Democratic lawmakers cited two technical reasons. One is that there’s no legislative inspector general, so there’s no one with the power to turn complaints of any nature into an actual investigation. The other is that sexual harassment is not currently included as a specific violation of the state’s ethics act, meaning that the Legislative Ethics Commission can’t hold a hearing or issue punishments on such complaints.
The General Assembly has been without a permanent chief watchdog for more than three years. Three of the four legislative leaders have to agree on a nominee before the commission can consider installing the person in the role, said Democratic Sen. Terry Link, who is chairman of the legislative ethics panel.
Cullerton attempted to assign blame to himself on Wednesday. “It’s our duty to fill that post. I take responsibility for my role in that lapse, and I apologize for it,” he said in a statement.
But legislative leaders have failed to hire a permanent legislative inspector general since Tom Homer left at the end of June 2014. The following week, the Chicago Tribune published details of a secret report put together by Homer in the wake of a 2013 Metrascandal that offered new insight into how Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigannavigated the intersection of public business and ward-style patronage through his Southwest Side office and Illinois Capitol suite.
The report contained an account of Metra’s chairwoman entering Madigan’s Capitol office to talk about state issues and leaving with a yellow Post-it note bearing the names of two workers the speaker wanted to see promoted. In another meeting, a Metra lobbyist who was a longtime Madigan aide was spotted leaving the speaker’s office with two resumes. Another time, Madigan simply called the cellphone of one of his “better” precinct captains to tell him about a state job, according to the report.