Election commission needs oversight

Last week, a newly appointed ethics commission found that the renewal of the contract of Dan Curry, Reverse Spin, as spokesman for the DuPage County Election Commission was not unethical.

At the heart of our complaint was that Mr. Curry had been paid nearly $110,000 by Citizens to Elect Joe Birkett. Nearly half of this amount was paid to Mr. Curry while he was simultaneously consulting for the election commission for $36,000 annually. Any complaints regarding the election commission are handled by the state's attorney's office.

Our complaint included 2007 minutes of the Board of Governors of the Illinois Office of the State's Attorneys Appellate Prosecutor, where Vice Chairman Joe Birkett had strongly advocated hiring Mr. Curry to become the entity's spokesman. Mr. Birkett also motioned to renew Mr. Curry's contract the following year. While working for this entity, Mr. Curry billed the state for working one-on-one with Mr. Birkett. Mr. Curry was simultaneously receiving payments from Citizens to Elect Joe Birkett and, of course, our election commission.

We see this as a conflict of interest and a misuse of county and state taxes. We are not alone.

If the election commission must hire a PR consultant, we prefer someone who has not been paid $110,000 by the state's attorney's campaign.

Last year, the election commission dismissed recommendations to amend its ethics ordinance provided by Illinois Ballot Integrity Project/DuPage Chapter and four local chapters of the League of Women Voters. Unlike other county election boards in the state, our commission is not subject to county oversight, ethics rules and regulations. This is why we called for strong amendments to the ethics ordinance.

Jean Kaczmarek

Glen Ellyn

Melisa Urda

Naperville

Illinois Ballot Integrity Project, DuPage Chapter