A proposed ethics ordinance that would place strict new limits on office politics for Du Page County employees got its first public reading Monday before the board’s Executive Committee, a panel that seemed more than willing to strengthen the measure beyond the guidelines sought by Board Chairman Aldo Botti.
The ordinance, as first brought up by Botti in January, would prevent high-ranking elected or appointed officials from coercing other employees into political activity during working hours.
But the committee added language that prohibits any elected or appointed county official or supervisor from requiring an employee from either making or soliciting financial or other contributions for a political candidate or party at any time as a condition of employment.
“The intent of that is to protect employees who are not politically active to be protected from such requests,” said committee Chairman Bob Schroeder.
The committee sent the proposal back to the chairman’s office with its comments and suggested that Botti send the measure to State’s Atty. James Ryan’s office for legal review.
Botti said Monday that if either the committee or the County Board wants to strengthen the measure beyond his original guidelines, that’s fine with him.
“If they have more, that’s terrific; the stronger the better,” Botti said. “The point was to give them the outlines of an ethics ordinance and then add on to it.”
The ordinance is designed to prevent incidents such as one that occurred last fall when a secretary was suspended for a day without pay after a letter went out on county stationery seeking to sell tickets to a fundraiser for County Board member Floyd Sanford.
Botti said the ordinance should have the teeth to tell every elected county official and high-ranking appointed officer that a violation could equate to a felony charge or loss of the office.
The committee also rejected a proposal from Schroeder that would couple this ordinance with strict limits on the dollar amount County Board candidates can receive from vendors that do business with the county.
Committee member Dewey Peirotti argued that campaign financing is another issue and that throwing it into this mix could jeopardize the entire package.
“The primary goal is to ease pressure on county employees. I think if we try to pass some sort of code of ethics for County Board members as part of this, we’ll never get that passed,” Pierotti said.
