Bill Would Establish Local Government Inspector General and Ethics Commission
Yesterday, we reported on a bill that would provide expanded powers to non-home rule municipalities (apologies to our email readers - the link in yesterday's post was incorrect but has been fixed in the online version of the blog). Today, we report on another bill that will affect local governments - Illinois Senate Bill 85 regarding local government ethics.
If passed, SB 85 would establish the office of the Local Government Inspector General, a state office with the powers to investigate and report on allegations of incompetence, neglect of duty, malfeasance in office, corruption, or official misconduct of local government officials and employees. If the Inspector General finds sufficient evidence to proceed, the office can file a complaint with the Local Government Ethics Commission (also created by this legislation), which commission is authorized to conduct a hearing and hear evidence from the Inspector General and the local official or employee concerning the allegations.
At the conclusion of the hearing, the Commission has the following options:
1. Dismiss the complaint;
2. Issue a recommendation of discipline to the local official or employee's jurisdictional authority;
3. Impose an administrative fine on the local official or employee;
4. Issue injunctive relief; or
5. Impose a combination of relief of 2-4 above.
Since this bill would have significant impact on all units of local government (except those that have a local inspector general), we will follow this bill closely and report back with any updates.
Post Authored by Julie Tappendorf
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