Chicago’s Ethics Board will look to amend the city’s ethics ordinance in response to a Tribune story that detailed how several aldermen used tax dollars to pay a former top Park District official tens of thousands of dollars as a consultant after he’d had been asked to resign and placed on the district’s “do not rehire” list for his role in that agency’s sexual abuse lifeguard scandal.

Steve Berlin, the Ethics Board’s executive director, said it will recommend to Mayor Brandon Johnson and aldermen that they amend the city government’s ethics ordinance to clarify “various aspects of the Ordinance’s regulation of City Council independent contractors, in light of a media story earlier this week,” according to Berlin’s report to the board this week.

Berlin on Tuesday confirmed the proposed changes come in response to the Tribune article, which detailed how four aldermen paid more than $48,000 out of their taxpayer-funded expense accounts to a consulting firm run by Alonzo Williams, the Park District’s former chief programs officer. Berlin said in an email the board will likely make proposed changes to the ethics ordinance “in the next few months,” but he declined to discuss specifics.

The full City Council would need to vote to approve any such changes, and council members Tuesday offered mixed reactions to the idea.

[ Aldermen use expense accounts to pay ex-Park District official who resigned amid lifeguard scandal ]

Berlin’s proposal comes after a Tribune review of aldermanic expense accounts, which are little-known funds totaling $122,000 a year for each of the city’s 50 council members to spend on almost anything they want with little oversight. Among the Tribune’s findings: Williams was paid as an independent contractor for various consulting jobs by former Ald. Roderick Sawyer, 6th, and current Alds. Michelle Harris, 8th, David Moore, 17th, and Jason Ervin, 28th.

Williams was asked to resign from his position as the Park District’s chief programs officer in late 2021 after he was repeatedly cited in an independent investigation as among several Park District executives who mishandled allegations of sexual harassment and abuse in the lifeguard program.

The district’s human resources form that details Williams’ resignation states “DO NOT REHIRE” in the remarks section, and a district spokeswoman told the Tribune that Williams is still banned from being employed by the Park District, which is a sister agency of the city of Chicago.

When the Tribune told Berlin in May that Williams had been paid as a consultant by the four aldermen, Berlin called the situation “disturbing.”

“I’d think do not hire lists should be shared and honored between sister agencies and the City’s various branches, including the legislative branch,” Berlin said then in an email. “However, who can and cannot be hired as a City Council independent contractor is not addressed by the Governmental Ethics Ordinance.”

In addition, Williams was one of at least eight independent contractors who didn’t file financial interest statements required by the city’s ethics ordinance.

Northwest Side Ald. Scott Waguespack, 32nd, said it makes sense for the City Council to tighten up rules around independent contractors and the city’s do-not-hire rules.

“Contractor oversight has long been this kind of no man’s land, and I’ve been talking to the Ethics Board about the need to figure out good ways to remedy that,” Waguespack said. “You just see this rotating circle where contractors get in trouble at one agency and move on and get hired at another one. There are ways to address it.”

Waguespack said he thinks the votes would be there on the council to make do-not-hire lists apply to contractors at city sister agencies, though he acknowledged it could be tight.

But Ervin, one of the aldermen who paid Williams’ consulting firm, said it’s not necessarily fair to issue across-the-board punishments for city employees who did something wrong in one agency. “That’s something we would have to discuss further, but we do have the right to exercise some judgment,” Ervin said. “You wouldn’t hire a bank robber as a bank teller, but does that mean he can’t work as a janitor?”

Williams launched 8028 Consultants LLC in early 2022. Just two months after that he received his first payment from Moore.

By April 2022 three other council members — Sawyer, Harris and Ervin — had each begun paying Williams’ firm on a monthly basis using their annual aldermanic expense allowances.

Williams advised them “in all park-related matters” and created documents for grant applicants, according to engagement requests, invoices and emails obtained by the Tribune through the Freedom of Information Act.

aharrison@chicagotribune.com

jebyrne@chicagotribune.com