After a series of tweaks to satisfy Mayor Lori Lightfoot, an overhaul of the city’s ethics rules is headed to the full City Council after clearing a committee vote this afternoon.

The Ethics Committee, chaired by Ald. Michele Smith, 43rd—who first introduced the overhaul in April—voted to advance the package without a whiff of objection. The measure had been delayed earlier this week to allow the Lightfoot administration more time to amend the language of the ordinance. Now the City Council will likely vote on the proposal next week.

Steve Berlin, executive director of the Board of Ethics, called the legislation a good compromise.

"No single ethics package is going to finally bring corruption to its knees, and this one is no exception, but it does represent a big step in the right direction,” he said.

Reviewing the ordinance ahead of the vote, Berlin said the heart of the proposal is in strengthening the city’s anti-nepotism laws to prevent city officials from taking actions—such as a well-placed phone call or email on their behalf—to benefit their spouse, domestic partner or other family member.

One interesting wrinkle came up in the meeting when Ald. Jason Ervin, 28th, sought clarity on how he would personally be affected by the strengthened anti-nepotism rules. Ervin is married to City Treasurer Melissa Conyears Ervin.

Berlin said the impact would be “minimal,” providing the example that Ervin would not have to recuse himself if the treasurer was receiving a raise through the city’s annual budget process, but would likely need to recuse himself if a separate, standalone ordinance was introduced to raise Conyears Ervin salary specifically.

Changes were made this week around the margins to secure Lightfoot’s support, including not penalizing prohibited use of the city seal in campaign material if the inclusion of the seal was incidental and forcing the Board of Ethics to notify it’s opened an investigation into city officials in certain instances and giving them a chance to respond before the investigation is made public.

The ordinance will help “instill confidence” in City Hall, said Bryan Zarou, policy director at the Better Government Association’s policy arm who helped Smith and Berlin in drafting the ethics ordinance.

"People have lost confidence in city government and these ethics laws that we're trying to push, that we hope will pass, will give that confidence to the citizens of Chicago,” he said.

He singled out getting rid of the “completely outdated” privilege of allowing former aldermen to lobby on the City Council floor during meetings and increasing fines for ethics violations from $1,000 to $20,000, up from a ceiling of $5,000, which is “hopefully a preventative measure" to ensure compliance.

Still, Zarou said he was “sad to see” several original provisions in the measure be stripped out of the new ordinance, which is being directly introduced into the committee.

Under the original plan, if a conflict of interest prevented an alderman or other elected official from voting on a measure in committee or the full City Council, the official would have been forced to not only disclose the conflict but leave the room altogether during the debate and vote on the matter. But that provision was taken out to satisfy aldermen who believed it an unnecessary step.

Zarou said having the conflicted alderman take a hike would have prevented “any sort of intimidation from council members who do have a conflict.”

Because the city is unable to keep track of subcontractors who have business with the city and its sister agencies, a line including them in a ban on campaign contributions above $1,500 from businesses and contractors was taken out of the current ordinance.

Other changes include spelling out that aldermen conducting canned food drives at their ward offices are not breaking a ban on excessive gifts, and a $100 cap, rather than $200, on gifts employees give to their superiors.

Smith first introduced the ethics overhaul in April, but it was blocked from moving to the Ethics Committee by Ald. Rod Sawyer, 6th, who told reporters at the time he was unfamiliar with what was in the package and sought to slow it down. Sawyer has since launched a campaign for mayor and signed on as a co-sponsor of the legislation.

Then, Lightfoot teamed up with two City Council allies at the May City Council meeting to block a routine vote to re-refer the ordinance back to the Ethics Committee, a rare move that surprised Smith.

After a June meeting between Smith and Lightfoot, the two agreed to work together to find language that would satisfy Lightfoot and allow the package to move forward.

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