Charlene Holtz has more than 30 years of experience as a local government attorney. As outside general counsel to local government clients, Charlene provides legal assistance in all aspects of their operations including financial planning (appropriations, tax levies, debt financings, investment policies and agreements); real estate and land use matters (acquisitions, sales, exchanges, developer donations, condemnations, annexations, boundary disputes, zoning, easements, licenses, leases and cellular communications facilities site and co-location agreements); capital project implementation (referenda, planning, professional services selection, front-end construction documentation, consultant and contractor agreements, prevailing wage compliance, liens against public funds, resolution of disputes and construction management and close-out); ordinances and regulations and legislative counseling; intergovernmental cooperation and conflict (intergovernmental agreements, joint program implementation and intergovernmental disputes); ethics compliance, contracts for services and equipment, personnel policies, employment contracts and employment actions; grant compliance and constitutional law issues. Charlene also acts as special counsel to park districts on capital development/construction matters.
Charlene has extensive experience in capital project implementation, a topic on which she has presented client workshops and sessions at several conferences. Most recently she was a speaker at the session “Construction Projects: From Funding Through Ribbon Cutting” at the 2009 Illinois Park and Recreation Association (IPRA) and Illinois Association of Park Districts (IAPD) State Conference. Charlene also has extensive experience in the resolution of intergovernmental disputes, including those relating to the application of municipal zoning ordinances to park district land uses, and in the negotiation, drafting and implementation of intergovernmental cooperation agreements to avoid or ameliorate the potential adverse impacts of such disputes. She was a speaker at the 2nd Annual Municipal Practice and Litigation Institute of the Illinois Institute for Continuing Legal Education in October 2007, where she spoke on “Strategies for Navigating Intergovernmental Cooperation.” Charlene has also spoken at the National Recreation and Park Association National Congress, the Illinois Park and Recreation Association (IPRA) and Illinois Association of Park Districts (IAPD) State Conference, the IAPD Annual Legal Symposium, the Park District Risk Management Agency Institute, and various IPRA and IAPD regional workshops. She has presented sessions at the American Park and Recreation Society’s National Legal Institute, Virginia Commonwealth University and the University of Illinois as well as authored a chapter on park district law for the handbook on Special Districts published by the Illinois Institute for Continuing Legal Education, and has lectured on the subject for the Institute. Charlene frequently conducts workshops on matters of general or special interest to the firm’s park district clients and facilitates such workshops for the firm’s clients with guest speakers from federal and state agencies.