Cook County Assessor Joe Berrios should fire his son and sister, two of three relatives who call him boss in the government tax office he was elected to run in 2010.

That’s according to the county ethics board, whose members investigated the hirings and issued a “finding of violation” detailed in a report marked “confidential” and obtained by the Sun-Times. The board found he violated his fiduciary duties as well as a prohibition on hiring relatives laid out in the county’s ethics ordinance.

“Maintaining the public trust and confidence of those that government serves, is a key component of being a fiduciary. The hiring and or employing of family members as County employees undermines this public trust,” according to the three-page report signed by Board of Ethics Chairperson Roseann Oliver. The report goes on: “Rather than promote an open and transparent governmental hiring process, this conduct promotes the opposite, a closed and opaque process.”

Read the whole story at Chicago Sun-Times