CITIZEN ADVOCACY CENTER

The Illinois Ethics Act

Lesson Plan and Activity

Grade Level: 11, 12

Subjects

· Social Studies – Government – Legislature

Duration: 2 class sessions

Description: This lesson will introduce some of the main provisions in the Illinois Ethics Act and allow students to act as the Ethics commission in determining whether fact patterns result in a violation of the Act.

Goals:

ISBE Standards

1. Social Science

· 14: Understand and explain basic principles of Illinois Government

2. Language Arts:

· 1A: Apply word analysis and vocabulary skills to comprehend selections;

· 4A: Listen effectively in formal and informal situations;

· 4B: Speak effectively using language appropriate to the situation and audience.

Objectives:

1. Understand the purpose behind Ethics Legislation in Illinois.

2. Examine and understand some of the major provisions of the Illinois Ethics Act.

3. Examine and understand the role of the ethics commission in the implementation of the Illinois Ethics Act.

4. Apply knowledge gained in a mock ethics commission hearing.

Materials:

Hypothetical handout

Class lecture handout

Pen/pencil and paper

Resources

Citizen Advocacy Center Educational Brochure - The State Officials and Employees Ethics Act.

The State Officials and Employees Ethics Act –5 ILCS 430/1/1 et. seq. available at www.iml.org/download/Ethics/selected_sections.doc

Day 1: Lecture and Discussion

1) Background

a) Politics and Ethics in Illinois – Illinois has a long and interesting history with respect to ethics in politics.

b) Mayor Richard J Daley’s Political Machine

i) Machine Politics – an unofficial system of political organization, most prevalent in American cities between 1875 and 1920, that was characterized by total “behind the scenes” control of local politics.

(1) Machine politics emerged as a result of major waves of immigrants.

(2) Immigrants needed services faster than legislation could provide them.

(3) Politicians urged immigrants to vote in exchange for favors/services.

ii) Resource - http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/political%20machine

c) License for Bribe

i) In the late 1990s, an entire family was killed in an accident with a tractor-trailer truck.

ii) An investigation ensued, and it was discovered that the truck driver may have paid a bribe to the George Ryan political campaign in order to get his commercial drivers license.

iii) George Ryan was the Secretary of State at the Time of this scandal.

iv) Resource - http://www.cnn.com/2000/US/03/16/truck.licenses/

2) These issues prompted a revision of the State Officials and Employees Ethics Act – 5 Illinois Compiled Statutes 430/1-1

a) Revision of previous statutes that regulated

i) Ethical Conduct

ii) Political Activities

iii) Giving and Receiving of Gifts

b) Important Provisions

i) Prohibited Political Activity

(1) Prohibits state employees from intentionally participating in any prohibited political activity during state-compensated time (activities done while the employee is supposed to be working, and is being paid by the state).

(2) Examples of prohibited political activity during state-compensated time

(a) Soliciting contributions for a campaign

(b) Soliciting votes for a campaign

(d) Attending political meetings

(e) Poll watching

(f) Distributing Campaign Literature.

(3) State supervisors may not require employees to perform prohibited political activity during state-compensated time or as part of their duties (ex: some employers required employees to sell raffle tickets for a political campaign in order to keep their jobs).

(4) Discussion Questions: Why is this type of activity prohibited? What could happen if this activity is not regulated/prohibited? Do you think that this law will be effective? Why or why not?

ii) Revolving Door Policy

(1) State workers may not leave government and immediately accept a job with a company s/he regulated or awarded a contract to while a state employee.

(a) This ban lasts for 12 months after a worker has left the state job.

(2) Discussion Questions: Why is this type of activity prohibited? What could happen if this activity is not regulated/prohibited? Do you think that this law will be effective? Why or why not?

iii) Public Service Announcement Regulation

(1) Bans taxpayer-funded public service announcements (T.V. and radio), advertisements, bumper stickers, billboards, magnets, and stickers that feature the image or name of an Illinois Constitutional Officer or a member of the General Assembly (ie. The state treasurer advertising the state’s 529 college tuition program with her image and name attached).

(2) Discussion Questions: Why is this type of activity prohibited? What could happen in this activity is not regulated/prohibited? Do you think that this law will be effective? Why or why not

iv) The Gift Ban

(1) Prohibits state workers from soliciting or accepting any gifts from any prohibited sources.

(2) Prohibited sources include

(a) People seeking official action from the state worker

(b) People who do business or are seeking to do business with the state worker

(d) People with interests that may be substantially affected by the state worker.

(3) This law extends to spouses and immediate family members living with state workers

(4) Exceptions to the gift ban

(a) Opportunities for the general public

(b) Items for which the recipient paid market price

(d) Family Gifts

(e) $75 in meals per day

(f) Food, lodging or travel associated with outside business or employment activities

(g) Items worth less than $100 per year.

