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County tightens ethics but stalls on voteDaily SouthtownJune 12, 2007By Jonathan LipmanTodd Stroger and his allies won passage Monday of some of the ethics reforms promised during Stroger's campaign for Cook County board president -- but were stalled again on their ethics centerpiece: a stronger inspector general for Cook County. The county's finance committee approved an overhaul of the county's procurement code and a tightening of campaign finance restrictions. Both are expected to win full board approval. But the committee delayed a vote on Stroger's inspector general ordinance. The proposal would create a new independent selection process for the post and give the inspector stronger investigative powers and the authority to probe independent county offices, such as the sheriff or state's attorney. A legal opinion from State's Attorney Dick Devine's office called Stroger's proposal "constitutionally infirm," saying Stroger and the board have no authority to oversee any office, including Devine's. That prompted some testy comments from supporters of the bill, who noted most of those separate offices don't have inspector generals of their own. "What you're really saying is there's no one watching them and there's nothing we can do to change that," said Commissioner Mike Quigley (D-Chicago), who helped Stroger craft the bill. Finance committee chairman John Daley (D-Chicago) noted Stroger's administration has "very serious concerns" about Devine's office issuing a legal opinion that applies to itself. Stroger attorney Richard Velazquez said he was seeking an outside legal opinion. Daley said he would hold the bill in committee until Stroger's office works out a compromise with Devine's office, but Stroger aides said they would press for passage of the bill as is. More successful was a re-writing of the rules governing county contracts and purchases. The code was updated to require contractors to certify compliance with state and county regulators and county ethics provisions. Contractors also must fill out a detailed economic disclosure form listing all corporate partners and whether they've faced previous discipline by the county. Professional services contracts -- that enlist the expertise of lawyers and architects, for example -- now must go through a request-for-proposals process. Previously, the county board president could hand out those contracts to whomever he wished. The changes "allow us to modernize the county's purchasing procedures and ensure that we're protecting the taxpayers," Stroger spokeswoman Ibis Antongiorgi said. "We believe these changes were long overdue." A change to county ethics rules proposed by Quigley also won committee approval. Current rules restrict any company doing business with Cook County from donating more than $1,500 in a regular year or $3,000 in an election year to a county politician or candidate. That restriction is now extended to tax attorneys and other consultants who represent property owners in front of the county assessor or board of review.
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