Courtney Greve, 312.603.0931
courtney.greve@cookcountyil.gov
Gail Siegel, 312.603.0993
gail.siegel@cookcountyil.gov
For Immediate Release
June 21, 2011
Only 13% of all filers, 20% of elected officials answer one or more question
Cook County Clerk David Orr launched today a new online database for the nearly 24,000 Statements of Economic Interests filed by elected officials and public employees in Cook County. The website is part of the Clerk’s ongoing effort to increase transparency and shed light on how government works.
“We’ve moved from an old-fashioned paper system to online filing and a searchable website in order to make these public disclosure statements more accessible to taxpayers, watchdog groups and the media,” Orr said.
The Illinois Constitution and Illinois Governmental Ethics Act requires elected officials and high-ranking public servants to annually answer an eight-question disclosure filing, known as a Statement of Economic Interest (SEI). The questions (see below) and format remain virtually unchanged since 1972.
Every December, more than 900 units of government – from municipalities to pension boards – submit their lists of filers to the Cook County Clerk’s office through an online tool. The Clerk’s office then notifies filers they must fill out and return an SEI by the May 1 deadline.
This year, Cook County filers transitioned from paper filing to answering the questions online for the first time. As a result, their responses are now available on the public portal for Cook County’s Statements of Economic Interests (SEI) Online: cookcountyclerk.com/ethics/econinterest/.
Users can search for information several ways:
• By a filer’s name;
• By the agency name, such as “Chicago Board of Education”;
• By an agency dropdown menu;
• By those who filed after the May 2 deadline;
• By those who have not filed at all;
• By those who are required to file by multiple agencies (multi-filers);
• By those who answered any question or a specific question.
After selecting a search method, users will be able to open a filer’s statement or download all results to an Excel spreadsheet.
"For ease of use, ready access and searchability, David Orr deserves applause for how he is collecting these statements and delivering them to the public,” said David Morrison, associate director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform. “What the Cook County Clerk's office has developed is a model for how other agencies around the state can simultaneously improve efficiency and better serve the public."
Orr said the database and website allow for greater analysis of the ethics statements than ever before.
For example, only 3,145 filers provided an answer (other than “Not Applicable”) to at least one SEI question, or just 13 percent of the 24,000 filers required to submit an SEI. The question that received the most answers (1,334) was Question 7, which asks if the filer was employed by another unit of government. Less than 1 percent of all filers answered Questions 5, 6, and 8. (See Chart 1)
Orr believes the confusing, vague questions are in part to blame for weak disclosure. He is currently partnering with Lt. Gov. Sheila Simon on an effort to improve the SEI questionnaire.
“Cook County’s excellent database exposes the SEIs for what they really are – empty,” Simon said. “It is time to ask better questions that prompt real answers, so taxpayers can determine if their public officials hold any conflicts of interest. I am hopeful that working together, Clerk Orr and I can finally pass meaningful ethics reform.”
Of those who answered one or more question, 792 were elected officials such as Cook County commissioners and village mayors, Chicago aldermen and suburban school district board members. (See Chart 2) Nearly 80 percent of the approximately 3,750 elected officials in Cook County answered N/A to every question.
When asked to list gifts in excess of $500 on Question 8, the responses included four filers who received sports tickets from Friends of Madigan and a Stroger Hospital physician who received more than $36,000 for lecture fees.
Emily Miller, the Better Government Association’s Policy and Government Affairs Coordinator, said SEIs are a vital tool for government watchdogs.
“Statements of Economic Interests expose potential conflicts of interest and make it easier to hold public officials accountable," Miller said. "The BGA applauds Cook County Clerk David Orr for launching this fully searchable online database of SEIs. Other public bodies should take note of this move toward transparent and open government, and follow suit."
Online filing allowed the Clerk’s office to contact the 944 units of government and 24,000 filers more often via email, cutting down on snail mail and phone calls. Still, not all filers are in compliance.
As of Friday, 578 filers submitted their SEI after the May 2 deadline (May 1 fell on a Sunday). The Cook County State’s Attorney and the Inspectors General for Chicago and Cook County have been notified of more than 400 filers who have not yet filed.
Digitizing SEIs resulted in merging accounts into one report for filers who are required to file by more than one unit of government. There are more than 800 multi-filers in Cook County; at least one filer is required to file for five different agencies.
Putting the process online also reduced postage and printing costs by about 30 percent for an estimated $10,000 savings. It also eased collection of penalties from late filers, bringing in $7,815 as of Monday. SEI Online was developed in-house by staff programmers; only staff hours were used for the project.
Due to the timing of this year’s filing, people who were elected for the first time in the February or April election will not appear in the online database. A future phase of the project will include putting candidate SEIs online.
Last year, Clerk Orr also created an online database of Cook County lobbyist reports.
Chart 1. Number of Answers Given To Each SEI Question
3,145 filers, or 13 percent of nearly 24,000 filers, provided an answer (other than “Not Applicable”) to at least one SEI question. This chart shows question 7 received 42 percent of all answers, followed by question 2 (33 percent) and question 3 (21 percent). Click here for full question language.
Chart 2. Number of Elected Officials Who Answered At Least 1 SEI Question
792 elected officials, or 20 percent of all elected officials in Cook County, answered at least one SEI question. There are fewer elected officials in Chicago (53) and Cook County (29) than in the other jurisdiction types, such as all suburban school districts.
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