Even after the racketeering and extortion conviction of former Ald. Ed Burke (14th), there is continued resistance to mandating City Council members to work full-time at their jobs.
That much became clear on Thursday when the City Council’s Committee on Ethics and Government Oversight took testimony, but no vote, on a proposal by Ald. Andre Vasquez (40th) to turn what longtime Ethics Board Executive Director Steve Berlin likes to call “guardrails” on aldermanic side jobs into a total roadblock.
Downtown Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd) noted an outright ban would force his colleague, Ald. Anthony Napolitano (41st), to stop coaching a youth hockey league, for which Napolitano is paid a stipend of roughly $6,500 a year.
“There are all sorts of outside jobs that have absolutely no impact on what happens in this building, where there are no clear conflicts whatsoever. And to just throw the baby out with the bathwater because we have some corrupt colleagues here who can’t honor their oath is a shame,” Reilly said.
Already, Council members who are lawyers are prohibited from handling the property tax appeals that were the specialty of Burke’s law firm. They’re also prohibited from doing criminal defense work that might conflict with the city’s interests, such as allegations of wrongdoing against Chicago police officers.
“I’m sure there’s some more things to add to that list. But we don’t need to swat a fly with a nuclear weapon here,” Reilly said.
“I’m all about rooting out corruption and cleaning up this building and our city government. I just don’t think it would be wise for us to overstep too far here and forcing folks to choose between their career in public service and a career that they’ve been doing for many, many years.”
Ald. Pat Dowell (3rd), Mayor Brandon Johnson’s hand-picked Finance Committee chairwoman, said she “could not and would not support an outright ban” on outside income.
“I do not believe we can legislate integrity. You either have it or you don’t,” Dowell said.
Turning to Berlin, Dowell said, “I like your concept of guardrails vs. outright bans. We need to take a more surgical approach. ... I’m thinking of things like people who might have opportunities to teach or people who have property. … There may be people that own property or inherited property. That needs to be taken into consideration.”
Chicago is currently the “largest American city” that does not ban outside income by members of its City Council, according to Alisa Kaplan, executive director of Reform for Illinois.
Even so, only seven Chicago alderpersons reported outside income on their most recent ethics statements.
New York City, New York state, Los Angeles and the federal government have “more restrictive rules” than Chicago, she said.
In Congress, outside employment is “completely banned where there is a fiduciary duty requiring loyalty to a client, such as a lawyer, financial planner or even an architect.” With few exceptions, all other income is “limited to 15% of official salaries, which would be about $18,000 for an aldermanic salary of $120,000,” Kaplan said.
Aldermanic salaries currently range from a low of $118,152-a-year to a high of $145,974, with 29 alderpersons at the highest amount after accepting automatic pay raises tied to the inflation rate.
“This congressional restriction is less restrictive than New York City or L.A.’s rules, which don’t have such an allowance,” Kaplan said.
Banning or phasing out outside employment, as Vasquez has suggested, could “offer a significant and much-needed boost to the public’s trust in Chicago government” severely damaged by the Burke scandal, she added.
“Outside employment restrictions are intended to reduce opportunities for misconduct and prevent it from arising before it ends up in the newspapers and undermines the public trust. After all, what Ed Burke did was illegal, too. But it was his outside business that enabled him to do it and great damage was done,” Kaplan told the Ethics Committee.
“Even if legislators are genuinely acting in what they believe to be the best interest of their constituents, the existence of outside financial interests can cast doubt on their actions and character, damaging their legitimacy in the eyes of voters.”
Ald. Nick Sposato (38th) said he was “somewhat insulted” by Kaplan’s claim that Council members “make a lot of money” and that the salary is generous enough without any outside income.
“If you go by per-hour, I’m not sure we make that much money,” Sposato said, claiming to work anywhere from 60-to-80 hours-a-week.
Before unseating longtime incumbent Ald. Pat O’Connor, Vasquez said he would “hear stories about the corruption, about fed cases, about ‘landing the tuna,’” a phrase Burke famously said on recordings made secretly by former Zoning Committee-chair-turned FBI mole Danny Solis (25th).
“There’s a case to be made” for banning outside income, Vasquez said.
