While not entirely what DuPage County Board Chairman Robert Schillerstrom proposed when he was a candidate, a set of ethics laws guiding County Board members and Schillerstrom himself cleared a government panel Friday and will go before the full board next week.
In the works for more than a year, the ethics proposal calls for disclosures of campaign contributions by companies that receive county no-bid contracts but does not set limits on such contributions. The package also does not prohibit nepotism.
Schillerstrom said he would have liked to have seen the two stricter aspects included in the ordinance that will make its way to the County Board on Tuesday. But he nonetheless supports the proposal.
“If I could have done this by decree, it would have been different, but I appreciate the committee’s work,” Schillerstrom said. “It lives up to the spirit of what we were trying to do.”
More than two years ago, when he was running for the chairman’s post, Schillerstrom laid out his plans for an ethics package that would limit to $500 any contributions from firms getting no-bid contracts from the county. His proposal also included an anti-nepotism clause and a requirement that lobbyists register with the county clerk’s office.
The state’s attorney’s office quashed the $500 campaign contribution limit, saying it was not within the county’s authority because DuPage is not a home-rule government. Board members also disagreed with the anti-nepotism policy because they feared it would preclude qualified candidates from being hired. And the lobbyist issue was tabled until a later time.
Despite those exclusions, Robert Heap (R-Naperville), chairman of the board’s Ethics Committee, said he thought the committee had done a good job.
“In my opinion, we have accomplished 95 percent of what our mandate was,” Heap said. “(The chairman) has been a little unhappy we’ve been unable to go further but it’s mainly because we are not home-rule.”
The proposal passed by the committee requires companies to disclose political contributions in excess of $1,000 a year they have made to County Board members or to the board chairman. The committee boosted the contribution figure from $500, saying the lower limit would have caused excessive paperwork.
The plan also requires no-bid firms to disclose the names of the business’ principals, officers and majority shareholders.
County Board members and the chairman, meanwhile, would have to disclose their financial interests in any entity seeking a business relationship with the county if they have an ownership of 7 1/2 percent or more.
The package also precludes county employees, board members and the chairman from accepting gifts or money from a firm doing business with the county; establishes an ethics officer who shall investigate any potential wrongdoing; and protects county employees if they expose fraud or waste.
The move comes in conjunction with other recent acts by the County Board, which has adopted new purchasing guidelines and has approved an ordinance that meets the mandates of a Illinois Gift Ban Act.
Heap said the laws tighten up ethics guidelines in DuPage, a county he said has not had problems with ethics violations.
“This lets the public know we are binding ourselves to a pretty high standard,” Heap said. “But whether it was necessary or not is still subject to debate.”
