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More reform and renewal.
A state employee embroiled in a criminal investigation linked to a firm whose owners have been big political donors to Gov. Blagojevich quietly has left his $87,000-a-year post overseeing the state tollway’s popular I-Pass program.Scott D. Okun resigned on March 22, Illinois State Toll Highway Authority spokeswoman Joelle McGinnis said Wednesday. He had been on unpaid leave since early February, when tollway officials accused him of awarding I-Pass-related printing work to a firm that employed a relative of his.
Involved in the routing of that work was IGOR the Watchdog Corp., whose owners, Michael and Sherry Guthrie, have donated $76,000 to Blagojevich. Okun — who volunteered for the Blagojevich campaign in 2002 but is no longer active with it — oversaw IGOR’s contract to deliver I-Pass transponders to Jewel-Osco stores. […]
The DuPage County state’s attorney’s office is investigating the matter. Tollway officials initially said they weren’t aware of the probe, but McGinnis acknowledged Wednesday “we have been fully cooperative with the state’s attorney’s office.”
posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, May 4, 06 @ 5:01 am
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The beat goes on.
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Comment by Anonymous Thursday, May 4, 06 @ 6:13 am
The difference between Blagojevich and Republicans is that this guy got fired. Under a Republican governor, the administration would have insisted on a piece of the action. It ain’t perfection, but it is progress.
Comment by Yellow Dog Democrat Thursday, May 4, 06 @ 6:46 am
YDD - you are worse than B’s commercials.
I love it when defenders of B talk about the nobility of his administration. Altering specs during bid processes, five or six-digit checks delivered within one week of receiving a fat contract or an extraordinarily-salaried job, state property used for campaign commercials, state money used for campaign commercials, money given to relatives even without contracts….
Yessirree, YDD. Those damn Reps sure know the meaning of the term “piece of the action.”
Comment by Anonymous Thursday, May 4, 06 @ 7:16 am
And just think, underlings at the state are forced to take ethics training this month. That training should be give first at the statehouse and the Thompson Center, by FBI agents.
Comment by Disgusted Thursday, May 4, 06 @ 7:28 am
YDD - please read the text - the person in question resigned - he was not fired. Perhaps he was forced to resign - but he was not technically fired. There is a difference. This administration would not be bold enough to fire any Democrat with any kind of connections - just remember that less-than-upright and ethical person Bruce Washington, who just hit the Cook County jackpot after corrupting his way through CMS.
Comment by Ms. Manners Thursday, May 4, 06 @ 8:29 am
YDD -
Right? Wrong? It is so hard to tell these days.
Things that were once universally accepted as wrong - stealing, corruption, embezzlement, ‘pay-to-play’ are now very grey. Am I stealing? Hard to tell, since everyone else is doing it. It must not be wrong anymore, because if it *were* wrong, my peers (those which I respect anyway, including the party elders) would tell me so.
Your logic is precisely the reason people don’t vote. And you need people to vote, lest Illinois slide into a bureaucratic malaise from which the truly talented leaders flee, and we are only left with people who can’t tell right from wrong.
I am waiting for the day when murdering your political enemies becomes grey: “Well he was for individual rights, which threaten us all, so he desreved to die..and former Governor Jones did the same thing six years ago…”
Comment by John Galt Thursday, May 4, 06 @ 9:00 am
YDD – Perhaps you didn’t read the whole story. Allow me to break it down:
- IGOR’s owners donated $76,000 to Blagojevich.
- IGOR has $7 million no-bid contract with the state.
- A firm that employed a relative of state employee (and former Blago campaign volunteer) who oversaw that contract got a subcontract through IGOR.
You call that “progress?†I call that business as usual. Blago got 76,000 pieces of the action, it was just paid in advance.
Comment by grand old partisan Thursday, May 4, 06 @ 9:17 am
I got the whole story on NPR this a.m. He was put on unpaid leave when it was discovered he violated procurement laws by awarding a no-bid contract to a company where his cousin worked. He broke the rules by not competitively bidding out a contract. He was placed on unpaid leave pending an investigation (that’s how you keep from getting sued), and he “resigned” (also, how you keep from getting sued).
Any company with 38,000 employees is going to have some bad apples. This guy hired his cousin’s company, maybe just because he knew he could trust them to do the job, but it was a dumb thing to do.
