From the Chicago Tribune

Ethics consensus builds
House overrides amendatory veto for tougher bill

By John Chase and Ray Long
Tribune staff reporters
Published November 5, 2003
SPRINGFIELD -- The Illinois General Assembly edged toward consensus on ethics legislation Tuesday that would include provisions to install ethics commissions for the legislators and statewide officials, toughen the state's gift restrictions and create inspectors general to snoop on state workers and elected officials.
Lawmakers also advanced a proposal to resolve a lingering dispute on a sweeping package of death-penalty reforms.
With Illinois still reeling from scandal, the ethics legislation took center stage as the House overrode Gov. Rod Blagojevich's amendatory veto, which added tougher provisions to the bill that lawmakers sent him last spring. The override sets the stage for the House to pass what advocates said is an even tougher measure.
"It is my high expectation that at the end of this veto session, Illinois will have a comprehensive, tough ethics statute," said House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago).
Madigan and Minority Leader Tom Cross (R-Oswego) won support for the override on a 116-0 vote as they pledged to complement the ethics legislation this week with a separate bill that includes the ethics commissions and other changes.
Despite the House success at bipartisanship on the first day of the fall veto session, Republicans slowed down a Senate Democratic attempt to override the veto, demanding more input.
Senate Republican Leader Frank Watson of Greenville effectively blocked an override in the upper chamber when he urged his GOP colleagues to refuse to vote for the bill, which needed Republican support to win approval. Senate Democrats, who are in the majority, then refused to call for a vote.
The move prompted Cross to express frustration, noting that officials sought to resolve ethics issues during discussions throughout the summer.
"I think it's going to look like a big sham if we don't pass it," Cross said. "And I think we need to pass something real, something tough, something substantive."
Watson said the new ethics provisions didn't go far enough, in part, because they didn't require unpaid advisers to the governor to disclose their financial interests.
Watson and other Senate Republicans have called on those advisers, whom they have dubbed the "shadow government," to disclose their finances because they have concerns over potential conflicts of interest. The proposed legislation only called for state regulators and others to disclose discussions they may have had with those advisers.
Senate President Emil Jones (D-Chicago) said in trying to define those advisers, the legislature could be too broad and encompass ordinary folks who whisper in the governor's ear. Even so, Jones insisted: "We intend to pass a strong piece of legislation, but we're not going to be playing games with it."
Blagojevich, meanwhile, said he would keep legislators in Springfield if they cannot put together a significant ethics package before leaving, saying "we'll stay until the cows come home until we get it."
Despite the political chess match, Blagojevich said he was "cautiously optimistic" the final package would have to have five key components he required: an independent ethics commission; a stronger gift restriction; a provision that would restrict employees from leaving a state job and joining a private firm that they had regulated; eliminating the ability of state officials to use public-service announcements for self-promotion; and inspectors general for statewide officials.
Last month, the governor backed away from a key provision in his amendatory veto that called for a super-inspector general with power to investigate all offices of the executive branch of government.
But a provision in the new legislation grants significant power to a nine-member Executive Ethics Commission, which would have the power to appoint "special inspectors general" to investigate allegations brought to their attention.
Other highlights of the ethics proposal include banning elected officials from using state funds to put their names or images on bumper stickers, magnets and billboards.
On the death penalty, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved a proposal that would address the governor's controversial amendatory veto of the high-profile death-penalty-reform package.
Blagojevich had struck a provision that allowed an officer to be decertified even if he was not convicted of perjury, something lawmakers had once complained went to the heart of death-penalty reforms. The move was viewed as a way for the governor to help police unions who supported him in the election.
The new proposal would leave the determination of whether a police officer should be decertified up to the state Labor Relations Board rather than a police training and standards board, as proposed previously.
The new bill also would allow a police officer to be decertified without a perjury conviction, and would tighten the screening process for a decertification hearing, supporters said.
The committee voted unanimously to send the proposal to the full Senate, where it could be voted upon as early as Wednesday, said Sen. John Cullerton (D-Chicago).
In other action, the Senate backed Blagojevich's veto of cost-of-living pay increases for judges.