The Chicago Board of Ethics met on Wednesday, Aug. 17.
Here are the meeting minutes supplied by the city:
BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT STAFF PRESENT
Stephen W. Beard, Chair
Zaid Abdul-Aleem
Russell F. Carlson
Mary T. Carr
Frances R. Grossman
Steven I. Berlin, Executive Director
Lisa S. Eilers, Deputy Director
Richard J. Superfine, Legal Counsel
Ana Collazo, Attorney Investigator
Edward Primer, Program Director
Paully Casillas, Staff Assistant
BOARD MEMBERS NOT IN ATTENDANCE
Nancy C. Andrade
Dr. Daisy S. Lezama
I. APPROVAL OF MINUTES
The Board VOTED 5-0 (Nancy C. Andrade and Dr. Daisy S. Lezama, absent) to approve the Open
Session Minutes of the July 27, 2016, 2016 meeting.
II. CHAIR’S REPORT
None
III. EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S REPORT
A. Education
Classes and Other Presentations
Since the last Board meeting, 57employees and 1 alderman have attended classes that
were held on August 4, 11 and 15, including one for Committee on Finance employees
and the Chair of the Committee. 123 employees are scheduled to attend classes here
on August 18 and 23, and September 8, 15 and 22.
The Executive Director made a presentation last night, August 16, at Northwestern Law
School, regarding his service for the U.S. State Department in the Republic of Georgia in
June 2012. The program was sponsored by World Chicago.
Staff will conduct a seminar for Senior Staff of the Department of Buildings, on
September 14, at the request of the Commissioner, made in response to an Inspector
General investigation.
Open Session Minutes
August 17, 2016
Page 2
On October 6, the Executive Director will conduct a 90 minute seminar for the Police
Superintendent and all Deputy Superintendents of the Chicago Police Department, at
Police Headquarters.
On-line Training
To date, 21,413 employees and 4 aldermen have completed the 2016 version of the online
mandatory ethics training course, and 120 are in progress. There are currently 31,467 scheduled, but this number will continue to decrease over the rest of 2016.
New Educational Materials
The Board posted two (2) new PowerPoint educational programs on its website, and
the Department of Human Resources is placing the first one in the packets of newly
hired City employees, with a certification that they have completed it. Departmental
and Aldermanic ethics officers are assisting us in having departing employees and
officials complete the second one, which covers the Ordinance’s postemployment/revolving
door restrictions. To date, our records show that 171 have completed the new employee program, and 66 have completed the departing employee program.
B. Advisory Opinions
Since the last Board meeting on July 27, staff has issued 277 informal and no formal
confidential advisory opinions. During this time, the leading categories have been, in
descending order: gifts, travel, campaign financing, post-employment, lobbying, political
activity, and outside board service. The leading City departments from which requesters
came in this period were (in descending order): City Council; Mayor’s Office; Department of
Law; Chicago Police Department; Chicago Public Library; Department of Public Health;
Department of Aviation; and the Office of Inspector General.
C. Website Modifications/Advisory Opinions
Staff has completed the posting (in redacted form, per the Ordinance’s confidentiality
requirements) and indexing on its website every formal written advisory opinion issued by
the Board or issued by the staff and reported to or approved by the Board since the agency’s
inception in 1986. This is a total of 1,004 distinct opinions, covering nearly every topic
under the Ordinance (many covering more than one).
The phase after this will be to publish reports of the investigations conducted by the Board
of alleged violations of the Governmental Ethics Ordinance (not of the former Campaign
Financing Ordinance) between 1987 and 2013 – the investigations themselves are
confidential, but the Board is authorized to (and has in the past) publish summary reports
of its investigations, findings and recommendations. There are approximately 45 of these.
Staff continues to work on the on-line search engine and database, searchable by keyword
for each of these cases, that will include a link to the case’s text, a summary of the holding of
each case, and another column showing the keywords for that case. It is based on the
Open Session Minutes
August 17, 2016
Page 3
programs used by the New York City Conflicts of Interests Board and the Philadelphia Board
of Ethics.
E. Ongoing Investigative Record
We continue to post on the Board’s website an ongoing investigative record showing the
status of every completed investigative report brought to the Board by both the Inspector
General (“IG”) (a total of 2 since July 1, 2013) and the former Office of the Legislative
Inspector General (“LIG”), since January 1, 2012, and the status of all 50 petitions to
commence investigations that were presented to the Board by the former Office of the
Legislative Inspector General. It is updated regularly, consistent with the Ordinance’s
confidentiality provisions.
