New ethics rules put Burke on hot seat: to avoid hefty fines, choose law firm or City Council seat

The aldermen is accused in a racketeering indictment of using the city as a criminal enterprise to squeeze businesses to hire his law firm; under new ethics rules, he faces daily fines up to $5,000 for each offense.

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Ald. Edward Burke (14th) in 2016.

Now deposed Finance Committee Chairman Edward Burke (14th) has some fun at a 2016 City Council meeting, long before the federal raid that culminated in his indictment on racketeering and extortion charges.

Sun-Times file

Indicted Ald. Edward Burke (14th) has a choice to make in 90 days now that the City Council has unanimously approved the latest in a seemingly endless string of ethics reforms.

The revised ordinance championed by Mayor Lori Lightfoot states: “No official or employee may derive any income, compensation or other tangible benefit from providing opinion evidence as an expert against the interests of the city in any judicial or quasi-judicial proceeding before any administrative agency or court.”

Steve Berlin, executive director of the Chicago Board of Ethics, has issued a written interpretation of that language.

According to Berlin, the ordinance prohibits aldermen from representing private clients or receiving “compensation or anything of value for such representation” in “certain types of cases before non-city administrative agencies” including cases that “could affect the relative tax burden of city residents.” 

The language is tailored to prevent Burke from doing what he’s done for decades — and what got him in trouble with the feds.

His law firm specializes in property tax appeals. He has won millions in property tax reductions for scores of clout-heavy clients, including Donald Trump. He’s gotten away with it simply by recusing himself from City Council votes involving clients doing business with the city or other agencies of local government.

From now on, simple recusals won’t be enough.

The aldermen who stands accused in a 14-count racketeering indictment of using the city as a “criminal enterprise” to squeeze businesses to hire his law firm has been forced to choose: stop handling property tax appeals; divest himself from Klafter & Burke; or step down as alderman.

If he does none of those, he faces fines up to $5,000 for each offense.

Burke could not be reached for comment on his intentions.

“The rules are very clear,” Lightfoot said Wednesday after the vote.

“You may not have an economic relationship that is in conflict with your first priority, which is to serve the people,” added the mayor, whose campaign got a boost from the Burke scandal.

“We spelled out some very specific ways in which we thought that would be problematic. And the chips are gonna fall wherever they may.”

Asked what she hopes Burke will do, the mayor said, “I’ve already called upon the alderman to resign. I think it’s very difficult for him to actually be able to fulfill his responsibilities to his ward when he’s got this very, very serious federal indictment hanging over his head.”

Ald. Patrick Daley Thompson (11th), nephew and grandson of Chicago mayors, said the new ordinance poses no such conflict for him. He handles property tax appeals, but only outside the city.

Ald. Ray Lopez (15th) said the language does not go nearly far enough. At Wednesday’s City Council meeting, he introduced an ordinance that would prohibit all outside employment and mandate that aldermen serve their constituents full-time.

That’s not the only change in what Lightfoot has called the first of many ethics reform ordinances aimed at cleaning up a City Council that has sent more than 30 current or former members to prison since 1970.

The ordinance also:

• Empowers Inspector Joe Ferguson to enforce his own subpoenas, grants him full auditing and investigatory oversight over the City Council and authorizes investigations up to five years after an offense occurs, instead of just two years after an alleged violation.

• Raises the maximum fine for “high-level” ethics violations to $5,000, up from the $2,000 recently levied against Burke; the Board of Ethics had recommended $20,000. The $500 limit for “low-level” violations doubles to $1,000.

• Broadens the definition of lobbyists to include nonprofits, but waives their registration fees and pushes the effective date to Jan. 1. Only those “paid or otherwise compensated” are required to register.

Yet another Lightfoot ordinance introduced Wednesday empowers the corporation counsel to release Ferguson’s reports whenever they involve “sustained findings regarding conduct that either is associated with a death or is, or may be, a felony as defined in the Illinois Criminal Code and is of a compelling public interest.”

Two high-profile IG reports kept under wraps by former Mayor Rahm Emanuel fit that description: the police shooting of Laquan McDonald and the death of David Koschman.

After twice being cleared by the Chicago Police Department when his uncle, Richard M. Daley was mayor, Richard J. “R.J.” Vanecko pleaded guilty on Jan. 31, 2014 to involuntary manslaughter for throwing a punch that killed Koschman in 2004.

That followed a Chicago Sun-Times investigation that led to the appointment of a special prosecutor.

Vanecko was given a 30-month sentence — 60 days in jail, 60 days on home confinement and the rest on probation — for the crime he committed when he was 29 years old.

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