Aldermen, employees to undergo ethics training
December 14, 2005
BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter

Chicago's 50 aldermen and 35,872 city employees will be required to undergo ethics training every year -- instead of confining classes to 3,800 top managers every four years -- under a crackdown triggered by City Hall corruption scandals.

"If somebody is intent on breaking the law, I don't suspect this is going to change their mind. But this is another piece of the puzzle. There's a lot of questions out there that employees have. This will address some of those questions," said Ald. Marge Laurino (39th), who joined Northwest Side colleague Tom Allen (38th) in co-sponsoring the ethics training ordinance.

Dorothy Eng, executive director of the city's Board of Ethics, said she gets "thousands" of calls from employees who have no idea where to draw the line.

"The huge majority of them -- they just want to do the right thing. And they're looking to find out what the right thing is. Once they're told, I believe they'll do the right thing. This kind of thing heightens awareness on the part of everybody," Eng said.

'A test or a quiz'
Until now, ethics training has been offered once every four years and confined to the city's 3,800 top managers.

The ordinance advanced Tuesday by a joint City Council committee mandates annual ethics training for all 35,872 employees, including aldermen and their staff members.

For the first time, ethics training will be available on the Internet, with employees completing the hour-long course on city computers on city time.

It'll be much like the protocol followed by a motorist who gets a speeding ticket and chooses to take the required course on a home computer rather than show up in person at the class that wipes the violation off his or her record.

The course will be divided into five chapters: conflict-of-interest laws; gifts; employment of relatives; post-employment restrictions; and political activity.

Each chapter will be followed by a series of questions. They do not amount to a "test or a quiz," but you cannot advance until each question is "answered correctly," Eng said.

Suspension possible
Secret passwords assigned to individual employees and test monitors assigned to work sites will help prevent employees who have been known to swipe in and out for each other from completing the ethics course in the name of a co-worker.

Designed by Eng, the course must be completed every year. If it's not, employees face "employment sanctions, including suspension." Those found to have "knowingly falsified . . .compliance" could be fired.

The decision to pick up the pace of ethics training and broaden the training umbrella is a direct response to the Hired Truck, city hiring and minority contracting scandals.

Even so, Laurino is an unlikely co-sponsor.
Last spring, Water Management bagman Roger McMahon admitted that he shook down Hired Truck companies for thousands of dollars in contributions that ended up in the campaign funds of Laurino, Ald. Emma Mitts (37th), Mayor Daley and 11th Ward Democrats.

Laurino responded with a promise to return any "tainted money." Records show she has received $17,875 in campaign contributions from trucking companies in recent years. But Laurino said she did not know McMahon and had no idea whether the contributions he admittedly shook down on orders from former First Deputy Water Commissioner Donald Tomczak ended up in her campaign fund.