AFP-Illinois Calls on Sangamon County State’s Attorney to Open Investigation on Rochester Library Board Ethics Violations
Following a meeting of the Rochester Public Library District Ethics Commission, Americans for Prosperity-Illinois (AFP-Illinois) is calling on Sangamon County State’s Attorney to open an investigation into ethics violations discovered by AFP-Illinois. Additionally, AFP-Illinois is calling on the Illinois General Assembly to create a mechanism or independent body where ethics complaints in Illinois are not self-policed by the entity or individuals against whom they are filed.
- On 11/18/24, AFP-Illinois filed an ethics complaint with the Rochester Public Library Ethics Commission alleging that the District illegally used public resources to conduct a “Vote Yes” campaign for a massive 169% property tax hike. The complaint details 35 violations of state law. For more on this, view coverage from WCIA.
- On 11/22/24, the Rochester Library Board hand-picked the ethics commissioners who will hear the complaint against the board members.
- At the 12/4/24 meeting of the Ethics Commission, one of the three commissioners had to recuse herself from hearing the case because her name is mentioned in multiple complaints and the two other members split on the decision for the ethics commission to initiate a formal investigation. The only argument to not initiate a formal investigation was that the Board’s own ethics ordinance was too vague.
The State Officials and Employees Ethics Act states, “it is the clear intention of the Act to require units of local government and school districts to implement regulations that are at least as restrictive as those contained in the Act.” Furthermore, the Illinois Attorney General model ethics ordinance gives clear guidance on how a local government can comply with state law.
The Rochester Public Library District has blatantly violated the State Officials and Employees Ethics Act by using official resources to advocate for a property tax increase. There is no reason to believe they can police themselves.
AFP-Illinois Deputy State Director Brian Costin released the following statement:
“AFP-Illinois is committed to shining a light on local governments failures to protect taxpayers. This is why people don’t have faith in their government: local officials are blatantly breaking the law and are then appointing the very ethics commissioners who are supposed to be the bring them to account.
“There needs to be an independent commission to investigate these violations, and we should not be allowing units of government to police themselves when complaints are filed against them.
“Taxpayers deserve accountability and transparency, yet we see local officials blatantly breaking the law and then appointing their own allies to oversee ethics investigations. The Sangamon County State’s Attorney is the only impartial entity with jurisdiction over these complaints.”
BACKGROUND:
AFP-Illinois is dedicated to protecting Illinois taxpayers. Following a whistleblower tip about a November property tax referendum, AFP-Illinois FOIA’d and reviewed communications from the Rochester Public Library District. Based on those findings, we filed a complaint. The referendum to increase property taxes was defeated by a large margin in November.
