East St. Louis politician who owes state $149,560 in fines wants election ban lifted
East St. Louis Township Supervisor Alvin Parks, who is barred from running for office due to campaign finance violations, is hoping to strike a deal with the state that could get his name on the ballot for an upcoming election.
Parks said Monday he plans to appear before the Illinois State Board of Elections this month in hopes of reaching a settlement and to “clear his name” so he can participate in upcoming elections.
“The goal is to reach some settled agreement,” he said. “Whatever that fine or penalty, satisfy that so that I can move on with some of the other political pursuits that I have.”
The former East St. Louis mayor and city manager is banned from appearing on ballots because he owes more than $149,000 in fines from repeated failures to file campaign contributions reports, Matt Dietrich, the state board’s public information officer said. To date, Parks has paid the state more than $60,000.
State law prohibits candidates who owe fines to be certified for an election, meaning Parks cannot appear on the ballot, even if he files for office.
State law requires political committees or politicians to file reports every time a contribution of more than $1,000 is made. Parks stopped filing the campaign contribution reports in 2011 and was fined $5,000 for each failure. He was fined again in August for failure to report, according to state board meeting minutes.
Parks said he plans to run for precinct committeeman in East St. Louis 24th District, a seat he served in for 16 years before being ineligible to run due to his fines with the state board.
He said outside of that, he did not know if he would be running for his reelection as township supervisor but said that anything is possible in the coming years.
“I don’t know that I’ll be pursuing that again but perhaps something else a little bit down the road,” Parks said. “I don’t know what those other things might be but the first thing is you definitely want to clear your name and that’s a big thing I want to accomplish.”
Parks hopes for a settlement
Parks is offering $8,716 as a settlement with the state board, Dietrich said, and if the board approves Parks’ offer, his name could appear on upcoming ballots.
He added that the decision to accept or deny the settlement is entirely up to the board and can depend on several factors. Typically offers for settlement must be at least 50 percent of the amount owed.
In some cases, Dietrich said the board accepts offers of less than half when the owed amount far exceeds the amount in an individual’s campaign fund. Parks has $8,716 in the Citizens to Elect Alvin Parks Jr. fund, but owes a total of $149,560.
Dietrich said that doesn’t mean the board will agree to the settlement.
“It will be up to the board’s discretion,” he said. “In cases like this, the candidate gets to make their case in front of the board.”
Dietrich said there also are “discrepancies” in Park’s campaign fund that will need to be cleared up, but Dietrich did not elaborate.
Fines collected by the state board are put into Illinois’ general fund, Dietrich said.
“Our interest is in transparency,” Dietrich said, while describing the need for the fines.
The board is bipartisan, made up of four Democrats and four Republicans. Parks is a Democrat.
Parks said he hopes to fulfill the transparency the board is seeking by “clarifying” some of the issues he said started in 2011 when a computer crashed. He said that was the start of his problems with the campaign reports, but added that his duties as East St. Louis mayor also played a part.
“I don’t want to make it look like we’re making excuses but it began with a computer crash in February or March of 2011 and the reporting of the state changed at that time,” he said. “Beyond that, I think just being so busy attending to the duties of being mayor of East St. Louis at that time took me away from what we should have been doing. “
When Parks was elected East St. Louis Township supervisor in 2017, he owed the state roughly $95,000 in administrative fines. But at that time, due to “uncertainty” at the state board about how to enforce unpaid fines, Parks was allowed to remain on the ballot and won the election.
Later, in 2018, the board wouldn’t allow Parks to appear on the ballot when he was seeking re-election as an East St. Louis precinct committeeman.
At the time, Parks declined to comment but stated in a letter to East St. Louis Central Committee members that he would not be running for re-election as a committeeman.
Parks said he doesn’t expect the state board to actually want him to pay the full fee. He said he believes the fine was a way of getting his attention.
“I don’t know what made them come up with a fine that is now about $150,000, but I think that was more of a ‘let’s make sure to get Mr. Park’s attention,’ “ he said. “I don’t believe and I don’t want to pretend that I’m understanding everything that’s their motivation but I don’t believe they’re looking for me to pay $150,000.”
If a settlement is not reached with the state board, Parks will be unable to seek re-election for his current position as township supervisor in 2021, or for any other seat in the upcoming election. He is set to appear Tuesday, Dec. 17, to plead his case with the board.
Filing for candidates running in the 2020 election in Illinois closes Monday.
This story was originally published December 2, 2019 at 9:25 AM.