Northfield Township trustees hammer out ethics process  

February 12, 2009

By IRV LEAVITT ileavitt@pioneerlocal.com

Democrat and Republican Northfield Township trustees, battling over nepotism as the April 7 election approaches, agreed Tuesday night on a process that might get them an amended ethics ordinance.

That process is probably complex enough to keep them busy until the election and beyond.

The argument had escalated last week as Democratic Trustee Karen Nystrom, running against Republican Township Supervisor Jill Brickman, lost a bid 3-2 along party lines to put an anti-nepotism resolution on the ballot. She wanted to stop Township Road District boss Peter Amarantos from hiring his own relatives and relatives of her board colleagues, though she wouldn't say they didn't do a good job.

She floated a similar resolution Tuesday that would address her issue just by a board vote. Republican Trustee Robert Dunne has his own massive ethics ordinance he wants to move forward, but neither will work right now, township attorney Eric Patt says.

They would have a hard time amending their code through the 2003 state ethics code because there's apparently no room in it for non-home rule governments to further regulate themselves, Patt said.

If they try to change their code through the state personnel code, that won't work, because the personnel code exempts elected officials of boards that lack home-rule status.

So now, they've asked Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan for an opinion on how much latitude they have. If they have none, they might have to seek help from the General Assembly

If they find room to work, they can try running a compromise ordinance proposal through their human relations committee, and then through an ethics committee they could set up, according to state code. But even then, they're far from being able to craft new law.

The only power they have over the road district is to stop Amarantos from exceeding his budget. So trustees agreed to eventually ask the highway commissioner to voluntarily join the ethics ordinance creation process, but they have no way of compelling him to do so.

Amarantos, who didn't attend Tuesday's meeting, said last week that there's nothing wrong with the way he hires, and nobody gets an advantage, including the husband of Republican Trustee Elizabeth Coy and his own brother William.