{"id":526714,"date":"2010-04-13T13:43:12","date_gmt":"2010-04-13T17:43:12","guid":{"rendered":"tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c60fd53ef0133eca95a4f970b"},"modified":"2010-04-13T13:54:49","modified_gmt":"2010-04-13T17:54:49","slug":"council-committee-oks-watchdog-on-a-leash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/526714","title":{"rendered":"Council committee OKs watchdog on a leash"},"content":{"rendered":"

Posted by Hal Dardick and John Byrne at 12:40 p.m.<\/em>
<\/br>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>A key City Council
\ncommittee today overwhelmingly approved a proposal for a watchdog to
\ninvestigate aldermen despite criticism that the office will have almost
\nno power.<\/p>\n

The Rules Committee voted 22-4 for the proposal to create the office of legislative inspector general.<\/a> Ald. Joe Moore, 49th, the measure’s staunchest opponent, said he believes the full council will approve it at Wednesday\u2019s meeting. (You can read the ordinance by clicking here: Download Councilproposal)<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI was sad to see a few of my reform-minded colleagues were reluctant to oppose this," Moore said. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Under the ordinance, the legislative inspector general would be chosen
\nby aldermen and not be allowed to even proceed with an investigation
\nunless someone filed a signed-and-sworn complaint and the little-known
\nBoard of Ethics found \u201creasonable cause\u201d for the investigation to
\nproceed.
<\/br><\/p>\n

<\/br><\/p>\n

If the inspector general then decided to level formal charges, the
\nBoard of Ethics would sit in judgment.
<\/br><\/p>\n

<\/br><\/p>\n

During its 23-year history, that board hasn’t found a single case of
\nwrongdoing by aldermen. Over that period, more than 20 aldermen have
\nbeen convicted of crimes.<\/p>\n

While he is used to being on the losing side against council forces
\nloyal to Mayor Richard Daley, Moore found himself allied today with
\naldermen like Ald. Bernard Stone, 50th, who believe no inspector general should have the authority to probe council members.
<\/br>\n<\/p>\n

Some aldermen conceded today that they had to take action of some kind,
\nwith elections coming next year, after Mayor Richard Daley earlier
\nproposed allowing the city inspector general to investigate aldermen.
\nCurrently the IG can only investigate the mayor’s administration.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\n\u201cThis is a work on progress,\u201d added Ald. Richard Mell, 33rd, chairman
\nof the Rules Committee that recommended approval of the measure. \u201cAt
\nleast it\u2019s a first step, hopefully, for a meaningful ethics ordinance.\u201d
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nAsked if he’s concerned voters will regard the proposal as a paper tiger, Ald. Edward Burke, 14th, said his constituents aren’t focused on the issue.
<\/br>
\n\u00a0
<\/br>
\n"I wasn’t aware there was any groundswell," Burke said after the vote.
\n"I haven’t heard from any of my voters about it, but I think it is what
\nit is. Certain people will never be satisfied. I think this is a
\nreasonable approach to an issue that needs to get 26 votes and this
\nwill get 26 votes."
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nAldermen said Daley’s office was involved in the negotiations over the
\nmeasure, and the mayor today signaled he was OK with key provisions in
\nthe plan.
<\/br>
\n\u00a0
<\/br>
\n"That will be up to (aldermen) to explain the final result," Daley said
\nwhen asked if the proposed legislative inspector general is strong
\nenough to provide real oversight.
<\/br>
\n\u00a0
<\/br>
\nThe mayor said the important thing is that some kind of City Council
\ninspector general be created by the body, just as other levels of
\ngovernment have internal investigators.
<\/br>
\n\u00a0
<\/br>
\nAsked about Moore’s complaints, Daley said critics should make their case to their colleagues.
<\/br>
\n\u00a0
<\/br>
\n"That’s up to them," Daley said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Posted by Hal Dardick and John Byrne at 12:40 p.m. A key City Council committee today overwhelmingly approved a proposal for a watchdog to investigate aldermen despite criticism that the office will have almost no power. The Rules Committee voted 22-4 for the proposal to create the office of legislative inspector general. Ald. Joe Moore, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3992,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-526714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3992"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=526714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526714\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=526714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=526714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=526714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}