From the Chicago Sun-Times

Understaffed ethics board's claims mount

October 19, 2004
BY DAVE MCKINNEY Sun-Times Springfield Bureau
SPRINGFIELD -- Ethics complaints under Gov. Blagojevich's administration and throughout Illinois' university system have rolled in at a rate of about three per day since May of last year, but none of those cases has been acted upon by a state ethics panel still lacking members.
Through the end of September, the state's executive inspector general has received close to 1,700 complaints. Most have been dismissed or referred elsewhere for action, but more than 600 remain in limbo, figures obtained Monday by the Chicago Sun-Times show.
"My initial read is the system probably is working if people are doing this," said Bradley Tusk, a top aide to Gov. Blagojevich, who helped institute a major overhaul of ethics laws. "It would be a waste of time if we did this whole system and no one took advantage."
Secrecy rules in the law make it impossible to assess the nature of the complaints or, for the most part, how they are being investigated by Executive Inspector General Z. Scott, a Blagojevich appointee.
Scott polices misconduct in agencies under the governor and the state's public universities. Complaints that she determines violate ethical standards get passed along to an executive ethics commission to adjudicate.
Of the 1,687 complaints her office has gotten between May 2003 and last month, 452 complaints were turned away and 599 cases pertained to other governmental units outside her office's jurisdiction, Scott said Monday.
None of the remaining 636 complaints has been sent to the ethics commission, according to sources and a report filed by Scott. The panel is chaired by novelist Scott Turow but still lacks two members to be appointed by Blagojevich.
Watchdog emphasizes urgency

The Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, a nonpartisan government watchdog, and Republicans said the large number of unresolved complaints underscores the urgent need for Blagojevich to fill the remaining two slots.
"This points to the fact the ethics commission isn't poised and ready to hear these cases," said Sen. Peter Roskam (R-Wheaton), a critic of Blagojevich who has pressed the governor on his inability to stock the ethics board. "You've got to ask whether the administration is pressuring the inspector general not to advance these to the ethics commission in light of the fact the commission isn't fully operating."
The administration reportedly has vetted its two last choices and will soon announce them, perhaps by this week. The ethics panel has met twice since July with seven members, enough to take action should the need have arisen.
Tusk called Roskam's suggestion of pressuring Scott "an outrageous lie," and explained the 10-month delay in filling the ethics commission as the result of a deliberative screening process.
"There are tons of boards and commissions missing people. It's because there are so many boards," he said. "Putting the wrong people on the ethics commission is worse than not having enough."