Ethics Board not tough enough against lobbyists to satisfy IG

Chicago's reinvigorated Board of Ethics has been flexing its muscle plenty against lobbyists who emailed Mayor Rahm Emanuel on the mayor's private accounts and failed either to register or report their lobbying activities.

But the hefty fines are apparently not enough to satisfy Inspector General Joe Ferguson.

In a follow-up to a March, 2016 audit of Chicago's lobbyist registration process, Ferguson concluded that the Board of Ethics has only "partially implemented corrective actions" pertaining to two of his major findings.

To identify "all active lobbyists" and verify the "veracity of information" in their disclosures, Ferguson had recommended that the board follow "best practices observed in other jurisdictions."

They include "requiring both lobbyists and their employers to register with the city; requiring public officials to report having been lobbied; conducting routine audits of lobbyist disclosures and/or comparing lobbyist disclosures" to documents filed in other in "neighboring jurisdictions."

The board disagreed with those recommendations and concluded that it is "not a best practice among state regulators to require officials or principals to report to the public."

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