Chicago Sun-Times
June 22, 2006
But Hastert did not take the extra
steps called for in the House Ethics Manual and volunteer that he held
land in a secret land trust called "Little Rock Trust #225.''
He disclosed the transactions on the annual personal financial
statements members of Congress are required to file. The statements
were made public June 14. (View the documents for all members of
Congress at www.tray.com)
Two central questions were raised by a new watchdog group, the Sunlight
Foundation (www.sun lightfoundation.com), which is digging into the
Hastert transactions:
1. Did Hastert's $207 million federal money "earmark'' for construction
of the proposed Prairie Parkway last year bolster the values of his
land?
The explosive growth of the area, and the role the Prairie Parkway may
play, is a major local issue. It -- including Hastert's land sales --
is the subject of an in-depth series that just ran in the Beacon News,
a member of the Sun-Times News Group (www.suburbanchicagonews.com).
One of Hastert's two partners in the Little Rock Trust #225 is Dallas
Ingemunson, the Kendall County GOP chairman who is Hastert's political
godfather. He said they are investors cashing in on an already
skyrocketing market.
Ingemunson, who discussed the transactions with my Sun-Times colleague
Eric Herman for our news story last week, said the trust is named after
Little Rock Road in Plano, which borders the land. We figured out that
Hastert could make some $2 million based on information from Ingemunson
and land records dug up by Sunlight investigator Bill Allison, a
professional researcher and former staffer at the Center for Public
Integrity.
The Hastert land in question was purchased -- in December 2005 -- by
Art Zwemke, the principle of the Robert Arthur Land Co. He plans to
transform it into a 1,700-unit residential mixed-used development
called "North Country.'' President Bush signed the transportation bill
with the parkway funding in August 2005 -- with Hastert by his side at
a Kendall County ceremony.
But the terms, Zwemke told me, were set in a 2004 contract picked up by
Zwemke when the original developer quit the project. "We would have
bought the property whether there was a Prairie Parkway or not,''
Zwemke said.
2. Should Hastert have revealed on his annual disclosure that some of
his real estate was owned in a secret land trust named "Little Rock
Trust #225?''
Yes.
Holding back that information -- and I am not making any conclusion or
inference about motive here, it may have been an oversight rather than
a calculated decision -- has the practical impact of making it much
more difficult for anyone but professional researchers or amateur
sleuths to make sense of the disclosure statement.
"We've been extremely transparent,'' Hastert spokesman Ron Bonjean told
me. Bonjean stressed that holding land in secret land trusts is common
in Illinois; I agree, it is.
Each year members of Congress are required to fill out a financial
disclosure statement. The form is seriously flawed, designed to give a
complicated wide-angle view of earned income, assets, liabilities and
holdings rather than a simple specific snapshot.
The disclosure exercise, according to the House Ethics Manual
(www.house.gov/ethics/ethic schap4.html) is "intended to provide the
information necessary to allow Members' constituencies to judge their
official conduct in light of possible financial conflicts with private
holdings. Review of a Member's financial conduct occurs in the context
of the political process.'' Furthermore, disclosures are supposed to
"inform the public about the financial interests of government
officials in order to increase public confidence in the integrity of
government and to deter potential conflicts of interest.''
Here are some examples of how Hastert described on his statement his
sale of 69 acres adjacent to his home: "Home/Property (less 69 acres
sold) with a value of the asset between $1 million and $5 million.''
The purchase of 125.96 acres in another part of Kendall County (an
acquisition of like farmland, which allows a break on capital gain
taxes) is described only as "1/3 share of 125.96 acres in Kendall
County'' valued between $1 million and $5 million.
These type of descriptions ignore instructions for specificity in the
House Ethics Manual: "The identity of the property, in addition to its
category of value, must be specified. Disclosure of real property
should include a description sufficient to permit its identification
(e.g., street address or plat and map location).''
I have nothing against putting property into secret land trusts. I just think the public should be let in on the secret.