By WMBD TV
SPRINGFIELD – Illinois’ former public health chief was fined $150,000 after admitting she violated the state’s Ethics Act by taking a job with a company that did business with the state.
The state’s Executive Ethics Commission last week agreed to accept a settlement between Attorney General Kwame Raoul and Ngozi Ezike, the former head of the state’s Department of Public Health, that was filed on Jan. 7.
The order states that Ezike, who left IDPH in 2022 after leading the agency through the COVID-19 pandemic, “admits a violation of the Ethics Act and the facts comprising the violation, in that she accepted employment and compensation from an entity which had contracts involving IDP with a cumulative value of $4.2 million and over which she had exercised regulator and licensing authority in the year before her departure from State employment.”
In April 2022, Ezike was named the new president and CEO of the Sinai Chicago health system.
The order contained the following statement from both sides:
“[T]his resolution promotes the important policy goals served by the Ethics Act and benefits the public interest, not only by ensuring [Respondent] has admitted to and accepted responsibility for her violation of the Ethics Act, but also by ensuring a penalty is imposed on her that is appropriate under the circumstances.”
The complaint, which was filed in 2023, stated that Ezike worked at IDPH until March 2022 and then took the job at Sinai in April of that year. That, the complaint stated, was against the rules as she wasn’t allowed to take such a job within a year of leaving her state employ.
That’s because Sinai Chicago was involved in a state contract. Such things are done to avoid any appearance of impropriety and favoritism. Sinai was party to some $4.2 million in contracts with the state through March 2022, some of which included:
- A grant of $40,000, effective April 1, 2020, through March 31, 2021, in connection with the Illinois Minority AIDS Initiative AIDS Drug Assistance Program to provide outreach and education services to newly diagnosed HIV-positive minority and high-risk individuals to increase minority participation.
- A grant of $2 million, effective July 1, 2020, through June 30, 2021, in connection with the Hospital Health Protection Grant Program to provide funding to named hospitals for ordinary and contingent expenses.
- A grant of $57,398.96, effective September 1, 2020, through August 31, 2021, in connection with the Asthma Home Visit Collaborative Grant Program to participate in meetings and calls with partners, oversee home visit activities, provide training, identify needs, and develop plans and reports.
- A grant of $2 million, effective July 1, 2021, through June 30, 2022, in connection with the Hospital Health Protection Grant Program to provide funding to named hospitals for ordinary and contingent expenses.
Additionally, the complaint alleged hospitals within that healthcare system were licensed by IDPH, and that some of the facilities were sanctioned or punished by the state while Ezike was in office, and before she started at Sinai.
When appointed in January 2019 by Gov. JB Pritzker, she was the first Black woman to lead the agency. She also became the first Black woman to lead Sinai Chicago.
WMBD can be reached at News@WJBC.com.
