Date: 26 Mar 2005 23:17:09 -0000
Message-ID: <20050326231709.99442.qmail@cr.yp.to>
Automatic-Legal-Notices: See http://cr.yp.to/mailcopyright.html.
From: "D. J. Bernstein" <djb@math.uic.edu>
To: dsaltoun@law.uchicago.edu
Subject: economic-interest misapplication

I'm a faculty member at the University of Illinois at Chicago. I'm
writing to you in your capacity as Executive Inspector General, and in
particular in your capacity as ``point person on ethics.''

There appears to be a serious procedural flaw in the state procedures
for collecting Statements of Economic Interest. Specifically, ethics
officers have unfettered power to force employees to submit Statements
of Economic Interest, even when the employees are not required by law to
submit those statements. The Office of the Secretary of State blindly
trusts the lists of names supplied by ethics officers.

This power is being abused right now by the University of Illinois
Ethics Officer. A huge number of university faculty members, not just
department heads and other people listed in 5 ILCS 420 Sec. 4a-101(f),
have recently received demands to file Statements of Economic Interest.
I can give you more details about the situation if you're curious.

There has to be a dispute-resolution mechanism short of the courts.
Perhaps this particular abuse will be corrected internally at the
University of Illinois; perhaps it will be corrected before this year's
filing deadline for the Statements of Economic Interest; but perhaps
not. The Ethics Officer's victims are faced with an unpleasant choice
between (1) providing the requested information, which in many cases
requires extensive effort to collect (never mind the privacy violation),
and (2) risking fines and dismissal, none of which will be corrected
without expensive court intervention.

I look forward to receiving your comments on this procedural flaw.

---D. J. Bernstein, Associate Professor, Department of Mathematics,
Statistics, and Computer Science, University of Illinois at Chicago