Terry Morris Fined $31,850 By State Board Of Elections

JOLIET, IL - Joliet City Councilman Terry Morris, who plans to run for re-election next April, finds himself in trouble with the State Board of Elections, Joliet Patch has learned.

On July 18, the state election board issued a fine of $31,850 against the Citzens To Elect Terry Morris, a political fund-raising committee that the state has since shut down. Over the past few years, Morris' committee was consistently delinquent in its filing of the east-side councilman's campaign disclosure reports to the state of Illinois, public documents show.

In late July, Morris got a letter from Tom Newman, director of the Campaign Disclosure Division with the Illinois Board of Elections, informing the Joliet City Councilman that Newman's division "is authorized to administratively terminate a political committee which has been unable to locate, determined to be inactive and has not responded to Board initiated correspondence for a minimum of 12 months."

Morris was interviewed by Joliet Patch around 8 p.m. Tuesday and he said that he plans to meet with the election board within the next two weeks or so. Morris said he intends to get the issue resolved so it does not adversely impact his upcoming re-election campaign.

Morris said that his campaign committee was basically inactive and had been inactive since around 2014. He said he intends to bring his financial and bank statements to the state elections board to show officials that his committee wasn't actively raising funds on his behalf.

However, Morris said, he will apologize to the elections board for not responding to their numerous letters that they had sent over the past many months.

The state has told Morris if he tries to circumvent the political campaign process by, for instance, setting up a new fund-raising campaign up a different name, the $31,850 outstanding fine still applies.

"Please note that any successor committee to a terminated committee will also be liable for the outstanding penalty," Newman's letter states.

"The above listed committee has been deemed inactive by the Campaign Disclosure Division and termination has been approved by the Executive Director of the State Board of Elections."

On Tuesday, the city of Joliet's clerk's office informed Patch that Morris recently took out candidate papers to seek another four-year term of office for the District 5 seat on the Joliet City Council.

State election officials told Patch on Tuesday that Morris will not be eligible to be on the election ballot unless Morris clears up his outstanding fines.

Theoretically, Morris can attempt to meet with state election officials in hopes of negotiating a lower settlement, representatives told Patch.

As of this week, the state election board has not received any communications from Morris regarding the $31,850 in outstanding fines, the agency told Patch.

His bio on the city's website indicates Morris was born in Chicago and has lived in Joliet since 1989. He is the owner of the Minor-Morris Funeral Home in Joliet and the Morris & Thomas Funeral Home in Lynwood.

In any event, the following letters were sent to Terry Morris and his wife, Deidre Morris, at 112 Richards Street, in regards to the now-inactive Citizens to Elect Terry Morris organization:

Image of City Councilman Terry Morris via City of Joliet