Kane County Board ready to vote on ethics ordinance
By Matt Brennan For The Courier-News June 6, 2012 5:35PM
Updated: July 8, 2012 6:52PM
GENEVA — The Kane County Board will get a second chance to pass an updated ethics ordinance.
The proposed ordinance originally went before the board for a vote in December but was sent back to committee.
Now it will be up for vote Tuesday.
But this time there will be three proposed amendments that the board will discuss, suggested by various board members.
There has been a sense of urgency to pass a newly rewritten ordinance, as the human services committee has been working on changes for more than a year. The process began when outgoing State’s Attorney John Barsanti suggested there may be parts of the current ordinance that are not enforceable.
“We need to get this ordinance in place,” said county board member John Hoscheit, R-St. Charles.
The first of the three amendments was proposed by Maggie Auger, R-Algonquin, and was to add an administrative fee of up to $5,000 that would be paid by the ethics ordinance violator. Auger said that she would like the fine to be imposed at the judge’s discretion.
State’s Attorney Joe McMahon said there is no legal prohibition against adding a potential fee but that it could be seen as an effort to recoup attorney fees, which cannot be done in an ordinance case.
The second amendment up for discussion, proposed by Aurora Democrat Bonnie Kunkel, is to add those involved in a civil union into the language of the bill.
The final amendment up for discussion was proposed by Jim Mitchell, R-North Aurora. Mitchell’s amendment allows for the forwarding of statements of economic interest and campaign finance disclosures to the state’s attorney office upon the request of the chairman, board members, employees or members of the public at large.
