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Joliet council member Morris poised to settle fine just in time – again

Fine must be paid to get on April ballot

By Bob Okon
Councilman Terry Morris listens to comment by other members of the council on Wednesday, April 14, 2021, at Joliet City Hall in Joliet, Ill. Local landlords voice concerns about potential inspection fees on their properties.

Councilman Terry Morris at a meeting in 2021. (Geoff Stellfox - gstellfox@shawmedia.com/Geoff Stellfox - gstellfox@shawmedia.com)

Joliet City Council member Terry Morris for a second straight election appears ready to settle a fine against his campaign committee just in time to get on the ballot for the April 4 Municipal Election.

Morris is on the agenda for the Wednesday meeting of the State Board of Elections for a settlement offer on the $27,949 fine, which he has owed for months.

The settlement would allow Morris to pay $13,975, or half of the fine.

Morris said Tuesday that he did not know if the $13,975 offer will settle his case.

“I’ll see tomorrow when I talk to them,” he said.

Joliet Council Member Terry Morris waits at the window of the city clerk's office on Monday to file his petitions to run for reelection in the April 4 election. Dec. 19, 2022.

Joliet Council Member Terry Morris waits at the window of the City Clerk's office in December to file petitions to run for reelection. At the time, Morris said he did not know if he would have to pay a $27,949 fine from the State Board of Elections to get on the April 4 ballot. (Bob Okon)

Morris will need to resolve the case on Wednesday to appear on the ballot when it is certified on Jan. 26, Matt Dietrich, spokesperson for the election board, said.

Right now, Morris is on a ballot forfeiture list of people barred from appearing on Illinois ballots because they owe fines to the State Board of Elections.

“They have to be paid by tomorrow,” Dietrich said. “There is no other way to get before the board.”

Morris faces the fine, as he did before the 2019 election, because his campaign committee stopped filing quarterly reports with the state board.

Back then, Morris owed $31,850 and settled his case by paying $18,425 in January 2019 and in time to get on the April ballot that year.

Joliet District 5 City Council member Terry Morris (left) and candidate Suzanna Ibarra speak to The Herald-News on Thursday in Joliet.

Joliet City Council Member Terry Morris (left) appears with opponent Suzanna Ibarra at a candidates' interview at The Herald-New before the 2019 election. Ibarra, now a Joliet Township trustee, is running again in District 5 along with Morris, Jim Lanham and Michael Carruthers.

Dietrich said the election board typically agrees to settle cases if the candidate offers to pay half the fine.

“Generally, 50% is what they will offer,” he said. “Generally, the board will accept that.”

Citizens to Elect Terry Morris now has reports filed through the end of December showing his committee has $5,780 available.

Morris when asked where the money to pay the settlement would come from appeared to be joking in his responses.

“From you,” he initially said.

When asked again, he said, “I’ve got that much in my pocket right now.”

In 2019, Morris said he paid the fine out of personal funds.

If his campaign committee received a large donation to pay the fine since the end of December, it would not have to be reported to the state election board until the April filing period and after the election.

Morris is one of four candidates who filed petitions to run for city council in District 5.

City Council candidate Michael Carruthers holds up list of his nominating petitions at a hearing on the validity of his nominating petitions at the Joliet City Electoral Board meeting on January 4th.

City Council candidate Michael Carruthers appears at a Jan. 4 meeting of the Joliet City Electoral Board, which denied a challenge that could have knocked Carruthers off the April 4 ballot. (Gary Middendorf – gmiddendorf@shawmedia/Gary Middendorf)

Others are Suzanna Ibarra, Jim Lanham and Michael Carruthers.

Ibarra is a Joliet Township trustee. She ran unsuccessfully against Morris for the District 5 seat on the city council in 2019.

Lanham ran unsuccessfully for a council-at-large seat in 2021, but recently picked up support in this race with an endorsement from the Joliet police supervisors’ union.

Carruthers appears headed for the ballot after narrowly escaping a challenge to the petitions he filed to run for the office. The city Electoral Board found that half of the signatures on Carruthers’ petitions were invalid, but 25 were good, giving him the 25 signatures needed to get on the ballot.

Petition challenger Kathy Spieler did not file an appeal of the Electoral Board’s decision as of Tuesday, the deadline to appeal the decision to the circuit court.