Lobbyist-Oriented Ethics Reform in Chicago

Mayor Rahm Emanuel continues to make small government ethics improvements in Chicago. Yesterday, according to a city press release, the council passed five ethics reforms, all but one of them involving lobbyists. The principal reform is the creation of a searchable online lobbyist registration and reporting system. This will replace the current list of registered lobbyists with something like the system in Cook County (which includes Chicago; they apparently don't go far afield for their ideas in Chicago).

Lobbyists will also have to disclose their campaign contributions to elected officials and to city employees running for office. The second part is a nifty idea, but I don't see why all city candidates, whether already officials are not, are not included in the disclosure requirement. Unfortunately, disclosure is only twice a year.

In addition, lobbyists have been added to two ethics provisions, one limiting gifts to $50 and an annual aggregate of $100 (to each official, not from each lobbyist), the other prohibiting loans to officials and employees.

Finally, the mayor's post-employment executive order is now an ordinance.

As usual, reform is both limited and content- rather than process-oriented. Let's hope these partial reforms are intended for maximum political benefit and become enough of a habit to add up to a big reform.

Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics

203-859-1959