While people from the West Coast might be tinged with a sense of the wild west, and New Englanders may have a trace of elitism, those who hail from Illinois can’t escape the pall of criminality, corruption, and wrongdoing in public office that colors the state’s reputation. It’s so prevalent that the subject “Corruption in Illinois,” has its own Wikipedia page, divided into sections (so its magnitude is easier to digest, maybe?): federal legislators; state governors and other officials; municipal mayors, treasurers and village presidents; and Chicago aldermen.
So it doesn’t come as much of a surprise that the recently released Anti-Corruption Report from the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) reveals that, analyzing Department of Justice data dating back to 1976, Chicago is the most corrupt federal judicial district in the nation, and that Illinois, on a per capita basis, is the third most corrupt state.
It’s gotten to the point where Illinois residents are well-practiced in watching local or statewide public officials who are facing multiple investigations, charges, and/or complaints going about their jobs unfazed, or worse yet, sailing to victory for another term on Election Day. But, that may start to change, at least if a bill providing a mechanism to remove elected officials facing charges related to their official duties as public officials passes this legislative session.
Unique situations call for unique solutions
Representative Dave Vella (D-Rockford) is chief sponsor of SB3460, which has passed the state senate and is working its way through the house. Vella said, “One of the reasons I wanted to be a lawmaker is to work on legislation like this, which can help bring respect back to elected offices and assure the voting public that its work is being done properly and with integrity.”
Back in October 2020, the issue of government integrity was placed in the spotlight in Winnebago county, where Vella’s hometown of Rockford is located, when Attorney General Kwame Raoul announced a grand jury indicted Winnebago County Coroner William Hintz for stealing government funds, forgery, and official misconduct. The news reports at the time were shocking, but didn’t have an impact on his bid for another term as coroner because, just over a month later, he was re-elected for another term with over 50,000 votes. When broader awareness of the charges permeated Winnebago County, an outcry began to build and county residents were stunned to learn there was little anyone could do to remove Hintz, an elected public official facing changes related to his job. There is no one at the county level with the authority to remove a public official, because public officials, like the coroner, are duly elected.
That didn’t sit well with Winnebago County Chairman Joe Chiarelli, who began exploring solutions to this problem.
“There was an urgency to it because after that, there was a leadership vacuum within that office and it was problematic to me and the board because it is our duty to protect the integrity of that office,” Chiarelli recalled. While charges were pending, Hintz continued to be paid and had access to the coroner’s office, making it hard for the deputy coroners and other staff to continue to provide professional and trusted services to the public.
“The two options were he could resign or be placed on administrative leave,” Chiarelli said. “We tried to negotiate with him and his attorney, but they weren’t responsive.” During this time, Chiarelli was talking to the Winnebago county sheriff and state’s attorney, trying to figure out what options were out there, knowing that the staff at the coroner’s office, other departments, and the citizens of Winnebago county were growing desperate for a solution.
When it was obvious Hintz wasn’t going to resign and that talks about a leave weren’t going to be fruitful, Chiarelli faced a difficult decision – continue trying with the growing cloud over the coroner’s office, the place people in the most challenging times of their lives should be confident about – or act, knowing it could result in a lawsuit against him or the county.
It Gets Worse
Before anything could be done, in September 2021, additional criminal accusations surfaced, alleging that Hintz stole $14,500 in cash belonging to deceased individuals, and took $2,500 from family members of the dead in exchange for county-funded cremations.
At that time, AG Raoul told a local news outlet, “The defendant has demonstrated a clear pattern of using the office of the Winnebago County coroner to line his pockets. The defendant’s actions took advantage of grieving families and abused the trust of Winnebago County residents.”
Chiarelli took action, locking the coroner out of his office. “It was the right decision,” the Chairman reflects on that time, explaining they conducted a needs assessment, secured the proper tools for staff to move forward, and Winnebago County Sheriff Gary Carauna stepped in to run daily operations. Though Chiarelli was risking legal action, he felt strongly that he needed to protect the employees who were trying to do a tough job under incredibly difficult circumstances, bring effective and trusted services back to the taxpayer, and get things working again. “There was no process for this, but It all came together in the end,” Chairelli notes. Determined that his experience wouldn’t be repeated, Chairelli and other local law enforcement officials shared this experience with lawmakers, and several were eager to help.
A Path Forward
State Senator Craig Wilcox (R-McHenry), one of the senate’s co-sponsors of the bill, explained that the legislation provides for the county board to review the alleged crimes involving a violation of an elected official’s oath to determine by a three-fifths vote of all members if they should be placed on administrative leave. If so, the bill then calls for a special prosecutor to be asked to investigate whether charges filed against a township or county official are related to their official duties. Then, it is up to the State’s Attorney or Attorney General to file a motion to place the elected official on administrative leave with the circuit court of the county. This approach offers the “pathway” Chiarelli was searching for, while at the same time providing some checks and balances to prevent abuse of the process.
Another supporter of the bill, Dave Syverson (R-Cherry Valley) concurred, pointing out, “There was zero mechanism for this (what happened in the case of the Winnebago County coroner) and it is clearly a problem we had to figure out.”
“It happens far too often in Illinois and it’s frustrating to residents when there seems nothing can be done.” Wilcox added that this law wouldn’t apply to a DUI or other matters that don’t directly relate to their job duties,” so it would provide balance to the remedy.
“The key is the charges have to be germane to what they do at their job, their office,” Syverson emphasized. “It would include contract-fixing, stealing, those kinds of things that are a direct violation of their official job.” Syverson added this bill would treat elected officials in much the same manner as private citizens accused of wrongdoing at their job – they are put on leave until the accusations are resolved.
A Fly in the Ointment?
Before moving over to the House, the Senate version of the bill was amended to exclude the Illinois counties with a population over 500,000 (Cook, DuPage, Lane, Kane, and Will) in order to gain enough support to pass. For Wilcox and Syverson, this was disappointing.
Rep. Vella, who is shepherding the bill through the House of Representatives, would prefer if the bill applied to all the counties in the state because the issue is universal. Still, he said, “It’s important, needed, and it’s a good bill, and so we need to pass it.” Vella added that it can be amended in the future, but in the meantime it will be useful across the state.
For Professor Dick Simpson, one of the authors of the UIC corruption study and a former City of Chicago Alderman, legislation like this can help battle the scourge of corruption. Simpson points out that most public officials accused of crimes, like the recent case of Patrick Daley Thompson, are only able to be removed upon conviction or sentencing. “This has been a problem dating back until after the Chicago fire in 1871,” Simpson asserted.
The political science professor has spent more than half his life studying ways to dismantle political corruption and he believes that one area where the state is making some headway is its emphasis of civics in Illinois’ classrooms. “I don’t mean just talking about the three branches of government; no, much more detailed,” Simpson said. Though the lessons behind SB3460 weren’t learned in the classroom, they could be used to show the next generation of voters and taxpayers how corruption can flourish and the importance of responding to it with a remedy that is effective and still balanced with individual rights.
