The office of the legislative inspector general in Illinois is broken. The LIG is supposed to be an independent, objective official to whom anyone can go to lodge a complaint about unethical or wrongful conduct by members of the Illinois General Assembly. But the legislative inspector general is not independent. Unless and until the legislature changes the structure and rules governing the LIG, it is a powerless role, and no LIG — no matter how qualified, hardworking and persistent — can effectively serve the public.
There are many problems, but the key one is that the legislative inspector general cannot perform basic functions without permission from the Legislative Ethics Commission — a body made up entirely of Illinois legislators who have inherent conflicts of interest in serving on the commission.
My observation is not new. When the longest-standing Illinois legislative inspector general, Tom Homer, left office in 2014, he wrote a letter to the General Assembly, recommending changes that he said were critical to the LIG’s independence. None of those changes have been made.
One issue that the former legislative inspector general highlighted was that the LIG cannot publish her founded summary reports without the commission’s permission. A founded summary report represents an LIG’s decision, after investigation, that a legislator engaged in unethical or wrongful conduct. For members of the General Assembly, there is no punishment that an LIG can recommend. The only way to hold a legislator accountable in Illinois — and to promote discussion and change — is for the LIG to be able to publish her findings.
When I agreed to serve as acting legislative inspector general in 2017, I knew that there were structural problems, but never for a minute did I believe that the commission would take any action to thwart my independence. I certainly did not think that the commission would refuse to publish one of my founded summary reports.
I was wrong.
My term ended Feb. 28, 2019, and this month — as required by law — the new LIG and the commission presented their quarterly reports to the General Assembly. The quarterly reports are hard to read and do not convey much information. But a careful look reveals that near the end of my term, I issued a founded summary report — a report where I found that a legislator engaged in wrongdoing — that was not published. I requested publication, and the commission refused.
Also buried in the numbers is a second founded summary report that I requested to be published; the new LIG chose to close the case.
I am statutorily bound to preserve the details as confidential, so I cannot describe the matters or the nature of the violations that I found. What I can say is that the public should be reading about and debating my reports. Some readers may agree with me, some may not — but either way, the process of understanding the LIG’s investigation and grappling with her conclusions would be much healthier than allowing them to be buried and forgotten.
The new legislative inspector general is experienced and ethical and able. But she will not be able to serve as an independent LIG if the structure remains as it is. Non-legislators should serve on the commission, and the LIG should not need anyone’s permission before opening an investigation, serving a subpoena or publishing a founded summary report. These changes would be an excellent start to promote accountability in Illinois.
Julie B. Porter is a lawyer in Chicago and was the acting legislative inspector general from 2017 through earlier this year. She previously was chief of the criminal division of the U.S. attorney’s office in Chicago.