F. Campaign Financing Matters
Please note that today, staff is requesting that the Board approve and direct staff to file, as
provided by §2-145-380(n-1) of the Ordinance, 2,149 complaints with the Office of the
Inspector General, alleging potential violations of the campaign contribution limitations of
the Article VI of the Ordinance.
Staff is concerned that, since the Board began referring such complaints (now totaling more
than 4,000, including those to be discussed today, from 2013, 2014, and 2015), to both the
Office of the Inspector General and the former Legislative Inspector General (this provision
of the Govermental Ethics Ordinance took effect on September 10, 2014), not one single
completed investigation has ever been returned to the Board for a finding of
probable cause and possible settlement or adjudication. As we have noted, the former
Legislative Inspector claimed in a public statement that various aldermen had violated this
law, immediately prior to that Office being closed (and then again, last month, as the head of
“Project Six”), but in fact no completed investigations have ever been turned into this
agency, so no legally valid findings have ever been made. And, as mentioned above, the
Office of Inspector General has neither referred a completed investigation to this office, nor
commented on the progress or disposition of any campaign financing investigations ever
commenced. There will be more on this in closed session.
As this Board has stated publicly, we have viewed our mandate as one in which we review
records of campaign contributions filed publicly with the Illinois State Board of Elections,
and lobbyists’ activity reports filed with us, to identify all contributors who have
contributed in excess of $1,500 to any single candidate for elected City office (or, more
accurately, to their candidate committees), and refer this raw list of potential violations to
the IG (and previously to the LIG for City Council positions). We interpret §2-156-380(n-1)
of the Ordinance, enacted September 10, 2014, as prohibiting us from culling any
contributors from that list, as that constitutes an investigation, which, by Ordinance, we
cannot undertake. This agency did in fact initiate and conduct these investigations, up until
July 1, 2013, when that authority was transferred to the respective inspectors general.
Whether this enforcement structure continues to be in the City’s best interests will be
discussed further in Executive Session.
Open Session Minutes
August 17, 2016
Page 4
G. Disclosures of Past Violations
July 2013 amendments to the Ordinance provide that, when a person seeks advice from the
Board about past conduct, and discloses to the Board facts leading it to conclude that he or
she committed a past violation of the Ordinance, the Board must determine whether that
violation was minor or non-minor. If it was minor, the Board, by law, sends the person a
confidential letter of admonition. If it was non-minor, then, under current law, the person is
advised that he or she may self-report to the inspector general or, if he or she fails to do so
within two weeks, the Board must make that report. There were no such instances since
the last Board meeting.
Since the time this provision became effective, the Board has advised three (3) aldermen,
one (1) aldermanic staffer, and two (2) department heads or former department heads that
their past conduct violated the Ordinance. In 3 of these 5 cases, one involving an alderman,
the second an aldermanic staffer, and the third a former department head, the Board
concluded that the apparent violations were not minor or technical, and the individuals selfreported
to the respective Inspector General. To date, we have received no reports of
commenced investigations (in the case of the former LIG) or completed investigations (from
either the IG or LIG) of any of these matters. In the other cases, the Board sent confidential
letters of admonition, as required by Ordinance.
H. 2016 Statements of Financial Interests
On March 1, 2016, 3,575 employees and officials were notified via email of their
requirement to file 2016 Statements of Financial Interests. The deadline for these
employees and officials to file was May 31, 2016, at 11:59:59 pm. As of June 1, all but 130
had filed. 79 of these individuals were determined to have violated the Ordinance (they
failed to rebut the finding of probable cause to conclude that they had violated the
Ordinance), and 8 became subject to fines, per the Ordinance. There remain 6 who have not
yet filed, and to date, the Board has collected $1,025 in fines. On July 26, the Board referred
four (4) cases of those who have not paid their fine to the Law Department for collection;
one (1) of those has settled. As required by Ordinance, on June 23, 2016 the names of every
violator was published on the Board’s website, and those who accrued fines were noted as
well.
Departments have reported back on what disciplinary measures they have taken with
respect to each violator.
I. Lobbyists-Regulation and Enforcement
As of today, there are 599 lobbyists registered, and the Board has collected $316,650 in
registration fees. This figure represents about 40% of our operating budget.
