The Naperville City Council is in lock-step with municipal staffers on a seven-point list of legislative priorities that could serve as the foundation for lobbying efforts in Springfield in the year ahead.
A number of issues and themes are included in the list, including Freedom of Information Act requests, funding public pensions, and the motor fuel tax.
Details of the 7 legislative priorities for 2026
Marcie Schatz, assistant to the city manager, provided details of the seven identified legislative priorities for the year ahead in a memo to the council. The list includes:
- Fleeing, eluding an officer: The city is seeking higher penalties for such offenses, citing increased cases as the rationale.
- FOIA requests: Updating Illinois’ FOIA laws so body camera footage cannot be used for monetization or entertainment purposes on social media.
- Meeting records: Modernizing the city’s statutorily required publication requirements, in addition to harnessing technology to modernize records retention.
- Motor fuel tax: Naperville has a higher adoption of electric vehicles than the rest of Illinois — a point raised during this fall’s 2026 budget deliberations. City officials are seeking “replacement revenues” for roadway maintenance, since the motor fuel tax — a funding mechanism for such work — is in decline.
- Municipal revenue: The city in the year ahead could weigh in on the state’s Local Government Distributive Fund, which is a revenue source for municipalities to provide dollars for high-priority services beyond property taxes. The city’s position is to increase or, at a minimum, maintain current distributive fund allocations.
- Public pensions: City officials are calling on state lawmakers to clearly outline any cost impacts related to changes within the public pension system.
- Transit trailer bill: This is a call to revise the state’s People Over Parking Act and remove a prohibition concerning minimum parking requirements.
While the city’s outlined list of legislative priorities has traditionally encompassed a disparate array of topics, Schatz said there has been a common thread among each item.
“Consistent with previous years, staff focused on forwarding the city’s legislative priorities and focusing on bills that are (in)consistent with a legislative priority or principle and would have a substantive impact on the municipality,” Schatz wrote. “Most often, this is a position in opposition against bills that usurp municipal authority.”
FOIA, body cam footage legislative priority deliberated on dais
Prior to adopting the full list of legislative priorities for the year ahead at a meeting Tuesday, Dec. 2, a deeper dive into the item pertaining to FOIA requests and body camera footage took place.
Police Chief Jason Arres indicated the item is designed to more clearly specify the department’s release of body camera footage.
“You and I could start a Facebook, Tik Tok, Instagram page, and call ourselves a media company,” Arres said. “That gives us certain entitlements, when we FOIA things, where they can’t be denied.”
Arres said the Naperville Police Department in recent years has been “getting over-inundated” with FOIA requests.
“We’ve needed to raise our records positions by three because of the increase of FOIA percentage we’ve received,” Arres said. “We’re really getting taxed on this now, and we’re not seeing it from traditional media; we’re seeing it from social media pages.”
Arres in his remarks also criticized the social media pages’ monetization of body camera footage by trying to gain clicks for ad revenue on the platforms. He added the legislative item does not address traditional media and news companies.
Councilwoman Mary Gibson, who had questions about the FOIA legislative item, said she was comfortable with voting in the affirmative on all seven items, but did express caution in the city’s position on the FOIA issue.
“I would just say — my notes to staff would be the devil is in the details for this,” Gibson said. “That sounds like a really difficult situation we’re in … but the worrying around monetizing doesn’t restrict individuals’ ability to get access to body camera footage.”
Mayor Scott Wehrli said he believed inclusion of the item on the legislative priorities list would be a good idea for the year ahead.
“This is clearly about exploitation of people who have their worst day, and then people who put this video on the Internet, they get paid for likes and clicks, and exploit somebody who hasn’t even been adjudicated through the system yet,” Wehrli said. “It’s pretty sad to see it happen.”
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