Republican nominee for County Board President Roger Keats today announced he would embrace a number of reform proposals supported by anti-corruption watchdogs, and said he hopes lawmakers in Cook County and Springfield will put such reforms into law.
Keats says he has support from some county commissioners and state lawmakers to make some of the reforms outlined in a February report from the University of Illinois at Chicago law.
“What we’re trying to remind people is that as corrupt as this place is, there are some of us who are trying to do something about it,” said Keats, who is running against Democrat Toni Preckwinkle and Green Party nominee Tom Tresser.
Keats said his first steps would be to outlaw lobbying by elected officials on behalf of special interests; nixing finders’ fees for government employees and elected officials from companies with government contracts; prohibiting the receipt of gifts by government employees seeking to do business with the government, and requiring the county’s elected officials to release detailed personal finance reports to show no conflicts of interest exist.
“Were anxious to close as many loopholes as we can,” said Dick Simpson, a former Democratic alderman and professor of political science at the UIC. Simpson co-authored a February report detailing Cook County’s long history of corruption and conflicts of interest.
Keats singled out Board of Review Commissioner and Cook County Democratic Party Chairman Joseph Berrios and Speaker Michael Madigan as two examples of conflicts of interest that Keats says harms taxpayers.
Madigan’s law firm rakes in millions doing business on property tax appeals, while property tax lawyers have largely funded Berrios’ campaigns.
Despite the target painted on his back by Keats, Berrios himself jumped on the reform wagon today, issuing a statement of solidarity with Keats, Simpson and Andy Shaw, executive director of the Better Government Association. Berrios, a registered lobbyist, has said he would give up his lobbying work should be elected assessor.
“Being Cook County assessor is a full-time job. I want the people of Cook County to be comfortable knowing that I will be concentrating solely on the job at hand - and that is making sure their properties are fairly assessed throughout Cook County,” he said in a statement.
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