Earlier this week on Wednesday, October 7, I hosted a town-hall meeting at Streamwood High School to address the state’s progress on ethics reform and future plans to further combat corruption. The town-hall allowed me to hear my constituents’ input on this issue and voice their concerns on other issues facing lawmakers. I was joined by my colleague Senator Don Harmon (D – Oak Park) and special guest Cindi Canary, the executive director for the Illinois Campaign for Election Reform. Their appearance allowed for better insight about some of the topics that were discussed throughout the night.

Those who attended asked a number of great questions and I truly appreciate the crowd participation they showed throughout the entire meeting. While the main theme of the night focused on ethics reform in state government, I touched on a few other issues that I will be proposing to the Senate this session.

Earlier this year I supported Senate Bill 1868 that would have lowered the percentage of majority votes the Cook County Board members needed to override the Board President from an astonishing four-fifths down to three-fifths. After unanimously passing the Senate, this bill unfortunately got stalled in the House. In response to this, I have currently signed on with Senator Dan Kotowski (D – Park Ridge) as a chief co-sponsor to reintroduce this legislation as Senate Bill 588 during this fall’s Senate Session in October.

Another important piece of legislation that I sponsored is a resolution that provides a way for voters to recall the governor by petition and for the election of a successor governor. This amendment (House Joint Constitutional Amendment 31) is one way to make certain that citizens will have a route to remove a governor who has shown either incompetence or malfeasance. While many political insiders oppose this effort, I will continue to fight for it until we grant greater control to the voters.

Recently, I filed Senate Bill 2470 to focus on campaign contributions caps and harsher punishments for violators. While other bills like this have had promise, many in the past have ended up getting stalled along the way. However, last night Senator Harmon and I agreed that hope is very much alive and we believe a responsible solution will be worked out this time around.

The meeting was extremely successful in that I was able to interact one-on-one with those who elected me to this office. Again, I would like to thank all those who attended this event as well as Senator Harmon and Cindi Canary for speaking. I appreciate my constituents’ participation and will bring their concerns to my colleagues in Springfield and continue to push for greater ethics reform in state government.