Sweeping ethics reforms absent as Illinois legislators off until the fall

(The Center Square) – Despite statehouse corruption on full display with guilty verdicts against four individuals in the “ComEd Four” bribery trial, Illinois legislators left Springfield without sweeping ethics reforms.

A former Commonwealth Edison executive and three lobbyists, one being a close confidant of former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, were convicted last month. The scheme involved giving do-nothing jobs to Madigan associates in exchange for favorable legislation for the utility. Madgian has pleaded not guilty and faces trial next spring.

Early Saturday morning just before the budget was approved, state Rep. Ryan Spain, R-Peoria, said it’s “crazy” to leave town without addressing the issue.

“Four convictions all swirling around the person that presided at this rostrum, at this dias, for 38 years and we as a legislature are adjourning without doing anything on the topic of ethics reforms,” Spain said.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker said prosecutors have the tools they need to catch corrupt actors.

“Everybody that’s been tried and now convicted is being tried and convicted with laws that are already on the books,” Pritzker said during an unrelated event last week.

More can be done though, he conceded.

“And I think that there is as I have seen an effort to address red-light camera contributions,” Pritzker said.

House Bill 3903 will establish ethical parameters and guidelines for how the technology can be used and how the industry interacts with state and local elected officials. Among other regulations, one element prohibits contractors for such technology from making political donations.

“It provides that no member of the General Assembly and no officer or employee of a municipality or county shall knowingly accept employment or receive compensation or fees for services from a contractor that provides automated enforcement system equipment,” said state Sen. Laura Murphy, D-Des Plaines.

Regardless, Spain said more needs to be done to address ethics after “one of the largest public corruption trials” produced guilty verdicts.

“And boy, I just cannot believe it that we don’t, all of us, place a priority on cleaning up the corruption that has been such a deep stain on the state of Illinois,” Spain said. “We leave a lot of work to do here.”

Lawmakers aren’t scheduled to return until sometime this fall.