Today’s City Council meeting saw the passage of two sets of ethics reforms: an ordinance giving the Board of Ethics enforcement authority for a longstanding executive order banning lobbyist contributions to the mayor’s campaign committee and a package of minor language changes and technical clarifications from the city’s Inspector General.
Though these are welcome updates, neither ordinance is a blockbuster of hard-hitting new controls on city government. Alarmingly for good government advocates, even this small progress came over the objections of a mayoral administration that initially opposed some of the changes.
The first and more substantial of the items — enforcement ability for a 2011 Rahm Emanuel executive order — came after the Chicago Sun-Times reported on multiple contributions to Mayor Brandon Johnson’s campaign committee from registered lobbyists. The Board of Ethics, responding to the prohibited contributions, determined that it lacked statutory authority to enforce the order and recommended new legislative language to close the loophole.
When the relevant ordinance hit the City Council ethics committee, Johnson’s administration worked the phones to try and whip votes against the measure. The proposal made it to City Council for a vote anyway, where mayoral allies used a procedural maneuver to defer the item, delaying its passage another three months to today – a long and winding path just to return to a status quo that’s been on the books since the start of the Emanuel administration.
City Council is not lacking options for more substantial ethics reform if the administration wants to get serious about it — or if alderpersons want to move independently. A package of Board of Ethics-recommended amendments to the city’s ethics ordinance, first made public in August 2023, has sat idly in the ethics committee since January. That bill would, among other amendments, close a loophole currently allowing owners and operators of city contractor businesses to make personal donations in excess of the limits placed on entities doing business with the city.
Ethics chair Ald. Matt Martin (47th Ward) also has a bill pending that would establish a public funding option for aldermanic campaigns. Mayor Johnson previously has expressed support for publicly funded elections, both during his campaign and after election, but his administration has not taken a position on Martin’s proposed ordinance.
Those are easy options for an administration that wants to improve its track record on ethics reform. So far, the Johnson administration seems content to nibble at the edges with small technical fixes — after actively opposing even some of those.
If the Johnson administration does not start showing appetite for more serious changes, it will be up to City Council to act independently. Despite a longstanding tradition of deference, the city’s elected legislators do not need mayoral approval to call items for a vote. And they do not need the mayor’s permission to vote their consciences. Council members can — and should — give their own public integrity a double boost by passing the stalled ethics ordinances, with or without Mayor Johnson on board.
The Better Government Association is a 101-year-old civic watchdog that seeks better government through investigative journalism, policy reforms and civic engagement efforts that lead to more open, equitable and accountable government. The policy team and investigative unit operate independently of one another, while both seek to advance the cause of better government in Chicago and across Illinois.
