Mayor Emmanuel Issues Three Executive Orders On First Day In Office

Last week Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel signed three Executive Orders creating new ethics restrictions applicable to Chicago City employees.  The Mayor also signed three Executive Orders originally issued by former Mayor Daley. Executive Order 2011-1 prohibits new appointees from lobbying City government for two years after leaving their government position. Additionally, EO 2011-1 prohibits lower level employees from lobbying the departments or agencies in which they worked and prohibits appointees to boards and commissions from lobbying the board or commission on which they sat. Executive Order 2011-2 prohibits registered City lobbyists from making political contributions to the Mayor. And Executive Order 2011-3 protects City employees against pressure to give gifts or make political contributions to their superiors by prohibiting gifts and contributions from such employees.  The EO also prohibits any contributions from City employees or appointees to the Mayor or his political committee. The three re-issued Executive Orders on ethics are: 1) Executive Order 2011-4, which bans political contributions to the Mayor from the owners of companies that do business with the City; 2) Executive Order 2011-5, which requires every City employee to report wrongdoing to the Inspector General; and 3) Executive Order 2011-6, which requires City employees to comply with the hiring oversight rules which prohibit political considerations in hiring decisions.