State Sen. Ted Lechowicz continued Thursday to press his good- government platform in seeking nomination as Cook County Board president, but again he found himself defending a legislative record in conflict with election pledges.
Lechowicz vowed to establish a lobbyist registration requirement for the county, endorsed a proposed ordinance to establish a county ethics code and backed plans to elect county commissioners from single-member districts rather than as at-large board members.
”I`m a firm believer that ethics is a very important milestone in government,” Lechowicz told reporters.
But the Northwest Side Democratic legislator failed to support three measures that political reform advocates and sponsors touted as major ethics initiatives during last spring`s legislative session.
As a member of the Senate Executive Committee, Lechowicz voted to kill a bill that would have amended the Lobbyist Registration Act, legislation that would have required greater disclosure by lobbyists and put a $100 cap on annual gifts to a state official.
On the Senate floor, Lechowicz voted against revising the state Governmental Ethics Act on the same day he was recorded as not voting on a political reform measure to provide public financing for governor campaigns.
The lobbyist disclosure, official ethics and campaign financing bills were defeated. Sponsors of the three bills included State Sen. Dawn Clark Netsch of Chicago, the Democratic Party`s slated candidate for state comptroller.
John Manske, executive director of Common Cause/Illinois, called the proposed revisions in the state ethics act ”easily the major piece of ethics legislation, the most comprehensive proposal, to get a floor vote in the General Assembly in years.”
The initiatives were too comprehensive, Lechowicz suggested Thursday, noting that opposition was bipartisan and that some changes in the bills might have yielded different results.
But Netsch said, ”I couldn`t get anyone to tell me what their concerns were beforehand so I could address them.”
Lechowicz also wound up on the defensive Tuesday when he took a
”taxpayers` oath” to be a full-time County Board president. He criticized some of his opponents for planning to maintain private law practices if elected, and then had to fend off questions about his longtime ”double-dipper” status as a legislator while holding a county job he quit just last month.
In other campaign developments:
– Richard Phelan, another Democratic candidate for County Board president, endorsed a permanent extension of the 20 percent, two-year state income-tax increase passed last June to provide greater funding for schools and local governments.
By keeping the higher income tax and providing a greater share to Cook County, the Winnetka attorney said, ”things like County Hospital and the civil justice system are financed more through an ability to pay than on the property tax.”
– The Democratic primary for Cook County state`s attorney flared up as Ald. Patrick O`Connor (40th) leveled his sharpest criticism to date at incumbent Cecil Partee, and Partee retorted that the alderman is ”a liar right out of fresh water.”
Partee also rejected O`Connor`s call for debates before the March 20 primary.
”Mr. Partee`s problem is he has a continual pattern of unethical conduct in every office that he`s held,” O`Connor alleged as he criticized Partee`s career while defending his own moves to put family and friends on his aldermanic payroll after being elected in 1983.
Partee offered a defense of each of the accusations, most of which have been publicized in the past.
”I have been subjected to every type of investigation in 20 years,”
Partee said. ”If I was that bad, would I get 80 percent of the vote in Chicago for treasurer on three occasions?”
– Ald. David Orr (49th), a Democratic candidate for Cook County clerk, announced plans to help not-for-profit housing groups acquire and rehabilitate more vacant, tax-delinquent buildings in Chicago.
Orr said he would release annual lists of the properties that have been delinquent for two years or more, provide copies of the tax sale lists to public libraries and public at no cost, and release an annual status report on delinquent properties that would include a progress report on collection efforts.
