A state appellate court has again ruled Cook County has the power to make ethics rules that apply to county officers, including the Cook County Assessor, this time finding the County Board did not overstep in prohibiting real estate lawyers and otheers from contributing to the campaign coffers of county officials when they are seeking “official action” from the county.
On Sept. 21, a three-justice panel of the Illinois First District Appellate Court ruled in favor of the county in their dispute with Cook County Assessor Joseph Berrios and a real estate lawyer over the county’s decision to sharply limit the amount of money property tax lawyers and others can potentially contribute to Cook County elected officials.
While the county has for decades used its Ethics Ordinance to place limits on who can give money to county officials, and how much they can donate to their campaigns, the ordinance was amended in 2016 to extend restrictions which had been applied previously to lobbyists and contractors, now to reach “persons seeking ‘official action from the county.’”
Cook County Assessor Joseph Berrios
The amendment meant the amount of money potentially available to Berrios from real estate lawyers and others petitioning his office or other county property tax officers, was sharply reduced, dropping from a potential cap of $5,600 set under state law to just $750 per donation, and no more than $1,500 “in a year in which candidacy occurs.”
The ordinance also empowered the county’s Board of Ethics to enforce the rules.
Berrios and attorney John K. Norris, who represents property owners appealing their property taxes, sued in early 2018, as Berrios faced a stiff Democratic primary battle against rival Fritz Kaegi. The lawsuit followed the Ethics Board’s decision in January 2018 to fine Berrios and his political organizations a total of $41,000 for allegedly receiving at least 41 donations that exceeded the $750 limit.
Berrios and Norris asserted the County Board exceeded its authority, and argued such regulation should be the purview of the state alone, violated the First Amendment speech rights of “candidates and citizens,” and infringed “on the Illinois Supreme Court’s authority to regulate the practice of law and the right of taxpayers to retain counsel of their own choice,” among other allegations.
Cook County Circuit Judge Sanjay Tailor ruled in favor of the county, and Berrios appealed.
In their Sept. 21 opinion, the justices also sided with the County Board, finding the County Board was well within its home rule powers under the Illinois state constitution to regulate such campaign donations in the interest of upholding ethical guidelines.
The opinion was authored by First District Appellate Justice Mathias W. Delort, with justices Joy V. Cunningham and Sheldon A. Harris concurring.
“… Nothing in Illinois’ home rule jurisprudence conceptually prohibits a home rule unit from regulating a particular type of human conduct more strictly than the state,” the justices wrote. “For example, both the state and home rule unit can tax the same product, with the result that the sale is subject to both taxes.
“… The Election Code limits contributions to $5,600, but the Ethics Ordinance limits them, in some circumstances, to $750. The Ethics Ordinance is ‘more restrictive’ than the Election Code, but the ultimate result is that the lower limit governs within Cook County. Since Cook County’s limit is lower than the state’s, a candidate who complies with both limits, as he must, can do so without running afoul of either.”
The justices also ruled the county’s donation limits are not negated by the decision of some candidates to self-fund their campaign. While such a decision will nix the funding limits by the state, the justices said nothing in state law also requires locally enacted limits to be similarly lifted.
“Therefore, we must reject plaintiffs’ arguments that the Ethics Ordinance is flawed because another candidate in Berrios’ race was a ‘self-funding’ candidate whose contributions to his own campaign ‘lifted the caps’ in the subject race,” the justices wrote.
Kaegi ultimately defeated Berrios, who had served as chairman of the Cook County Democratic Party, in the March 2018 vote. Kaegi faces no opponent in the November 2018 general election.
Berrios is represented in the court action by attorneys from the Forde Law Offices, of Chicago.