Ethics Reform
Beginning in 1998, the Justice Department's "Operation Safe Road" investigation revealed an embarrassing laundry list of misdeeds by dozens of employees of the Office of the Illinois Secretary of State. The misconduct included schemes in which state workers sold raffle tickets to raise campaign cash for their boss George Ryan. Others engaged in campaign duties on behalf of Ryan during work hours. Perhaps the most egregious conduct involved the sale of commercial drivers' licenses to unqualified applicants. Investigators believe at least $170,000 was channeled into Ryan's campaign coffers through illegal sales of CDLs.
By the end of the investigation in 2006, the government had prosecuted 79 defendants and won convictions against 75. The list of defendants included Ryan and several senior Secretary of State administrators. Most of the defendants, however, were frontline state public servants.
While the vast majority of state employees are honorable public servants, Operation Safe Road demonstrated that even our most sophisticated public institutions and our most experienced personnel are not invulnerable to systematic corruption. The Justice Department, the Illinois Attorney General and state's attorneys in each county have done their best to prosecute incidents of public corruption, but law enforcement cannot be the lone barrier between misconduct and the public's right to honest and ethical government. Illinois must maintain vigorous ethical standards to guide and inspire the people entrusted with the operations of the state.
With guidance from former U.S. Senator Paul Simon in 1998, Illinois took the first of several recent steps toward ethics reform with passage of the Gift Ban Act. The Inspector Misconduct Act followed in 2002. Responding to the misconduct uncovered during Ryan's tenure as secretary of state and governor, all six statewide constitutional officers and the General Assembly worked together in 2003 to produce the comprehensive State Employees and Officials Ethics Act.
The ethics act attempted to draw clear lines separating government service and political campaign activities. The law also created standards of conduct and training requirements designed to ensure honest public service from government employees. Specific changes included:
Restricting gifts from lobbyists, state contractors, and others with a special interest in the outcome of government decisions to public officials.
Barring inspectors from soliciting campaign contributions from the businesses or individuals they regulate.
Creating ethics commissions for the executive and legislative branches of government to adjudicate complaints about unethical behavior.
Designating inspectors general to investigate ethics complaints about public employees and official.
Mandating ethics training for all state employees and officials.
While these reforms have brought important improvements to state government, our notions of ethical conduct continually evolve and gaps in previous statutes come to light.
The Illinois General Assembly responded in May 2009 with passage of Senate Bill 54. Among other things, S.B. 54 strengthens the so-called "revolving door" provisions, which are intended to restrict state employees from taking jobs with organizations they regulate. S.B. 54 also permits the release of inspector general investigative reports following a finding of guilt. In addition, the new law creates certain enhancements to the state's ethics training program.
ICPR supports further enhancements to limit opportunities for misconduct. Illinois must impose a "cooling-off period" on state personnel leaving government service. Under such provisions, these departing employees would be barred from lobbying or soliciting business from their former colleagues for a specific period. ICPR also favors standardization and consistency in the state's various ethics training programs. In addition, primary oversight for such programs should be granted to the state's ethics commission.
Click here for a summary of the 2003 State Employees and Officers Ethics Act
Click here for ICPR's statement upon the passage of the 2003 State Employees and Officers Ethics Act.
For more information, visit The Illinois Ethics Reform Project.
