Legislative watchdog Michael McCuskey sees job as educational
opportunity
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[June 15, 2023]
By NIKA SCHOONOVER
Capitol News Illinois
nschoonover@capitolnewsillinois.com
SPRINGFIELD – After 15 months as Illinois’ Legislative Inspector
General, Judge Michael McCuskey is moving to Springfield.
Since he first assumed the role in February 2022 – several months after
the high-profile resignation of his predecessor – McCuskey has commuted
to his Capitol Complex office from his Peoria home. Now, after he was
nearly unanimously approved to a full five-year term in the final weeks
of the General Assembly’s spring session, he’s hoping to move at the end
of the month.
“In 20 years, there’s never been anybody in this office every day,”
McCuskey said. “I’m here three to four afternoons a week, which will now
be more than that.”
As LIG, McCuskey is charged with investigating complaints of corruption
or other misconduct from members of the General Assembly or the people
that work for them. The post was created in 2003, and all three people
who have held it in the past have criticized the lack of power given to
the office.
Shortly after being appointed last year, McCuskey sat for an interview
with Capitol News Illinois in an empty office. He has since hired a
full-time administrative assistant who is in the office five days a week
from 8:30 to 4:30. His office employs two investigators, one in
Springfield and one in Chicago.
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He succeeded former LIG Carol Pope after she resigned and famously
called the office a “paper tiger” for its relative powerlessness. In a
July 2021 resignation letter, Pope said lawmakers didn’t heed her
concerns while crafting ethics reforms in 2021 and said the bill
actually weakened the office by preventing the LIG from investigating
allegations against lawmakers that arise from outside of government
service.
She also echoed other former LIGs’ complaints that the office must
receive approval from the eight-member Legislative Ethics Commission to
make reports of wrongdoing public. The LEC has historically been made up
of lawmakers, although one former legislator currently serves as a
member of the public.
Unlike his predecessors, McCuskey doesn’t seem to share the same
frustrations that the office isn’t powerful enough. He says it’s too
early to tell if it needs more power or not.
“I don’t know what the (General Assembly) should do, because I don’t
know what I should do other than what I’m doing now,” McCuskey said.
“But anything I can do to make this office better, I will.”
But he said he may have suggestions to improve things after he attends a
one-week conference of all the LIGs in the United States in August.
“I’m going to get to hear what jurisdiction they have. And maybe I’ll
come to the conclusion that there’s certain things we should have,”
McCuskey said.
As a former federal judge, McCuskey said he knows he’s never going to do
a better job investigating public corruption than federal agents in
Chicago. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Northern District of Illinois
is overseeing several wide-ranging public corruption probes, including
one against former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, a Democrat
charged with wielding his Springfield influence to enrich himself and
others.
“We haven’t received a complaint of corruption in my first year,”
McCuskey said. “If I did, I would investigate it and more than likely
send it to the Northern District of Illinois.”
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McCuskey’s regular office hours approach differs from that of his
predecessors, who have all held the job part-time. Pope, however, noted
that’s because there wasn’t enough for her to do to justify a full-time
workweek.
McCuskey earns the same $275 per billable hour that Pope earned, which
netted him $145,100 in pay in 2022 and $80,200 thus far in 2023,
according to the Illinois Comptroller's database. Like Pope, who earned
$106,000 in 2020 and $75,000 in 2021, he has a $200,000 cap on what he
can earn in a fiscal year.
His near-unanimous support in May came 15 months after most legislative
Republicans either voted “no” or “present” on McCuskey’s initial
nomination, complaining more about the process than McCuskey’s
qualifications.
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![](../images/061523PIX/news_a1.jpg)
Legislative Inspector General Michael
McCuskey sits for an interview in his office at the Illinois Capitol
Complex in Springfield earlier this month. McCuskey was nominated to
a full five-year term in May with only one vote against his
nomination. (Capitol News Illinois photo by Nika Schoonover)
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2017/Jul/22/images/ads/current/rohlfs_lda_072017.png)
That process calls for the LIG candidates to be vetted by a search
committee that reports to the Legislative Ethics Commission. Per
Illinois statute, the office must be filled within 45 days of a vacancy,
but the full commission deadlocked for 91 days when considering the
committee’s recommendations after Pope announced her intention to
resign.
Democrats advanced McCuskey’s name to the full chamber without the
search committee’s recommendation and he was officially appointed 42
days after Pope left office.
“It wasn’t about his credentials, or his integrity, it was just that we
didn’t follow the processes in place,” Sen. Jil Tracy, R-Quincy, said in
an interview. “And we were frustrated as a minority party and seeing the
process manipulated so many times, we wanted to follow the letter of the
law.”
Tracy, who sits on the LEC, voted against McCuskey’s initial appointment
last year but supported his confirmation in May.
“In this case, there was a logjam,” McCuskey said. “I became the
nominee, who initially was opposed by Republicans and now everybody’s
accepted me. So I always say, give me a second chance and see what
happens.”
The Senate unanimously approved McCuskey’s nomination in May and just
one House member voted against it. Blaine Wilhour, R-Beecher City,
complained more about the legislature’s handling of the LIG’s authority
than McCuskey’s handling of the office.
“When we talk about ethics reforms, when we talk about anti-corruption
measures, it’s always down the line,” Wilhour said in the May debate.
“We all know what needs to be done, we know this office is a paper
tiger.”
McCuskey said he prefers to educate lawmakers before any misconduct
occurs. That includes Zoom meetings with the ethics officers of the
legislative caucuses to discuss such things as when it is permissible to
spend state dollars on promotional items.
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“That’s proactive,” McCuskey said. “We have these meetings all the time
telling representatives what you can and can’t do with state time,
political time, and state money. We’re trying to prevent people from
making mistakes and I think we’re doing a great job of it.”
According to Rep. Maurice West, a Democrat from Rockford and chair of
the Legislative Ethics Commission, the office is currently updating its
sexual harassment training and its ethics test to reflect reform laws
that were passed in 2021.
“The LIG also made sure to mention he’s a resource for members and
staff,” West said in an interview. “‘I would rather not talk to you only
when there’s a complaint against you, I would rather talk to you to keep
you from being part of a complaint.’ That’s the approach he’s taken.”
In fact, McCuskey said, this job has been like returning home. Before
becoming a judge, he was a history teacher and baseball coach at Ottawa
High School, about 82 miles southwest of Chicago. His sister,
grandmother and cousins were all teachers, and, McCuskey said, his
father never wanted him to go to law school.
“And (my dad) believed that teachers, ministers, priests made society
better. He didn’t think lawyers did but I became one, he died before I
became a judge,” McCuskey said. “So full circle, I think I’m back to
where I’m supposed to be, teaching and educating, and I enjoy it. I have
a passion for what I’m doing right now.”
While Republican opposition centered around criticism of the process in
which McCuskey was originally nominated, they have overwhelmingly
approved his performance in the 15 months since he was appointed.
“If we truly need to stand before the Illinois resident and say, ‘We are
conducting ourselves in an ethical way,’ we need to allow ourselves to
be under scrutiny by a person of high caliber and honor,” Rep. Jeff
Keicher, R-Sycamore, said in the May debate. “That person is Judge
McCuskey.”
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news
service covering state government. It is distributed to hundreds of
print and broadcast outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the
Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation, along
with major contributions from the Illinois Broadcasters Foundation and
Southern Illinois Editorial Association.
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