More McHenry County Blog

Speaking of corruption, there is one pet peeve that papers like the Daily Herald ought to be more interested in than they are: making public time sheets for legislative employees.

And, don’t tell me they already are, because Christine Tobin and I filed a $5,000 Freedom of Information lawsuit to obtain them and lost. Whose payroll were Tom Cross staffers on the Friday before the 2002 primary? Was one or more doing the same thing that Lee Daniels may very well be accused of?

Of course, the U.S. Attorney could subpoena the records, but corruption like this is so far down the corruption food chain and Patrick Fitzgerald has such an immense workload-- being deliberately increased by Washington--that the culture of corruption probably continues, albeit usually in a less blatant form than before.

Most of the suggestions being floated at the federal level have already been adopted in Illinois or are not as big a problem.

· Public officials convicted of felonies relating to their work already lose their pensions. In Washington, when convicted congressmen get out of prison, they receive their pensions.

· Privately paid trips are rare in Illinois, but common among the D.C. crowd. Banning them would probably do some good here. In Illinois, the actual cost of providing plane trips for the favored few between home and Springfield should at the very least be reported.

· Former Illinois House members who are lobbyists do not have access to the House floor in order to lobby…as they inexplicably do in the nation’s Capitol.

· Illinois doesn’t have a “members only” gym where ex-members can lobby them, as is the case in Washington. They do have a “members only” part of the basement Ratskeller where some eat with lobbyists. Others just go there to get away from lobbyists. It probably would be helpful to ban lobbyists from eating there…unless the lobbyist-legislator contact reporting, explained below, were enacted.

· Illinois probably could use a ban on spouses lobbying the legislature, although it is more of a problem in Washington.

· Illinois has no prohibition of former legislative staffers immediately beginning to lobby their former bosses. Both Illinois and Washington would probably benefit from a closing of this excuse to pay legislative staffers less than they are worth. The Washington proposal is to require a two-year waiting period before a staffer or legislator could lobby Congress. Sounds like one way to make the lobbying “pay off” to legislators less direct.

· Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid is banning gifts, meals and travel provided by lobbyists to staffers. That would be a good idea in both capitals.

· Speaker Dennis Hastert is calling for a “significantly stronger” gift ban for congressmen. Considering the mentality of some senior congressmen that they should never be expected to pay for anything, I think that is important. In Illinois, my State Senator Jack Schaffer advocated legislators’ forfeiting part of the daily tax-free allowance when legislators do not pay for their own meals. You can see the logic. Why should state government reimburse one for a meal that a lobbyist paid for? My guess is that the same “game” is played in Washington to increase congressmen’s take-home pay. Whatever part of the allowance remains unspent goes right in the legislator’s pocket.

· House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi goes Hastert one better by calling for an end to gifts and travel for congressmen. Sounds good to me. (The lobbyist could still send a contribution in a birthday card, however. That happens in Illinois and certainly has the personal touch of a gift.)

· Of course, in Illinois lobbyists have to provide virtually no disclosure except for whom they work. Illinois would do well to emulate current Washington rules about telling how much they spend on what, as well as adopt any improvements this current “reform” movement comes up with.

· Campaign finance reporting should be required at least monthly for congressmen as well as during those months when the General Assembly is meeting. Large contributions should have to be reported within two days, the same as right before an election. Voters ought to be given a chance to see if the timing of contributions are coincidentally right before or right after votes in which the contributor has an interest.

· Pelosi also calls for enough time for people to read the bills being considered. What a concept! It should be adopted in Illinois. Now, at the end of the session, the content of bills has to be on the computer system for a mere one hour before a vote can be taken. And, of course, there’s no way to know when such posting occurs…even for legislators without continually monitoring the system. Effectively, this procedure denies the pubic—even lobbyists—the ability to monitor the progress of legislation.

· Pelolsi also calls for a strong and functioning ethics committee. The GOP leadership fired the last Republican chairman when he was viewed to be too much of an enforcer of the rules. In Illinois, if an ethics committee exists, I don’t remember its meeting during the 1990’s. (There was a 1970’s complaint brought against Democratic Party Minority Leader Gerald Shea (Riverside) by State Rep. Gene Schlickman for Shea’s being paid by the Medical Society while sponsoring its bill. The Ethics Committee voted to exonerate Shea. Only six House members did not concur in the recommendation: Susan Catania, Dick Mugalian, Gene Schlickman, John Sharp and Cal Skinner. (Can’t remember the other one.)

· And, Pelosi was what Congress calls an “Open Rule.” That means floor amendments can be offered and, more importantly, voted upon. The Illinois House had that before Speaker Mike Madigan pulled the noose around the necks of House members so tight that he now has to give permission for an amendment to be even considered on the floor. Turning back the Illinois clock on that abominable practice would be a major step in the direction of good government.

· Zero tolerance for contract cheaters, say Washington Democrats, referencing no-bid contracts in Iran and for Katrina clean-up. Illinois has a version of this type of penalty for those who bribe state officials. I wrote the language. Bribe a state official and you’ll never do business with the State of Illinois again. I’m not sure the Federal Democrats are proposing such a strict penalty.

· And, if one really wants to have a chance of figuring out when hanky-panky is going down, require the legislators and lobbyists to file daily their contacts with lobbyists. To minimize the record-keeping load on the legislators, require the lobbyist to file an electronic report each day and to give the lobbyed legislator a card containing the information to be filed to give to the Clerk’s office when session starts the next morning. Of course, nowhere will a legislative majority want to provide evidence of such contacts. Too much campaign fodder.

· Now, is limiting campaign contributions “reform?” As you will see when I publish the contents of the Coalition for Political Reform questionnaire, that group thinks so. So do most editorial writers…and they should, because it gives them more power. Every player in the political arena wants more power. I’m sure that many think having me as the Libertarian Party candidate for governor in 2002 was not good for the process. Regardless, I can attest that I would not have been able to run if contributors had been limited to the congressional limit of $2,100. Without the support of two wealth individuals, the irritation of someone without the necessity to kowtow to power party leaders would have been missing.

· And, I guarantee you that the retired IT guy and the retired Merc member would not have been as dangerous to the honesty of state government as was GOP gubernatorial candidate Jim Ryan’s good buddy law school study partner and largest contributor, now indicted, Stuart Levine.

· Illinois U.S. Senator Barack Obama stated, “…we're asking Republicans to put an end to the ‘pay to play’ schemes. Good idea. If he or national Democrats can figure that out, maybe they can pass the solution onto to the Democrats who control the Illinois General Assembly.

· Finally, I believe the dispersion of power among disparate and overlapping local governments is a large reason for corruption in Illinois. No one can watch all of the local governments to which one pays property taxes. The local daily newspaper in McHenry County does not cover township governments, for instance. There are lots of small villages that rarely see a reporter. Consolidation of governments will not guarantee more honesty, but it will mean there are fewer officials to watch.

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