Editorial: End political expense, infighting over leak in Des Plaines

For more than six months, Des Plaines aldermen have been trying to find out who leaked information about lawsuits against the city to this newspaper.

And they've agreed to spend $40,000 to do so. That's a lot of taxpayer money to help settle what appears to be a political battle between Des Plaines Mayor Matt Bogusz and Alderman Jim Brookman.

Apparently investigations and political witchhunts aren't solely the purview of Washington, Springfield or Chicago.

At least Bogusz sees the folly in spending $10,000 more on the probe than the $30,000 that was agreed to by the council in November. The extra $10,000 is to conduct polygraph tests on 12 people, including elected officials and staff members.

"If you would have told me there was a time I would have to take a polygraph, I would have said you're nuts," said Alderman Don Smith, who voted against the expenditure and said he'd refuse to take one, calling it a new low for the city.

We agree. While it is true that the city has an ethics ordinance that prohibits releasing confidential information, going to these lengths seems overboard. Staff members could be disciplined, up to dismissal, for violating the ordinance and elected officials could be censured.

Daily Herald Staff Writer Christopher Placek received in June an 11-page document outlining active litigation against the city. It was relevant then because Alderman Brookman was on the list as part of a workers' compensation case and Bogusz was proposing changes to the ethics law that would force aldermen to disclose such suits and refrain from voting or deliberating on any matters directly related to the litigation.

That proposal was subsequently defeated and the investigation into who leaked the information began. Both the Cook County state's attorney's office and Illinois attorney general's office declined to investigate. That's when it should have died, but the council decided to hire an outside firm and take it to a different level.

The information about Brookman is something the public should know. His case dates back to 2006 when he was a city firefighter.

As a news organization, the Daily Herald uses unnamed sources sparingly but protects them zealously.

The time and money spent so far to determine who leaked the document could be much better spent. We urge the city council to move past this issue and work on more positive matters that would benefit the city and its residents.