But, if Blagojevich were actually involved, the last thing he would be doing is canning the guy.
I respect the Sun-Times’ need to sell newspapers, but this is blown way out of proportion, and the connection to Blagojevich is tenuous at best. It reads like the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.
Comment by Yellow Dog Democrat Thursday, May 4, 06 @ 10:40 am
YDD said:
>He broke the rules by not competitively
>bidding out a contract
>Any company with 38,000 employees is going to
>have some bad apples.
>but this is blown way out of proportion,
Right or wrong? Kind of hard to tell these days….or maybe we really *can* tell, but choose not to.
Comment by John Galt Thursday, May 4, 06 @ 10:45 am
This is Blago’s style as soon as something starts to stink someone goes under the bus.
Comment by DOWNSTATE Thursday, May 4, 06 @ 10:52 am
Hey YDD, what about Chris Kelly and Tony Rezko and Rod? Are they distant friends? I guess you forgot the feds have subpoenaed all the tollway oases contracts and information related to those “distant” friends of Rod. And when it comes to Okun, the tollway didn’t clean up anything. Law enforcement found him.
Comment by Anonymous Thursday, May 4, 06 @ 11:07 am
As a taxpayer, I’d like to see a system where the state coffers (our coffers) get the $76,000, not some politician lining his pockets (and they really are his pockets…Blago will have millions left in his campaign chest to live on in the future).
I say again….put those jobs and contracts up for sale direct. Give the money to us, the people who have to pay out the dough to fund the jobs and contracts. Make every successful contractor and state employee pay a set fee for the privilege of working for or contracting for the state. It’s better than what’s happening now, enriching a few Dem politicians, or Repubs, depending on the year.
Comment by Cassandra Thursday, May 4, 06 @ 11:57 am
I think the Scott Okun/I-PASS incident raises more questions than answers. Such as:
1. How was he able to “steer” a contract to a relative without ANYONE raising ANY questions? The internal controls at the Tollway must be inadequate or non-existent.
2. Who else at the tollway was complicent with this scheme? The Tollway first tried to explain that all CMS purchasing rules were complied with. They have since retreated from that statement. Do division chiefs at the Tollway have the power to grant no bid contracts at their whim?
3. Where was the Tollway’s Inspector General during this fiasco? The “discovery” of the scheme didn’t come from that office.
4. What else is going on the Tollway that we don’t YET know about?
5. Why was Okun allowed to “resign”? I’m sure it had nothing to do with his affiliation with HotRod. What do you need to do at the Tollway to get fired, if breaking state purchasing laws isn’t enough?
Comment by KenoMan Thursday, May 4, 06 @ 12:19 pm
Sorry Yellow Dog but your explantion of why Scott Okun was allowed to “resign” instead of being fired doesn’t hold up. Tollway employees are “at-will employees”, which means the tollway doesn’t need a reason to fire you, nor do you have any legal recourse when they do.
Comment by Anonymous Thursday, May 4, 06 @ 12:23 pm
YDD,
You made a pretty astute observation that conveniently ignores the Public Official A disclosure sitting out there. I was under the impression that PO “A” got a piece of the Joseph Cari action. Or is that still just triple-hearsay from the over-zealous United States Attorney’s Office?
I chuckle when you claim that the Blagojevich administration has the moral high ground on any ethical issue.
Comment by Did I Miss Something Thursday, May 4, 06 @ 1:12 pm
It seems Okun was a mid level manager. The Chief of Staff and the Executive Director left shortly after his departure. The Tollway is spending billions on contracts - I wonder if top leadership would have bailed a year and a half after launching this program, if they weren’t worried that this wasn’t the only bad contract.
Comment by Wondering Thursday, May 4, 06 @ 2:05 pm
If you guys want to discuss Public Official A, ask Miller to start a new thread. It’s like debating Whitewater and bringing up Monica Lewinski’s dress.
Anon 12:23 — You’re understanding of labor laws is different than mine. I think someone still has a case if they can show that you are treating them differently. Regardless, now atleast we don’t have an unemployment claim to deal with.
