Ethics Panel To Investigate Madigan's Metra Role

House Speaker Michael Madigan's request to be investigated by the Legislative Ethics Commission is being granted.

Legislative inspector general Tom Homer's office says the commission voted Thursday to investigate whether Madigan and fellow Democratic state Reps. Luis Arroyo and Elizabeth Hernandez interfered with Metra personnel matters.

Madigan last week wrote a letter to the bipartisan commission encouraging it to investigate the circumstances surrounding his involvement in supporting a Metra supervisor's recommendation to give an employee a raise. Allegations were detailed in a memo by former Metra CEO Alex Clifford.

Madigan says he's confident he did nothing inappropriate.

The commission will vote on possible sanctions for the lawmakers after Homer's investigation is done. But Homer has called the law governing conflicts and ethics standards a "toothless tiger" in the past.