Alvin Parks’ ‘flagrant’ disregard of transparency laws led to historic rebuke from state
An East St. Louis politician’s “flagrant” disregard for Illinois’ campaign finance laws and the state Board of Election’s response to it is being touted as historic, an official with the board said.
East St. Louis Township Supervisor and former mayor Alvin Parks owes $176,100 in accrued fines due to repeated failures to file campaign contribution reports since 2011. It is the most a candidate has ever accrued in fines with the state board.
On Thursday, he approached the Illinois Board of Elections with a settlement offer of $88,005, 50 percent of what he owes to the state. If it had been approved by the board, it would have been the largest sum ever paid to the board.
“The members who voted against accepting it felt that Alvin Parks had demonstrated an intentional disregard for our reporting system,” said Board of Elections spokesman Matt Dietrich. “In doing so he violated the spirit of the reporting system which is to allow voters to see who is giving money to candidates on the ballot. “
Parks could not be reached for comment about Dietrich’s explanation.
Parks’ offer was rejected 6-2 by the bipartisan board, which Dietrich said typically accepts offers that meet 50 percent of the fines owed. It ruled that if Parks wants to appear on a ballot in Illinois in the future, he’ll need to pay the full amount owed.
Dietrich said the board members who voted for that decision felt Parks had “flagrantly” disregarded the system for nearly a decade. He said it was a historic decision for the board, which sent a message to all candidates in the state.
“The board felt Mr. Parks’ settlement was only to avoid ballot forfeiture for the coming elections and that is not why we entertain settlement offers,” he said. “It’s a very significant decision and it sends a very significant message to candidates of any level statewide.”
Parks offered a higher settlement, according to Dietrich, and that the board denied.
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 each time one was due. He was fined again in August for failure to report, according to state board meeting minutes.
Parks, because of the outstanding fines, cannot be certified for elections, meaning he cannot appear on the ballot even if he files for office. Through a “loophole” he was able to pay fines levied between 2011 and 2018 without filing the actual reports, according to documents obtained from the Board of Elections.
During that time, Parks was re-elected without having filed a financial report.
The loophole was closed in 2017 when the board imposed new election rules. Committees now can levy maximum fines when reports were “sufficiently late.” For Parks’ committee, that amounted to roughly $5,000 for two or more reports that were not filed.
“In this case where we had someone who has intentionally disregarded this whole system for years and months at a time,” Dietrich said. “The board believed we needed to make a strong statement that this system is not to be bent and abused.”
Dietrich added that ballot forfeiture is the board’s main weapon when it comes to fighting for financial transparency from candidates.
This is the only hammer we can wield,” he said. “The board felt this is what we need to do when someone is flagrant about not even going through the motions of honoring the intent of the law.”
After the board’s decision, Parks said he was going back to the drawing board. His hope was to run for East St. Louis precinct committeeman in March, an elected position he held for several years.
He did not comment on whether he expected to be able to pay the fines by that time.
Parks’ current term as East St. Louis Township Supervisor will expire in 2021.
In December, he said he wasn’t sure if he would be running for the position either way.
Dietrich said Parks has started reporting contribution reports regularly to the board. He said if that had been the case after the first missed report, the fine could have been as low at $50.
“Proper record keeping and simply filing what you need to file is not a burdensome process whatsoever,” he said. “There are thousands of committees in Illinois that routinely file everything on time.”
Parks has until Tuesday to pay the full $176,100 in order to appear on the March primary ballot.