Ethics ordinance approved after being watered down to help mayoral allies – Chicago Sun-Times*

The Chicago Board of Ethics now is empowered to levy fines as high as $20,000 — quadruple the current maximum — “plus the entire amount of the ill-gotten gains.” Conflict-of-interest provisions — unchanged since 1987 — are expanded to prohibit city officials from taking any legislative or administrative action to benefit relatives and domestic partners. And former alderpersons no longer can roam the floor at council meetings, lobbying their former colleagues.