State Ethics Legislation


I. Key elements of the bill relevant to SIUC:

1. Includes University employees and members of the Board of Trustees in the category of “state employees.”
2. Amends previous Gift Ban provisions by reducing the number of exceptions.
3. Introduces restrictions on activities such as:
   1. Political Activities during work time.
   2. Lobbyist activity and service on boards and commissions.
   3. Employment by outside vendors of ex-State employees who formerly were involved in procurement decisions.
4. Strengthens protection for “whistle blowers.”

II. Ethics Training

The law requires that each employee complete, at least annually beginning in 2004, the ethics training program conducted by the university.

The training program can be internet based.

III. Personnel Policies

The University must have personnel policies in place that control the documentation of work time, compensation, and the earning/accrual of State Benefits.

IV. Specific Policies

1. Employees of Southern Illinois University cannot perform work for an outside vendor for one year after leaving the university’s employ if he/she participated personally and substantially in decisions to award contracts to that vendor that exceeded $25,000.00. This prohibition can only be waived by the State Ethics Commission.
2. University employees shall not intentionally perform any prohibited political activity during any compensated time, (other than vacation, personal, or compensatory time off).
3. University employees may not intentionally misappropriate any State property or resources by engaging in any prohibited political activity for the benefit of any campaign for elective office or any political organization.
4. University employees may not require other persons in the employ of the state to participate in prohibited political activities. (Prohibited political activities are defined to include: planning or holding a political meeting, rally, etc.; distributing campaign literature; soliciting or making campaign contributions; managing or working on a campaign; campaigning itself; conducting political polls or surveys for a specific campaign or political organization; and soliciting votes on behalf of a candidate, political organization, or referendum question.
5. No University employee may solicit or accept a gift from a prohibited source. Prohibited sources are defined to include any person or entity that does business or seeks to do business with the university, or persons who are registered lobbyists. Exceptions to the gift ban include: anything for which the recipient pay the “marketvalue”; items from one prohibited source during one calendar year with a cumulative value <$100.00; food and refreshments catered or consumed on premises not exceeding $75.00 per day; intra-governmental and inter-governmental gifts, which are gifts from persons within or between these groups: General Assembly members, Constitutional officers, and employees of State agencies; lodging, transportation or other benefits resulting from outside business employment activities that are customarily provided to others in similar circumstances.
6. The recipient of a gift that is included in the ban always has the option of returning the gift to the source.
7. For the purpose of the ethics bill, members of the Southern Illinois University Board of Trustees are considered employees of the university and, therefore, state employees.
8. Upon appointment to the Board of Trustees of the university, an appointee must file with the Secretary of State, a disclosure of all contracts the person or his or her spouse or immediate family members living with the person have with the state and all contracts between the state and any entity in which the appointee, (or spouse or immediate family member living with the appointee) have a majority financial interest.
9. In addition to the prohibited conflict of interest stated in article 8, it is unlawful for an appointed member of the Board of Trustees (or spouse or immediate family members living with the appointee) to have or acquire a contract or have or acquire a direct pecuniary interest in a contract with the state that relates to the Board of Trustees during and for one year after the conclusion of the person’s term of office.
10. A person required to be registered under the Lobbyist Registration Act, their spouse, and/or immediate family members living with that person may not serve on the Board of Trustees.
11. Retaliatory action is prohibited against any University employee because that employee engaged in the following activity:
    1. Discloses or threatens to disclose to a supervisor or public body an activity, policy or practice the employee reasonable believes violates a law, rule or regulation.
    2. Provides information to/testifies before any public body conducting an investigation, hearing, etc. into any violation of a law, etc.
    3. Assists or participate in a proceeding to enforce the Whistle Blower Protection statue.
12. Southern Illinois University shall designate an ethics officer.
13. Southern Illinois University Carbondale shall designate a campus contact person to assist that ethics officer, provide ethics training to the campus, and answer questions regarding Public Act 93-617.
14. A University employee who intentionally violates the State’s ethics bill is subject to discipline or discharge by the appropriate authority within the university administration.
15. The State Ethics Commission may levy an Administrative fine of up to $5000.00 against any person who:
    1. Violates the Act.
    2. Intentionally obstructs or interferes with investigations conducted under the Act by an Inspector General.
    3. Intentionally makes a false, frivolous or bad faith allegation.
16. The criminal penalties for intentional violations of the State’s Ethics Act consist of either a Class A felony or business offense.
17. Any person who intentionally makes a false report alleging a violation of the Act to an Ethics Commission or other specified law enforcement officials is guilty of a Class A misdemeanor.

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