(5) Discussion Questions: Why is this type of activity prohibited? What could happen in this activity is not regulated/prohibited? Do you think that this law will be effective? Why or why not?

c) Enforcing the Illinois Ethics Act.

i) The Ethics Act establishes an enforcement structure to ensure compliance with ethics laws.

ii) Inspectors General –

(1) Investigate allegations of fraud, waste, abuse, mismanagement, misconduct and violations of the Ethics Act and of other laws and rules in their respective offices

(2) Reports allegation to the Attorney General’s office and to respective Ethics Commission.

iii) Ethics Commission

(1) Conducts administrative hearings and rule on matters brought by the Inspectors General.

(2) Makes ruling, issues recommendation and imposes administrative fines according to the Act.

iv) Ethics Officers

(1) Each agency assigns an Ethics officer.

(2) They act as liaisons between the agency and the Inspectors General and Ethics Commission

(3) The provide guidance for the interpretation and implementation of the Ethics Act.

Activity

Students should divide into two sides and read each of the hypotheticals.
Each group will be assigned to either argue that there has been an ethics violation or there has not been an ethics violation in each case.
In their groups, they need to craft their arguments to present at a debate.
The teacher will act as moderator.

Student Outline

1) Name of the Act:_____________________________________________________________

a) Citation for the Act: _______________________________________________________

b) Important Provisions

i) _________________________________________________

(1) What Does this provision prohibit?_____________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

(2) What are some examples of this activity?

(a) __________________________

(b) __________________________

(d) __________________________

(e) __________________________

(f) __________________________

(3) Who is prohibited from participating in this activity?_______________________

_____________________________________________________________________

ii) ________________________________________________

(1) What does this provision prohibit?______________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

How long does this prohibition last?_______________________________________

iii) ________________________________________________

(1) What does this provision prohibit?_____________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

iv) ________________________________________________

(1) What does this provision prohibit?_____________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

(2) What are some examples of prohibited sources?

(a) __________________________

(b) __________________________

(d) __________________________

(3) What are the exceptions to this provision?

(a) __________________________

(b) __________________________

(d) __________________________

(e) __________________________

(f) __________________________

(g) __________________________

c) Enforcement – Three parts

i) _________________________________

(1) Responsibitlies_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

ii) _________________________________

iii) _________________________________

Notes

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Hypotheticals

A state agency director takes his staff on a day and a half retreat to a hotel in Chicago. The Retreat lasts from Thursday morning until Friday afternoon. The director has reserved a single room for each of his 7 staff members who are invited to bring their spouses – each room costs $210 a night. He has also reserved a conference room where most of the activity will take place. For food at the retreat, the director has catered for a continental breakfast, morning and afternoon snacks, and lunch for each day. The total costs for this is $80 per person. Additionally, he will take his staff and their respective spouses out to dinner at the Chop House for dinner where he expects to spend $85 dollars per guest. At the final lunch he will also present each staff person with a leather, personalized portfolio for use in their roles at the agency - $110 per portfolio.

Have any of the

The secretary of state of Illinois, Luther Calway, is in charge of licensing drivers. Illinois drivers licenses have a line on the back for the license holder to sign-up as an organ donor. In an effort to encourage drivers to indicate their desire to be an organ donor, the office of the secretary of state has begun an ad campaign encouraging Illinois drivers to sign the back of their licenses. The ad campaign, which is presented via billboards, bumper stickers, television ads, and magnets sent to homes in vehicle registration packets, features Luther Calway saying “You have a heart when you give a heart. Sign-up to be an organ donor.”

Spud Markham is an Illinois representative who is interested in running for the Illinois Senate in the upcoming election. His only legislative staff member is an office manager. He has recruited a few high school and college students to begin campaigning for him. Their assignments include designing a campaign brochure on his office computer and then distributing it to people in his district. The office manager is very busy with his official legislative duties so she will make 500 copies of the brochure on the office machine after her normal 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. hours. The paper will be purchased with campaign money. The contact information on the brochure includes the number of Spud’s representative office, so the office manager will also be fielding calls about the campaign.

Misty Mirror works in the governor’s office and is in charge of maintaining the facilities. In November of 2003 she awarded a contract to the Fantastic Flowering Femmes, a large landscaping firm, to do all the gardening and landscaping outside the Illinois Capital building for the year of 2004. In March 2004, she quit her job because she was expecting triplets in June. After giving birth to Maya, Kya, and Rya, she determined that she just had too much time on her hands and began searching for a new job. Just imagine her delight when Fantastic Flowering Femmes hired her as their vice president in charge of bulb ordering – the job combined two of her favorite things: flowers and CONTROL!

©Copyright 2003 Citizen Advocacy Center. All rights reserved. No part of this lesson plan may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior, written permission of the Citizen Advocacy Center. The Citizen Advocacy Center is a 501(c)(3) non-pofit non-partisan community based legal organization. For information about the Center, or to make a tax deductible contribution, visit www.citizenadvocacycenter.org, call 630.833.4080. The Center is located at 238 N. York Rd., Elmhurst IL 60126