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* Hannah Meisel’s Daily Line story is chock full of interesting stuff today, but I want to focus on this part for now…
One major area the Joint Commission on Ethics and Lobbying Reform is studying in the weeks leading up to the deadline for its March 31 report is conflicts of interest — a subject the commission spent nearly five hours on during its Jan. 30 meeting.
[Legislative Inspector General Carol Pope] said the legislative inspector general is put in an awkward position by current state law, which prohibits her from using statements of economic disclosure filed by lawmakers as evidence of wrongdoing that could lead to discipline.
Pope told The Daily Line that “several” investigations of possible conflicts of interests have been hamstrung by seemingly competing responsibilities both to investigate possible wrongdoing and the language of the statute.
“You get to the point where you say to yourself, ‘Okay the taxpayers are paying me, am I going to spend hours, days investigating a conflict of interest?’” Pope said. “Even if there is a conflict and it’s not disclosed because disclosure is not mandated, where’s it going ultimately? I have to think about, ultimately, so I, you know, if I know that even if I make a founded report it’s not going to be published or go anywhere because of the conflicts legislation, it seems not a good use of resources to pursue it.”
* More on this from the Sun-Times editorial board…
Moreover, as the laws are written, the IG has a much broader authority to investigate various types of transgressions than the commission has the authority to do anything about. The commission is restricted to acting on such misconduct as doing political work on state time, promising something of value in exchange for a political contribution, accepting certain positions after state employments ends, sexual harassment and similar violations.
That leaves a world of mischief that the IG might uncover but for which the commission can’t impose penalties, such as fines.
So for example, if the IG gets a tip that a legislator is working for a company that’s going to get a huge financial windfall as a result of a bill the legislator is pushing, the inspector general can check it out and write up a report. But there is no way for the commission to impose a punishment.
And, of course, if the commission isn’t pleased, the report will never see the light of day.
* Meanwhile, the Tribune editorial board apparently thinks the governor can just snap his fingers and make something happen…
Strengthening the legislative inspector general’s authority should not wait until a March 31 deadline Pritzker set for his ethics task force to make recommendations. The legislature reconvenes Feb. 18. Make it priority No. 1, Gov. Pritzker. And then get about making public whatever “founded” allegations involving elected officials are being kept secret. Voters deserve to know. […]
The hearing also exposed the wariness of lawmakers to empower the watchdog, even now when ethics is top-of-mind for voters.
To Porter and other experts who testified, lawmakers tossed out numerous hypothetical questions about what could be considered investigation-worthy. What about political retribution, false claims, personal matters? Would divorces be off limits? Relationships? Financial conflicts? Stocks and investments? What about showing up drunk to work? Really. It came up. As a hypothetical, of course. […]
Pritzker cannot leave this inadequate setup for House and Senate leaders to overhaul on their own. They have proved they won’t do it, or they’ll only hang some window dressing. Pritzker needs to lead on this, and he needs to lead hard.
Elections have consequences and the voters did not elect someone who would wage all-out war with the General Assembly. That guy lost.
posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Feb 10, 20 @ 10:14 am
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Pritzker isn’t powerless here. Agreed he can’t do it by himself, but if he wants to get strong ethics reform done, he should be able to get that done.
Comment by Chicagonk Monday, Feb 10, 20 @ 10:24 am
== Meanwhile, the Tribune editorial board apparently thinks the governor can just snap his fingers and make something happen…==
Yeah, you would think they would be disabused of that notion after their boy Bruce couldn’t make anything happen. But it’s been a long time since the Tribsters have been tethered to a reality-base world.
Comment by Roman Monday, Feb 10, 20 @ 10:27 am
Pritzker could address the Commission and ask: ‘Has anyone discovered ethical behavior yet?”
Comment by Sayitaintso Monday, Feb 10, 20 @ 10:29 am
Well, now that Kristen has been promoted to editorial page editor, we can expect even more wishful thinking.
Comment by Keyrock Monday, Feb 10, 20 @ 10:34 am
==* Meanwhile, the Tribune editorial board apparently thinks the governor can just snap his fingers and make something happen…==
That pesky constitution and branches of government!
Comment by Precinct Captain Monday, Feb 10, 20 @ 10:44 am
How many “Priority number 1’s” has the Trib assigned to Pritzker?
Comment by a drop in Monday, Feb 10, 20 @ 10:55 am
== How many “Priority number 1’s” has the Trib assigned to Pritzker? ==
As a former boss used to say: this is your #1 priority in addition to, not to interfere with, all your other #1 priorities.
Comment by RNUG Monday, Feb 10, 20 @ 11:03 am
If I get a vote, JB’s top 3 priorities should be:
1) graduated income tax
2) fixing DCFS
3) reforming government ethics
And the only reason DCFS is #2 is because the State needs more money in order to fix it.
Comment by RNUG Monday, Feb 10, 20 @ 11:06 am
“As a former boss used to say:” As I’ve always said “If all your priorities are top priority, you have no priorities at all.”
Comment by Skeptic Monday, Feb 10, 20 @ 11:12 am
=Elections have consequences and the voters did not elect someone who would wage all-out war with the General Assembly.=
Well clearly the voters didn’t care about selling newspapers.
Comment by Pundent Monday, Feb 10, 20 @ 11:14 am
After Alden’s done stripping them for parts, the Trib is going to be republished AP, WaPo and NYT stories, a sports section, and Katrina (never forget) croaking on about evil Democrats.
Comment by Moe Berg Monday, Feb 10, 20 @ 11:43 am
The jurisdiction of the Legislative Inspector General is the same as the jurisdiction of the Executive Inspector General, and both the executive ethics commission and legislative ethics commissions have the same jurisdiction. The only main difference between the two is that the LIG has jurisdiction to investigate 177 elected officials, whereas each EIG investigates State staff.
Why is that important? Because most of the staff actually have more rights and ability to die process than legislators going through an investigation of an LIG. Legislators are called before an LIG for anything ranging from a constituent who complained about them to political activities the LIG doesn’t agree with. Even the notion a complaint is member filed against a member leads to scandal and no way to defend yourself.
Comment by System broke Monday, Feb 10, 20 @ 11:46 am
@SystemBroke - Sounds like opportunities for reform. Give LIG more power but charge them with focusing on significant ethics violations and allow Reps to have due process.
Comment by Chicagonk Monday, Feb 10, 20 @ 12:06 pm