Feb 26, 2011: First blow to Emanuel team (transition aide quits after ethics violation revealed)
[excerpt] "[Judy] Erwin, the former executive director of the Illinois Board of Higher Education, admitted using her office e-mail and phone while working on a campaign committee for presidential candidate Barack Obama, using staff resources to plan her trip to the 2008 Democratic National Convention and engaging in campaign fundraising activity while on the job, the state's Executive Ethics Commission ruled in a decision filed Feb. 16.
.....The inspector general investigation found that Erwin repeatedly violated the state prohibition on political activity between July 2008 and February 2009 and "co-opted" her staff by involving them in her activities. "The atmosphere for IBHE [Illinois Board of Higher Education] employees must have been heavily colored by Ms. Erwin's political activity on the job," the ethics board said. It found "particularly troubling" her explanation that she made a campaign contribution to a state representative who was the chairman of the higher education appropriations committee: "This suggests that she was responding to a real or imagined pay to play incentive within state government."
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Her punishment??? (Will she lose her pension from her 30 years employed by state government????)
[excerpt] "The ethics commission said she cooperated with the investigation by the executive inspector general, reimbursed the state, agreed to pay a $4,000 fine and promised to never work for the state again. She resigned Aug. 15.
... "We had not seen the decision," Emanuel spokesman Ben LaBolt told the Tribune late Friday. "Judy Erwin is a friend of Rahm's with a wealth of experience and he'll continue to consult her public policy knowledge." [end excerpt]