Kane County Reporter

State Rep. Jeff Keicher (R-Sycamore) isn’t surprised to see Legislative Inspector General Carol Pope finally reach her breaking point.

“Democrats continued to block an ethics reform package this spring that would allow the Legislative Inspector General to go where the evidence leads,” Keicher said in a post to Facebook. “Instead, they passed an ethics revision that didn’t address the issues revealed during multiple indictments and investigations but offered watered down measures that offer good speaking points. Now we have a woman with high integrity and a proven track record who is fed up with the sham LIG system she’s been asked to serve within resigning her position.”

In her resignation letter, Pope, a former judge and prosecutor, said she hoped to make a difference from the inside but often felt handcuffed by the system.

“This last legislative session demonstrated true ethics reform is not a priority,” she wrote. “The LIG has no real power to effect change or shine a light on ethics violations; the position is essentially a paper tiger.”

Pope took the job in early 2019 after it had languished vacant for roughly a year. During her time as LIG, she laid out several reform plans to the Joint Commission on Ethics Reform but never saw much come of them.

“All of the items I talked about are still unimproved today, except for being able to initiate an investigation without prior approval by the LEC,” she said. Pope said legislators further took the teeth out of the position during the last session by requiring the filing of a complaint before the LIG can undertake an investigation.

“If public allegations about a legislator are made, but no complaint is filed with the LIG’s office, the LIG cannot open an investigation,” she wrote. “For the last 12 years, the LIG has been able to open an investigation based on public allegations in the media. But no longer.”