Quarterly activity reports were due from lobbyists on July 20, 2016. Reminder notices were
sent on June 30. 46 missed the filing deadline. Pursuant to §2-156-270, we sent letters on
July 22, 2016 to those who had still not filed – 43 – giving them their legislative 10-day
Open Session Minutes
August 17, 2016
Page 5
notice of late filing, thus giving them ten days in which to file or they would be considered in
violation of the Ordinance and, thereafter, would be sent a due process letter stating that
probable cause had been found that they were in violation of the Ordinance. Four (4) due
process letters dated August 11, 2016 were sent to those lobbyists who had not completed
proper filing. The due date to respond to this agency by properly filing or explaining late
filing is August 22, 2016. Three (3) have filed and are thus in compliance. One lobbyist has
not responded. If the lobbyist does not properly respond, he will be found not to have
overcome the Executive Director’s probable cause finding and fined $1,000 per day until he
properly files. His name and fine will be published on our website for 90 days.
L. Freedom of Information Act
Since the last regularly scheduled Board meeting, the office received 4 new requests under
the Freedom of Information Act. One appeared to be a commercial request for our records
of our “unliquidated” obligations, such as, unpaid checks; the requestor was told that we
located no such records. The second was for information on why a department did not
acknowledge a crime regarding a minor; the requestor was advised that the Board of Ethics
is not the correct department to address such a request to. The third was for aldermanic
statements of financial interests between 2005 and 2012 -- the requestor was provided a
link to the City’s Clerk’s website where such “older” statements were filed (and advised that
our website has all forms filed in 2013 and after). The fourth was for disclosures filed by
City Council members documenting matters from which they must recuse themselves from
voting; the requestor was provided a link to our website where all such disclosures are
posted.
IV. OLD BUSINESS
None
VI. NEW BUSINESS
None
The Board VOTED 5-0 (Nancy C. Andrade and Dr. Daisy S. Lezama, absent) to adjourn into Executive
Session at 3:34 p.m. under: (i) 5 ILCS 120/2(c)(1) to discuss the appointment, employment,
compensation, discipline, performance, or dismissal of specific employees of the public body or legal
counsel for the public body, including hearing testimony on a complaint lodged against an employee of
the public body or against legal counsel for the public body to determine its validity; and (ii) 5 ILCS
120/2(c)(4) to hear and discuss evidence or testimony in closed hearing as specifically authorized
pursuant to Governmental Ethics Ordinance Sections 2-156-385 and -392, and the Board’s Rules and
Regulations, 4., as amended, effective October 23, 2014, presented to a quasi-adjudicative body, as
defined in the Illinois Open Meetings Act, provided that the body prepares and makes available for
public inspection a written decision setting forth its determinative reasoning.
Open Session Minutes
August 17, 2016
Page 6
At 4:37 p.m., the Board VOTED 5-0 (Nancy C. Andrade and Dr. Daisy S. Lezama, absent) to reconvene
into open session.
VI. MATTERS CONSIDERED AND ACTED UPON BY THE BOARD IN EXECUTIVE SESSION
I. APPROVAL OF EXECUTIVE SESSION MINUTES IN OPEN SESSION
The Board approved the Executive Session minutes of the July 27, 2016 meeting by a VOTE of
5-0 (Nancy C. Andrade and Dr. Daisy S. Lezama, absent).
II. CASES
A. Campaign Financing
1. Case Nos. 16025.01.CFr, et seq., Review of Complaint to Office of Inspector General
setting forth potential violations with respect to excessive political contributions
under §2-156-445 of the Ordinance, as required pursuant to §2-156-380(n-1) of
the Ordinance.
B. Referred Complaints Report
The Board heard staff’s presentation on this matter.
2. Case No. 16026.C, Statement of Financial Interests
Staff reported receiving a complaint alleging that a City employee filed misleading
or incorrect information on the 2016 Statement of Financial Interests (“FIS”) form.
Since the Board had no jurisdiction, we referred the complaint to the Office of
Inspector General for action as it deems appropriate and included a copy of the
employee’s 2016 FIS form.
III. OLD BUSINESS
None
.
IV. NEW BUSINESS
None
V. OTHER BUSINESS
3. Pending Case List
Open Session Minutes
August 17, 2016
Page 7
At 4:38 p.m., the Board VOTED 5-0 (Nancy C. Andrade and Dr. Daisy S. Lezama, absent) to adjourn the
meeting.
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