A freshman Sangamon County board member who recently tried to enact whistleblower legislation has learned his first lesson in county politics: Know thy place.
Board member Sam Cahnman, a Democrat elected last year, filed a proposed ordinance in late November to protect and reward Sangamon County employees who report wrongdoing in county government. Under the measure, they’d enjoy the same protections state employees have under Illinois’ whistleblower law, which also pays cash for bringing misdeeds out in the open. Cahnman filed the ordinance 13 days before the board’s Dec. 9 meeting.
It went over like a lead balloon. “There were some negative views expressed by Republican members,” says Cahnman, one of five Democrats on the 29-member board. Republicans accused him of grandstanding. Some of them argued that Cahnman’s proposal insults county employees.
“This isn’t designed in any way to attack any employee,” Cahnman says. “It’s to protect them. If they blow the whistle they don’t have the legislation to protect them.” Cahnman says he’s not aware of any wrongdoing taking place in county government. He cites events such as the license-for-bribes scandal that led to the recent indictment of former governor George Ryan as a good reason for supporting his proposal. “This simply puts [future] wrongdoers on notice that we’ve got this mechanism in place.” At the December meeting the board voted to send Cahnman’s measure to its civil liabilities committee.
Some board Republicans say they were less irked by the proposal than by the way Cahnman introduced it, bypassing committees by filing with the county clerk to ensure its place on the agenda.
“In my experience in eight years on the board it is a very rare occasion that a board member would sponsor a resolution and take it straight to the board,” says Board Chairman Andy Van Meter, a Republican. “The only exceptions would be a routine, customary matter or some emergency matter. In general, board members like to study a proposal before voting.”
Cahnman says he was only following rules by filing with the clerk. The rules require that legislation coming before the full board be filed at least ten days before a board meeting.
Whistleblower laws aren’t that common at the local governmental level in Illinois. Only a few municipalities, counties, and school districts have them, Cahnman says. The state law, enacted in 1987, expands its protection to employees of private companies as of Jan. 1. The federal law, called the “False Claims Act,” was enacted under Abraham Lincoln to crack down on abusive government contractors. The Justice Department claims it has recovered more than $6 billion since strengthening the law in 1986. Cahnman says he’s standing behind these precedents.
Regardless, Van Meter remains leery of Cahnman’s intentions.
“I am very uncomfortable with any attempt to score cheap political points by implying that county workers are corrupt,” Van Meter says. “Should employees be able to call attention to possible improprieties without fear of relation? Yes. Do we want an atmosphere in which everyone is keeping a little black book on their fellow employees in hopes of winning a monetary award? I don’t think so,” he says.
“How this particular statute operates in comparison to the relatively easy access county employees have to the sheriff’s and state’s attorney’s offices really is a subject for further study.”
This article appears in Dec 25-31, 2003.
