Workers finish off a new $25-million tollway off-ramp to Rosemont, a project in which village trustee Jack Dorgan played a key role in awarding a $2.4 million engineering contract to lobbying client Christopher B. Burke Engineering.

In most states and municipalities, government officials who vote to spend taxpayer dollars on proposals that also put money in their own pockets as lobbyists could be accused of illegal conflicts of interest. Not in Illinois.

Thanks to state and local ethics laws riddled with loopholes, it was legal for Jack Dorgan, a village trustee in Rosemont, to vote last year to award a lucrative contract to a client of his Springfield lobbying firm.

Mr. Dorgan is not alone in his dual roles. Elected officials at every level in Illinois — from the village board to the state legislature — can use their positions to benefit paying clients or even family members, according to an examination of thousands of documents by Medill Watchdog, a journalism program at Northwestern University.

“We let officials do things that other cities and towns wouldn’t,” said David Orr, the clerk of Cook County. The current law, he said, “just doesn’t cut it.”

Medill reviewed statements of economic interest filed by officials in Cook County, registrations by lobbyists, legislation, ordinances and public actions. According to the records, 14 elected officials in Cook County over the past three years were registered as lobbyists for an array of private clients who did business at the state, county or local levels.

When elected officials double as lobbyists it can create confusion for lawmakers, said State Representative Fred Crespo, Democrat of Hoffman Estates. “When I see them at a hearing in the Capitol, I often can’t tell if they’re here for their constituents or for their paying clients,” he said.

No laws are being broken; officials are permitted to work as lobbyists, and also to vote and otherwise act on matters that directly benefit their lobbying clients.

Most other states prohibit such conflicts. While laws vary widely, some states, like Indiana, forbid lawmakers from lobbying at all, a Medill survey of 50 states found. Many others, like New York and California, bar officials from voting or acting on any matter that would help their clients. (more…)

Rick Tulsky

Soon after I returned to Chicagoland last winter to direct the Medill Watchdog at Northwestern University, I started hearing something that surprised me: Instances of elected officials working as paid lobbyists for private interests. It seemed an ideal topic for the debut of an undertaking devoted to the systemic examination of societal flaws, Why? Because it demonstrated a pattern of conduct at odds with the idealized version of democracy we all learned in civics class, and one that could only be documented by going through thousands of records. That kind of review takes time and careful attention by reporters, both in short supply in our 24/7 news cycles, but well-suited to a team of talented students who could, by working cooperatively, take on the kind of comprehensive examinations that provide a bona fide public service.

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