Weeks after the conviction of a state contractor for bribing public employees who oversaw his firm’s work, Gov. Jim Edgar on Tuesday issued an executive order aimed at preventing future influence-buying and peddling in Illinois government.
Edgar downplayed the notion that the changes were direct fallout from the trial of Management Services of Illinois Inc. and its owners for bribing Department of Public Aid staffers so MSI could collect more than $7 million in fraudulent contract work for the agency.
“The action represents another in a line of steps this administration has taken toward greater accountability throughout state government,” Edgar said in a written statement accompanying what was only his second executive order of the year. “Public service involves a high degree of mutual trust. State officers and employees have a moral obligation to maintain that public trust and confidence.”
Edgar also called on the General Assembly to pass legislation turning his executive order into law covering the 100,000 workers at all state offices, institutions and universities. An executive order amounts to a limited guideline that can be modified or rescinded at any time.
While the federal investigation continues to determine if the MSI scandal also involved Edgar aides and appointees, the governor has always maintained his office has behaved responsibly in the case. He characterized his Tuesday executive order as one of many steps he has taken to improve accountability in state government.
It bars the 60,000 state employees who answer to his office from accepting gifts valued at more than $50 each year from lobbyists or others who do business with their respective state agencies, a radical change from the current patchwork of rules within state government, which allows almost unlimited gift-giving.
Edgar also cut back on the favors state workers can hand out in the form of no-bid contracts, by requiring that all future contracts worth more than $25,000 be competitively bid.
Despite the fact Edgar did not mention it in making his announcement Tuesday, the order clearly addresses specific problems unearthed during the MSI trial: state workers were found to have taken lavish gifts and then greased the wheels for a contract very favorable to businessman Michael Martin.
However, the impact of the new rules on how state employees conduct themselves in the future is far from clear-cut. At the time the MSI scheme was being carried out, Public Aid was operating with its own ban against employees accepting gifts from those it did business with.
Nevertheless, tales of extravagant gifts given by Martin and MSI to mid-level department managers, including a European trip and thousands of dollars in cash, shocked even old-timers accustomed to the traditional wining and dining prevalent within the state’s political culture-world.
In a state with almost no legal limits on what lobbyists can give and workers can receive, the stories about routine attempts to buy influence have always been about as subtle as a fistful of cash.
There is little question that the new Edgar rules raise the state’s standards, at least in theory, to among the strictest in the country, according to a survey conducted by the Center for Governmental Studies in Los Angeles.
The order covers the largest group of employees who control virtually all of the contracts awarded by the state, and according to Craig Holman, project director of the center, the order “is not riddled with exceptions and fine print. This is a much, much tougher regulation than (most) other states have, and tougher than what Illinois has ever considered in the past.”
The question now is how thorough Edgar’s department heads will be in carrying out the governor’s order. It calls for them to name an ethics officer to implement the rules.
Employees who violate it will be subject to disciplinary action, including dismissal.
Holman said that of the other states with ethics policies, those with the highest rates of compliance have independent review boards rather than in-house ethics officers.
Common Cause, an Illinois watchdog group, is also pushing for a similar provision here.
“We need to finish the job,” said Jim Howard, the group’s executive director.
“MSI got in there and flew under the radar, and it could happen again if we don’t watch it.”
Edgar said the other provision of his order calling for contracts worth more than $25,000 being competitively bid further toughens a new state law requiring at least three qualified officials to sign off on any contract in excess of $250,000.
There was criticism from Democrats about Edgar’s rules being too little and too late.
“They strike us as a belated and modest first step, in an area where the Edgar administration has done poorly,” said a spokesman for House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago).
“The $50 limit is fine and it probably helps restore some public confidence. But whether it’s the cause of the recent problems remains to be seen.”
But other Republican constitutional officers applauded Edgar’s move, including Secretary of State George Ryan, who, after the governor, oversees the largest bloc of state employees, 3,600.
Edgar has announced his retirement from politics, and Ryan is expected to disclose his intentions next Tuesday about running for governor in 1998. He promptly instructed his staff to incorporate the language of Edgar’s executive order into the personnel policy manual of his office.
While the Edgar rules don’t automatically apply to employees of other constitutional officers or to a host of legislative staffers, some elected officials, including Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka and Comptroller Loleta Didrickson, already have some sort of policy regarding gifts.
But Holman cited the wording of Didrickson’s policy as an example of how such rules can be subverted: It forbids receiving gifts under “circumstances that might reasonably be construed to influence” the recipient.
That’s a gray area, said Holman. Absolute rules are easier to follow.
In a separate action Tuesday, Edgar said he has given $54,000 of the past campaign contributions he received from MSI’s owners to charities.
