Chicago City Hall. (Michael Izquierdo / WTTW News)
The Chicago City Council is poised to fill two long-vacant seats on the city's Board of Ethics after Mayor Brandon Johnson faced months of criticism from good-government advocates.
The City Council’s Ethics and Government Oversight Committee voted unanimously to advance the nominations of Bernetta Bush, a retired Cook County judge, and attorney Sarah Jin to serve on the Chicago Board of Ethics, which is charged with enforcing the city's Governmental Ethics Ordinance.
A final vote by the full City Council is set for June 12.
One seat on the seven-member board has been vacant since July 2022, while another has been vacant since March 2023. Those empty seats forced the Ethics Board to cancel its March meeting, delaying consideration of an enforcement action against Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin.
The board eventually fined Conyears-Ervin a total of $70,000 for a series of violations of the Government Ethics Ordinance. However, those fines were not issued until after Conyears-Ervin ran in the Democratic primary to represent Illinois’ 7th Congressional District. Conyears-Ervin lost that race to U.S. Rep. Danny Davis.
The terms of two current members of the Ethics Board are set to expire at the end of July.
Ethics Board Chair William Conlon publicly called for Johnson to reappoint both earlier this month, saying he was baffled that the mayor had not already done so, calling them “clear-thinking, independent, thoughtful people who do their homework and are here participating every time.”
Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]
