Back home, in other news

Aurora, IL: At the Government Operations Committee last year, Alderman Kifowit called for a complete ban on contributions from contractors and developers who do business with the City of Aurora. The Kifowit campaign raised $26,000 in the second half of 2008 and none of that came from contractors or developers who have contracts with the City of Aurora.

"I gave the City staff a copy of the Executive Order that Mayor Daley signed, which prohibited contributions to his campaign from companies that did business with Chicago, and the current administration's staff did absolutely nothing with it", states Kifowit "when I am elected there will be an executive order prohibiting all contributions to the Mayor's office. That will keep the politics out of the functions of the City and it will protect the integrity of the Office of Mayor, the City Council and the taxpayers."

The State of Illinois issued Executive Order #3 on August 25, 2008. It states "... political contributions by State contractors to State Officers . . . contributes to public cynicism regarding the integrity of the government." Alderman Kifowit shares this view, and fought for a complete ban at the City level. In addition, she worked to create a true finance reform ordinance for the City of Aurora to adopt that was dismissed. Alderman Kifowit spoke out during committee meetings arguing that Weisner's presented ordinance lacked any enforcement, did not include an independent review board and was contradictory. While Alderman Kifowit was away on vacation with her family, the Government Operations committee tabled the ordinance.

"The proposed Campaign Finance Ordinance was created by someone who had already amassed a campaign account over $195,000* mostly from contractors and developers that did business with the city. The current administration had no problem accepting $5,000 and $10,000 checks before from these contractors and developers, and that shows a true breach of ethics and frankly is pure hypocrisy".

Alderman Kifowit's D2 statement indicates that the campaign raised over $26,000 in cash and in-kind contributions from July 1 - December 31, 2008. A significant portion of that amount raised came in the form of low dollar contributions. This shows that in a down economy people are still willing to donate. "I would rather have a $25 dollar donation from a voter, than a large dollar contribution from a company who might expect favoritism in the future" proclaimed Kifowit. "The public has to be assured that pay-to-play politics is not going to continue, at any level of government, and Aurora just does not have that ethical commitment, and this administration has failed to provide it."

* based on Friends of Tom Weisner annual report 7/1/2007 - 12/31/2007.

###