KenoMan - I agree with you, they probably do need to improve their system of checks and balances at the Tollway Authority. I don’t know the specifics of their procurement process, but if he was in charge of the I-Pass system, it sounds like he was supposed to be the check in the system.
But let’s not pretend this is a unique situation. Any large business that was so rife with corruption as the state of Illinois was under GOP rule probably would have been shut down and completely overhauled. We don’t have the luxury of shutting the state down and retooling.
Probably Rod would have been smart — or crazy — to do what Bill Clinton did, and put his #2 man in charge of going agency-by-agency and reforming each one. Gore didn’t get enough credit for the amazing job he did streamlining government, and it would have been a great job for Pat Quinn’s Team. Something to think about for ‘07.
Comment by Yellow Dog Democrat Thursday, May 4, 06 @ 2:53 pm
YDD,
The Public Official A is relavent only as a response to your statement that “Under a Republican governor, the administration would have insisted on a piece of the action.”
If you want to make generalizations, then you get an expanded debate. And the Cari plea agreement certainly made Public Official A sound like a suspected shakedown artist.
Nevertheless, I apologize to you for stepping outside the blog thread. I’m sure there’ll be plenty of opportunity to return to the PO “A” subject as the Levin trial approaches.
Comment by Did I Miss Something Thursday, May 4, 06 @ 3:06 pm
The previous poster is right…you can’t tell right from wrong anymore, ydd
Comment by Anonymous Thursday, May 4, 06 @ 3:41 pm
YDD: Are you saying there is NO corruption in Illinois politics now that POA is there? Your statement, “But let’s not pretend this is a unique situation. Any large business that was so rife with corruption as the state of Illinois was under GOP rule probably would have been shut down and completely overhauled. We don’t have the luxury of shutting the state down and retooling.” alludes to the state being cleaned up, as in “no more business as usual.” If you truely believe that then POOF, I just made you a billionaire. The Easter Bunny will be by tonight with your check.
Comment by Papa Legba Thursday, May 4, 06 @ 3:55 pm
All he wants to do is hide behind the blog thread, all YDD has done is make excuses and generalizations for the sake of his argument, spinning is what he does best. How come he was never charged criminally or through the state personel rules and regulations?? I’ll tell you why, and you already know why YDD, because he WAS A DEMOCRAT…if that would have been a republican, oh my god, the inspeactor general would have been johnny on the spot. It’s amazing to me how I see this IG investigations get conducted, and when investigaors find out a “D” is involved, the case just quitly goes away. Wonder why, what does the IG really do? Run a front for Hot Rod, so he does not get blind sided. Go ahead defend them YDD, it will come back and bite you in the rear end, I know you are smarter then that, don’t be blinded by politics.
Comment by dumb ol' country boy Thursday, May 4, 06 @ 9:57 pm
As a general rule, it’s not uncommon to allow an employee who is viewed as having engaged in behavior worthy of termination to resign. That is not out of concern for the employee, but because employees are sometimes difficult to fire even for cause. It isn’t that unusual for an arbitrator, or civil service commission hearing officer, or even the courts to insist on progresive discipline. Ergo, unless you have previously disciplined the employee, giving him or her the opportunity to correct the aberrant behavior, you may get them back, with a 10 or 15 day suspension.
Unless the behavior is so over the top outrageous that you have NO doubt that you can ultimately prevail with a termination, accepting a resignation assures the the offending employee is at least gone.
I’m sure many of you purists think that’s chickens**t, and maybe it is, but at least they are gone, and you haven’t tied up time and money in hearings, along with their inherent risk They can still be prosecuted if the affense is criminal.
Comment by steve schnorf Friday, May 5, 06 @ 1:29 am
I was under the impression that a certain number of high level state employees served at the pleasure of the guv and could be fired at any time.
If they had to persuade Mr. Okun to resign, perhaps he was in a civil-service protected position or in a four-year “term” position which
has the same protections during the four years, after which the employee can be let go at the will of the guv.
If he had civil service protection, he shouldn’t have. Given their high salaries and benefits, state management employees should all be at will, since they make about as much, counting salary and benefits, as their counterparts in the private sector. There is no reason for them to have a higher level of job security than their private sector counterparts. And employees who are at will are far more likely to do some useful work for their high salaries.
Comment by Cassandra Friday, May 5, 06 @ 8:27 am