Let’s not kid ourselves. The legislative inspector general is toothless by design. Thomas Homer, the first to hold the job, investigated more than 150 complaints from 2004 to 2014. Only four of them resulted in a finding of misconduct: Two legislative staffers were disciplined for doing campaign work on the taxpayers’ dime; another was suspended for 30 days (though Homer recommended firing her) for refusing to cooperate in an investigation of a questionable legislative scholarship award. In the only finding against a lawmaker, Homer determined that then-Sen. Suzi Schmidt, R-Lake Villa, “engaged in conduct unbecoming a legislator” in a series of domestic incidents at her home. The law provides no sanctions for that violation.