LYING BY OMISSION

I just love when a politician, former or current, gets nailed in an investigation, tries to keep it hidden and then gets caught. My mouth started salivating when I read about how Judy Erwin, one of Chicago Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel’s transition team co-chairs, resigned two days after her appointment because of ethics violations at her previous job as Executive Director of the Illinois Board of Higher Education (IBHE.) Ironic but Erwin was also a co-chair of Emanuel's mayoral and congressional campaigns.

Let’s look at a synopsis of the crime.

The Illinois Executive Ethics Commission investigated Erwin for using staff resources from her IBHE office, participating in political campaign fund-raising and using her state office phone and e-mail during Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. The investigation found that she violated Illinois’ ban on political activity from a state-funded office between July 2008 and February 2009! It was not a once or twice ethics violation of using a state e-mail address by mistake or making a few personal phone calls. The violations took place over an EIGHT MONTH period!

When told of the investigation, Erwin cooperated and admitted to what she had done. She paid a $4,000 fine, reimbursed the state, resigned from her job in August of 2010 and agreed never to work for the state government again. Her excuse to the Chicago Tribune last week, “…she got careless while she was busy at work. The former state representative said she hoped her 30 years of work in state government would outweigh the commission's ruling.”

She worked for the state for THIRTY YEARS, including a stint as an elected state representative, so she certainly knew what she was doing at the IBHE was illegal, immoral and unethical. This was no neophyte to politics; this was an expert in government! It makes the crime even more heinous!

The Illinois Ethics Commission was not filed until February 16, 2011 (more than TWO YEARS after her violations!) and it reported that Erwin stated, “she "was not careful enough in separating her political work from her state responsibilities ... and also that she had become accustomed to using administrative assistants in the private sector in a way that is not permitted in the public sector."

The report also showed, "The atmosphere for IBHE employees must have been heavily colored by Ms. Erwin's political activity on the job.” It found "particularly troubling" her explanation that she made a campaign contribution to a state representative who was the chairman of the higher education appropriations committee, "This suggests that she was responding to a real or imagined pay to play incentive within state government."

Isn’t pay to play why former Governor George Ryan is serving time in prison and what the charges are against former Governor Rod Blagojevich? Has Erwin been living under a rock these past years and not know this?

Obviously Erwin knew the report was issued on February 16th, but did she tell the Emanuel team after his election on February 22nd? Didn’t she think some reporter would discover it? How could she be so arrogant to accept a position as a co-chair on Emanuel’s transition team and then leave him hanging out to dry?

After the Chicago Sun-Times, the Chicago Tribune and the Associated Press got on the story, Emanuel spokesperson Ben LeBolt said he had not seen the ethics report. "Judy Erwin is a friend of Rahm's with a wealth of experience and he'll continue to consult her public policy knowledge." LeBolt also said that members of the transition team had been vetted. What? Who did the vetting to miss something this big?  Simple question would have been, "Why did you leave your last job?"

So Rahm wants to continue to continue using Erwin as a consultant because of her public policy knowledge, knowing she violated Illinois state ethics? I guess I was naïve in hoping for a modicum of morality from the new mayor. This story proves that Chicago ain’t ready for reform.