Close mayoral ally Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez on Wednesday delayed a reform measure championed by ethics committee chair Ald. Matt Martin and Inspector General Deborah Witzburg, using a parliamentary process to divert the ordinance to the rules committee.
Martin’s ordinance followed on the heels of an inspector general memo that laid out multiple instances of administrative interference into Office of Inspector General investigations, as detailed last week in a BGA Policy analysis.
Intended to address what Witzburg described as Department of Law practices that “negatively impact the effectiveness, independence, and pace of OIG investigative work,” Martin’s ordinance must now be heard at a meeting of the rules committee before it can advance any further in the city’s legislative process. Opponents of proposed ordinances sometimes send them to the rules committee, where they often expire without consideration on their merits or an up-or-down vote by City Council.
Bryan Zarou, the Better Government Association’s vice president of policy, said of the delaying tactic, “Administrations tell us who they are by what they prioritize and what they obstruct. Mayor Johnson and his allies have consistently and repeatedly obstructed even the smallest ethics reform measures.”
Mayoral allies previously fought to obstruct a proposed ordinance enabling the enforcement of a 2011 Rahm Emanuel executive order banning lobbyist contributions to a sitting mayor, and other ethics reforms measures introduced during Johnson’s term have idled for years in committee.
“This is an administration that blocked Inspector General investigators from a ‘gift room’ filled with designer handbags, fancy cufflinks, and size 14 men’s dress shoes,” said Zarou, referencing another recent OIG report that detailed unreported gifts in violation of the city’s ethics ordinance and obstruction of the inspector general’s investigation. “There comes a point where things stop looking like accidental oversights and start looking like outright hostility to ethics and oversight measures. If the mayor’s allies continue to obstruct needed reforms, it’s time for an independent City Council to chart its own course, starting with prompt passage of the Inspector General’s recommended language.”
A majority of City Council would be needed to move the proposed ordinance out of the rules committee and reassign it to the ethics committee.
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.
