Date: 17 Apr 2005 22:55:05 -0000 Message-ID: <20050417225505.95076.qmail@cr.yp.to> Automatic-Legal-Notices: See http://cr.yp.to/mailcopyright.html. From: "D. J. Bernstein" To: "Paine, Renee" Cc: Pcooper@ILSOS.NET, nmaddox@ilsos.net Subject: Re: replacement for statement of economic interests References: <20050414154223.34992.qmail@cr.yp.to> It has now been more than three weeks since I first sent email to Mr. Maddox, and nearly two weeks since my letter to the Office of the Secretary of State. I've heard nothing from Mr. Maddox. My understanding is that the Office of the Secretary of State normally reacts to missing Statements of Economic Interest by imposing extreme penalties: termination of employment on 1 June, preceded by a $100 fee per day starting 16 May, preceded by a $15 fee on 1 May. However, as I said in my letter, I am not in any of the categories listed in 5 ILCS 420 Sec. 4a-101. (The information you received from the UI Ethics Officer is incorrect.) Consequently, applying any penalties to me would be unauthorized by the Illinois Governmental Ethics Act and would be a breach of my (tenured) employment contract. The first penalties begin in two weeks, and preparing a lawsuit takes some time, so I need to know _now_ whether the Office of the Secretary of State is going to accept my letter in lieu of the Statement of Economic Interests. Naturally, I hope to receive a prompt answer of ``yes,'' eliminating the problem. I'm also willing to discuss friendly dispute-resolution mechanisms that remove the time pressure and that might allow us to avoid the court system. But I cannot accept continued non-responsiveness from the Office of the Secretary of State. ---D. J. Bernstein, Associate Professor, Department of Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science, University of Illinois at Chicago