From The Pantagraph

Blagojevich signs tough ethics law
Associated Press
News wire service
December 10, 2003

CHICAGO -- A tough new ethics law signed by Gov. Rod Blagojevich on Tuesday will more clearly define the now-blurry line dividing the people who make policy and those who benefit from it.
Lawmakers won't be able to accept free golf and tennis outings from lobbyists. The governor's influential but unpaid advisers will have to disclose their financial interests. Lobbyists and their spouses can no longer serve on state boards and commissions.
"It becomes a very slippery slope from an appearance of impropriety to an actual conflict of interest. The brighter we can make the lines between what is right and wrong, the easier it will be for everybody to understand how government should operate," said Rep. John Fritchey, D-Chicago, a co-sponsor of the law.
Advocates say the changes are overdue in a state with a long history of government corruption. The ethics package is largely a response to a scandal that helped drive the last governor into retirement.
"Not long ago, something went fundamentally wrong in our state. Illinois became a place where the promise of public service lost its meaning, a place where the people lost confidence that their elected leaders put the people's interests first," Blagojevich said before signing the law.
He said the law gives Illinois "revolutionary ethics reform."
"We are not just tinkering at the edges, tweaking here and tightening there. Today, we are re-establishing the primacy of principle over politics, and in Illinois, that constitutes real change," he said.
The law also establishes two ethics commissions -- one for the governor and statewide officials, the other for lawmakers -- with the power to impose fines. It also creates inspectors general, with the power to issue subpoenas, for every statewide official and the Legislature.
Other components of the law include placing more people under the "revolving door" provision that says state employees cannot decide contracts with a private company and then go to work for that company; limiting officials to accepting no more than $75 worth of food each day; and putting restrictions on state contracts for people serving on boards and commissions.
"It's about making sure that the relationships between lobbyists and elected officials are professional relationships, which is what they should be. I think it will bring a lot of clarity to the process," said Cynthia Canary, executive director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform.
When lobbyists take lawmakers to dinner and on golf outings, the relationships can get "just a little too cozy," Canary said.
"It's just to make sure that certain interests don't have to much influence in the process," she said.
Dawn Clark Netsch, former state comptroller who has worked on ethics reform for nearly 20 years, said lobbyists sending gifts to lawmakers and taking them to dinner was not illegal, but such actions are "not quite right."
"It's unnecessary, it's inappropriate," she said. "What we're trying to get across is that there are appropriate roles and inappropriate roles. That line has always been so blurred in state government and this is intended to try to identify and designate those lines so people will want to act as they should act."
"We have always been notoriously lax in our attempt to deal with things like this legislatively," Netsch said.
Blagojevich warned that lobbyists and others might try to find ways around the new laws.
"I think that's to be expected. Passing comprehensive, landmark, historic ethics legislation, something Illinois has never had before, doesn't necessarily mean we're out of the woods when it comes to misbehavior or even corruption. This requires constant vigilance," Blagojevich said after signing the law.
Blagojevich ran on an ethics reform campaign, railing against former Gov. George Ryan and the cloud of scandal that tainted his administration. Fifty-nine people have been convicted in the federal government's more than five-year investigation of corruption under Ryan.
The investigation began as an investigation of bribes paid in return for commercial drivers licenses and has since expanded to a full-blown examination of widespread graft.
"This law will send a clear signal that the old ways of doing business will not be tolerated and furthermore, government will no longer turn a blind eye to insider dealings," Fritchey said.