Gov. Bruce Rauner has sign an executive order banning state employees from taking a lobbyist job. (Photo courtesy BruceRauner)
By Dave Dahl/Illinois Radio Network
SPRINGFIELD – Like the last two governors, Gov. Bruce Rauner made ethics in government the subject of one of his first executive orders.
The changes put in place by Rauner deal with employees within the executive branch and at state agencies. Those workers won’t be able to negotiate for lobbyist positions until they no longer work for the state, and will have to wait a year after that state employment ends to take a position with a lobbying group.
Rauner says these rules may make finding people to work for him more difficult. “We have let it be known that this was going to be our policy in our administration…and that was made it more challenging to recruit certain people into government,” Rauner said.
The changes won’t go into effect until next month, because Rauner says members of the previous administration were ready to leave early in case they’d be shut out of jobs by the new rules.
Some of the first executive orders signed by governors Rod Blagojevich and Pat Quinn also dealt with ethics. Blagojevich put a hiring and promotion freeze into place, and Quinn created an ethics reform commission.
