Analyzing the $60K Fine Against Melissa Conyears-Ervin

The Chicago Board of Ethics and the Inspector General have uncovered a series of serious violations by City Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin. In a shocking revelation, she has been found to have breached Chicago’s Governmental Ethics Ordinance a staggering 12 times during her tenure. These violations include the unauthorized use of city resources for activities strictly prohibited by her role. The Board of Ethics, in a bid to uphold the city's ethical standards, has imposed a fine of $5,000 per violation, the maximum allowed, resulting in a total penalty of $60,000.  

After an investigation, the office of the Inspector General concluded that Conyears-Ervin had violated the Ethics Ordinance, and the Board of Ethics unanimously voted in agreement. This is the first time an elected city official has been found to have violated the Governmental Ethics Ordinance by both the Ethics Board and the Inspector General. 

Unauthorized and Prohibited Activities 

Conyears-Ervin began a virtual prayer group during the COVID-19 lockdowns and has continued to host the broadcasted prayer service nightly. The issue arose when she used her professional social media accounts to advertise this prayer group and services and used her professional email account to send out invitations for them.  

In addition, she used her official city headshots and her Chicago City Treasurer title in online flyers promoting these religious activities, which fall outside the scope of her position within the city government. City leaders are prohibited from using city resources for non-city and non-official purposes. In this case, the use of her official headshots taken for the purpose of her role within the government amounts to the misuse of city money, which was used to pay the photographer for their services. Likewise, using her official title may lead to misinterpretations that she is leading this prayer group in an official capacity.  

Use of Taxpayer Money 

What may be more distressing to Chicago residents is that their taxpayer dollars, in the amount of a whopping $100,000, were used to pay to resolve a lawsuit filed against her by two former employees she was accused of firing in retaliation for their warning against her misuse of city resources for personal causes. This lawsuit coincided with the timing of her launching her prayer group and service on official city accounts. Any amount over $ 100,000 would require City Council approval to settle. As the settlement was reportedly exactly $100,000, former Mayor Lori Lightfoot was able to approve it on her own.   

The two fired employees further claimed that Conyears-Ervin engaged in questionable conduct, such as having her assistant run personal errands for her, such as grocery shopping and planning her daughter’s birthday party. Taxpayers would likely be displeased to know that they were paying for an assistant to carry out these tasks for Conyears-Ervin, which clearly fall outside the bounds of her official obligations to Chicagoans. The employees also alleged she had pressured BMO Harris Bank to approve a mortgage for a local church, which happens to rent office space to her husband, a city Alderman. BMO Harris Bank does business with the city, so her leveraging her position within the city government is clearly problematic.  

The Governmental Ethics Ordinance has been amended 8 times since 2012, and may require further amendments to tighten the rules or make more explicit the actions which city officials must avoid. 

Source

https://news.wttw.com/2024/04/15/