Subject: RE: replacement for statement of economic interests Date: Mon, 18 Apr 2005 14:42:09 -0500 Message-ID: <96DF6DA6D4E9A946B7D02E762CED515801016C91@exc01.ilsos.net> From: "Maddox, Nathan" To: "D. J. Bernstein" Cc: "Cooper, Penny" , "Paine, Renee" Mr. Bernstein, The Illinois Governmental Ethics Act does not grant discretion to the Secretary of State's office to determine which employees of other agencies are or are not responsible for filing economic interests statements. Nor should it grant this office such discretion. It is not possible for us to know what duties are being performed by the tens of thousands of employees of dozens of different agencies. Therefore, it is not possible for us to determine which of those employees are required by statute to file statements. The Act requires us to send notices of the requirement for filing to all employees who have been certified to us by other agencies as being statutorily required to file. Moreover, if your name remains on the list and you do not file a statement, we are required to impose the statutory penalties. You certainly have a right to contact your university ethics officer to question why your name was included on the list and request that it be removed. Moreover, you have a right to challenge in appropriate administrative or judicial proceedings a decision not to remove your name or to challenge any penalties we impose. But absent instructions from your ethics officer to remove your name from the list, or an order from an appropriate administrative or judicial body instructing us to remove your name from the list or not to impose penalties, we will proceed as the statute requires. And if you stop to think about it, this approach makes sense. If all an employee has to do to get out of filing an economic interests statement is write to the Secretary of State and say he shouldn't have to file a statement, there would be little reason for having the disclosure law in the first place. Nathan Maddox Assistant General Counsel