary to trans­act its busi­ness and to fix their com­pen­sa­tion and reim­burse­ment for expens­es incurred, sub­ject to approval of the Coun­ty Board of Com­mis­sion­ers.  (Ord. No. 12–8‑80).

The offi­cers of the Mer­it Com­mis­sion shall be: Chair­man, Vice-Chair­­­man and Secretary.

(A) All offi­cers shall be elect­ed by a sim­ple major­i­ty vote of the Mer­it Commission.

(B) The term of office of said offi­cers shall be two (2) years or until the term of office as a mem­ber of the Com­mis­sion shall expire, whichev­er peri­od is shorter.

(C) The Chair­man shall pre­side at all meet­ings and shall per­form all duties required of him by these Rules and Regulations.

(D) The Vice-Chair­­­man shall pre­side at meet­ings in the absence or dis­abil­i­ty of the Chairman.

(E) The Sec­re­tary shall keep the min­utes and records of the Commission.

If a vacan­cy occurs in the office of a com­mis­sion­er, the Sher­iff, with the approval of a major­i­ty of the mem­bers of the Coun­ty Board, shall appoint a suit­able per­son to serve the unex­pired por­tion of that commissioner’s term.  If the Sher­iff fails to appoint a per­son to fill the vacan­cy with­in thir­ty (30) days, the Chair­man of the Coun­ty Board shall appoint a per­son to fill the unex­pired por­tion of the term, with the approval of a major­i­ty of the mem­bers of the Coun­ty Board.  (See 55 ILCS 5/3–8003).

The Sher­iff shall appoint three (3) com­mis­sion­ers with the advice and con­sent of the Coun­ty Board.  The term of office shall be six (6) years with one term of office expir­ing every two (2) years.  No more than two (2) com­mis­sion­ers shall be from the same polit­i­cal par­ty.  The mem­bers of the Mer­it Com­mis­sion shall receive Twen­­­ty-Five Dol­lars ($25.00) per diem for com­pen­sa­tion for their ser­vices and shall be reim­bursed for rea­son­able and nec­es­sary expens­es.  (See 55 ILCS 5/8003)

The Union Coun­ty Board does here­by estab­lish the Union Coun­ty Sheriff’s Office Mer­it Com­mis­sion effec­tive Jan­u­ary 1^st, 1981.  (See 55 ILCS 5/3–8002)  (Ord. No. 12–8‑80)