The Chicago City Council unanimously approved landmark ordinances Wednesday setting a City Hall code of ethics and standards for campaign financing, ending more than two years of wrangling among warring council factions.
Approval of the two ordinances was a major political coup for Mayor Harold Washington and his allies who pushed for a showdown vote on the controversial measures to put aldermen on record before the city`s aldermanic and mayoral primary elections on Feb. 24.
Debate on the long-awaited ethics statutes was held up for more than four hours as Washington supporters met behind closed doors to hammer out a compromise that eliminated several of the stricter provisions that had been amended onto the ordinances last week–a move seen by some as an effort to make the ordinances so strong that it would be unacceptable to aldermen on both sides of the aisle.
A major breakthrough was reached when the administration agreed to strip the power to investigate aldermen from the proposed board of ethics and set up a special city council committee to probe allegations of wrongdoing by council members.
The compromise ordinance also was changed to exempt people doing casual business with the city from filing financial disclosures, and it dropped a requirement that would have forced aldermen and city workers to disclose land trusts.
As the council clerk handed Washington the official vote tally, the mayor beamed and said: ”Mine eyes have never seen such glory. The vote is 49 yeas and no nos.”
Aldermen and visitors in the council gallery jumped to their feet and erupted into loud and prolonged applause. In a brief press conference following the vote, Washington, who had wanted the ethics ordinance as a campaign plum, said: ”I`m ecstatic. It`s recess in heaven. I`m on cloud nine. . . . This is the millennium.”
The mayor also lavished unusual, nonpartisan praise on the entire council and said the vote would go a long way to redeem its reputation.
”All of them are heroes, every man a king and every woman a king,”
Washington said. ”I`m certain the City of Chicago will soon stop using our wonderful council as whipping boys and look upon them as the men and women that they are. I love them all.”
The only alderman missing for the vote was Ald. Anthony Laurino (39th), who felt ill and left early, according to colleagues. Laurino was among those expected to vote ”yes.”
Approval of the measures had been in doubt because several Washington allies expressed displeasure over elements in the package and threatened to defect. But many anti-administration aldermen facing stiff opposition in the upcoming elections broke ranks and declared they would vote for the ordinances despite some objections.
Washington denied that there was any ”arm-twisting” of his allies in the days leading up to the vote, ”only a lot of jawboning.”
Key provisions of the new laws, which cover all city employees and elected officials, are intended to guard against nepotism, conflict of interests and acceptance of or solicitation of gifts.
The ordinances also are intended to protect employees from being coerced into making political contributions.
Although appointments to the boards of the Chicago Transit Authority, the Chicago Housing Authority, the Chicago Public Library and other agencies will be required to disclose finances, nominees to nonpaying advisory or honorary commissions will be exempt.
The codes will require any lobbyist paid $5,000 or more to register with the ethics board and disclose clients and lobbying activities.
Under the campaign financing code, political contributions by individuals would be limited to $1,500.
Jane Byrne, facing Washington in the Feb. 24 Democratic primary, said the ordinance was ”long overdue,” but she charged that it will serve to
”prevent abuses” by Washington of his own campaign contribution guidelines, which limit contributions to $1,500, but which she said Washington sidesteps by using many different fundraising committees.
Two leading proponents of the ethics legislation–Ald. Clifford Kelley
(20th), chairman of the council`s Rules Committee, and Ald. David Orr
(49th)–conceded that shifting the job of investigating wrongdoing by aldermen to a council committee diluted strength of the original statute but said it was consistent with practices in Congress and many state legislatures. ”I think some aldermen were nervous about a possible witch hunt,” Orr told reporters. He said he accepted the compromise but noted that the ”real teeth” in the code was financial disclosure that would give federal and state investigators the ”ammunition” to probe wrongdoing among aldermen and other elected officials.
Kelley, under indictment in the federal investigation of City Hall corruption, insisted that ”there is no reason why we cannot police ourselves.”
Under the new codes, city workers could be disciplined or fired for violations. They would be protected, however, by union grievance or arbitration procedures and legal process. Elected officials, including the mayor, city clerk, treasurer and aldermen, could be removed from office but only after legal action by federal or state agencies resulting from internal city investigations that could last up to a year.
One of the first casualties of the new ordinances that will go into effect July 1 could be Robert Howard, who was appointed chairman of the board of ethics by Mayor Washington. Howard could be considered in conflict of interest because his outside law practice includes representation of the Chicago Housing Authority and the Chicago Board of Education.
The controversy over an ethics code began in March, 1984, when Washington appointed a citizens committee to draft a comprehensive ordinance. The first proposal was submitted to the mayor nine months later.
Washington formally introduced the ordinances to the council Jan. 18, 1985, setting off parliamentary moves to stall or scuttle the plan. At one point, Ald. Edward Vrdolyak (10th), head of the anti-administration bloc, introduced a more stringent code that some aldermen said was intended to deaden the movement for ethics legislation.
After languishing in the council for more than two years, action was renewed after Washington forces won control of the city council as a result of last spring`s special aldermanic elections.
Also Wednesday, the council approved an ordinance outlawing the possession of spray paints and other marking materials by anyone with the intent to deface public or private property and passed a measure authorizing the Chicago Transit Authority to hire off-duty police to patrol bus routes in high-crime areas.
