Aug 12, 2009 10:39 pm US/Central
Controversy Over Ads On Court Clerk's Website
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown's website features ads for insurance and traffic court attorneys.
CBS
It's a taxpayer-funded website with paid advertising on it. So who's getting paid? Is it even legal? We're talking aboutÂ
Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown's website. CBS 2 Chief Correspondent Jay Levine answers those pressing questions.
The ads were supposed to generate as much as a million dollars a year. But what the county board didn't count on was who'd be buying ads on what site; actually one site: the court clerk's.
Dorothy Brown was on hand Wednesday to help celebrate Indian Independence Day at Daley Center Plaza. She'd also committed to speak with us about the Circuit Court website and its ads for insurance for uninsured drivers and traffic court attorneys soliciting clients.
"What's the difference between having a sign on the back of a police car saying if you're arrested, call John Smith, he's a great criminal lawyer?" said Attorney David Novoselsky.
David Novoselsky is a kind of civic bounty hunter, searching out waste and corruption and seeking a cut of what he recovers for taxpayers.
In this case, he's targeted Brown's web advertising, which was actually approved by the entire Cook County Board.
"A creative way to generate new revenue and help Cook County with its financial burdens" is how Brown's office described it in a statement tonight.
Several hours after Brown herself, who seemed just fine at noon today, abruptly canceled our interview due to what an aide called "a sudden emergency."
CBS 2 surfed her site with Cook County Commissioner Peter Silvestri.
"We voted to allow advertising on county websites, not obviously something that could create a conflict of interest," Silvestri said.
There are other links on the clerk's home page which also raise questions.
There is a feature story on Dorothy Brown produced by technology giant HP, which is also one of her contractors, and is filled with ads for its products.
And a so-called review of Brown's terms in office promising to show "...how I kept the promises I made in 2000 during my campaign for this office."
"Once you talk about campaign promises, it turns it into a little more political. Totally inappropriate," Silvestri said.
Contrast Brown's site with County Assessor Jim Houlihan's, the only other county website we could find with ads. But they're for Verizon Wireless and Westin Hotels.
This is in keeping with Houlihan's guideline that: "No advertising will be accepted from attorneys, law firms, or real estate tax representatives who file appeals with the Assessor's Office."
"Mr. Houlihan has divorced his website completely from any potential conflict of interest," Novoselsky said.
Dorothy Brown's sudden emergency came after we started calling county board members.
Peter Silvestri says he'll seek to amend the ordinance permitting ads on county websites, to spell out restrictions, he says, should have been matters of common sense.
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