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Clout judge steps aside - Updated
Wednesday, Aug 16, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller I wonder if there’s a back story here. A state judge presiding over a clout hiring case that has shaken Gov. Blagojevich had the backing of an undisclosed political sponsor before he got that post, newly released documents showed Tuesday. It seems reasonable that he should step down, considering the names on that hiring list were forwarded to DeFraties, many by the governor’s office and almost all by the governor’s political allies. UPDATE: And on a related note… Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s administration has nearly doubled the number of policy-making jobs exempt from the state’s personnel code, even as it was claiming it had shrunk the state work force by thousands of employees. The Civil Service Commission approved the exemptions, and to say the pace has quickened since this governor took office would be a gross understatement. The number of 4d(3) exemptions surged after Blagojevich took office in January 2003. Civil Service Commission records show that there were 396 exemptions in January of that year. By June 30, 2003, the end of the state’s fiscal year, the number was up to 471. On June 30, 2004, the number had increased to 642, and to 692 the following year. By mid-June of this year, the number stood at 745. The exemptions include both newly created jobs and existing jobs the administration wanted exempt from the personnel code. The governnor’s office claims that they converted the old “term” appointments (essentially four-year tenure for favored insiders) to “exmept” spots. In the last full year of the Ryan administration, Ottenhoff said, there were 1,348 term appointments in state government. As of June, the number was down to 761, she said. There’s always a catch, though. Ottenhoff could not say how many of those jobs were converted to exempt positions, as opposed to how many were eliminated or unfilled because of staff reductions initiated by the administration. Read the whole thing.
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- Still Anon - Wednesday, Aug 16, 06 @ 8:38 am:
He did what any ALJ would be ethically obligated to do under the circumstances. Nothing more, nothing less. No story here.
- paper bag over my head - Wednesday, Aug 16, 06 @ 8:40 am:
Did he know he was on the political sponsor list before it was released? He did the right thing by stepping aside, but should he have done it earlier?
- VanillaMan - Wednesday, Aug 16, 06 @ 9:21 am:
“By moving people from four-year protected terms into exempt positions, we are able to hold them accountable for getting their jobs done,” said Abby Ottenhoff.
Please tell the truth Abby - this administration did this to make room for their people.
- anon - Wednesday, Aug 16, 06 @ 9:25 am:
Vanillaman- that is a bogus claim as the administration could have simply filled the Term appointments with “their people”.
- Downstater - Wednesday, Aug 16, 06 @ 9:36 am:
This administration has been walking those employees on a 4 year renewable term out the door so that they can bring in their own hacks who haven’t a clue to replace them. It is very unfortunate because most of these employees that were let go were hard working career employees and had a lot of institutional knowledge and contributed greatly to the effectiveness of state government. I am one of those. I did not get my job or get promoted due to political favors. I never contributed money to a state political organization. I just went to work everyday trying to do the best job that I could for the taxpayers of Illinois. To see the calibre of people brought in by this administration to replace those of us who have worked diligently for the state everyday is disgusting. If the voters throughout the state only knew the real truth of what is going on, Blago and his cronies would be out of office in a heartbeat. Take it from one who knows, the taxpayers of this state are not getting their money’s worth with this bunch of liars and spinners.
- Cassandra - Wednesday, Aug 16, 06 @ 9:45 am:
If the Blago administration has really reduced the number of term appointees in Illinois state government, that is commendable. The notion that these overpaid and underworked employees should also have ironclad (meaning, you don’t get fired unless you are convicted of a really bad felony)
job security for four years is absolutely inconsistent with 21st century employment trends. Handing somebody a four year term (most of these folks’ salaries are around 100k+, not counting lush pension and benefits) is like handing them $600,000 or more, depending on the value you assign to their benefits. If they feel like working for it, fine. If they don’t, well, they don’t have to.
And for those who fear the loss of alleged expertise (ha), I would point out that in our seriously overstaffed state civil service each agency has scores of MC employees who really do have lifetime job security and who are usually as knowledgeable as their pals on term. There is no loss of continuity associated with switching even higher paid term employees to exempt. The continuity is already there, in the MC ranks.
Not to say that those ranks should also be considerably thinned. We can no longer afford them.
As to the increase in exempt positions, whatever one’s opinion, it is clearly legal under civil service regs…meaning we the taxpayers approved it. As I’ve been saying, much of the so-called hiring fraud may turn out not to be fraud at all under our Illinois laws. And there has certainly been no huge public outcry to change the laws.
- Cassandra - Wednesday, Aug 16, 06 @ 9:48 am:
Sorry, I mean to say…”not to say that those ranks should NOT also be considerably thinned.”
- Still Anon - Wednesday, Aug 16, 06 @ 9:55 am:
So what was the ALJ’s status and was it changed during his tenure?
- Little Egypt - Wednesday, Aug 16, 06 @ 9:56 am:
Still Anon - “No story here”. Twilight Zone comes on in 30 minutes.
- Still Anon - Wednesday, Aug 16, 06 @ 10:10 am:
Little Egypt - What would you have the ALJ do? Continue to preside in a case in which the circumstances of his own employment could conceivably be at issue? That would be a story!
- Shallow Pharnyx - Wednesday, Aug 16, 06 @ 10:31 am:
Cassandra, Cassandra, Cassandra, the diehard mouthpiece for Blago’s claims of reducing state employment!! You know not what you speak. Don’t you ever get tired of spurting the same recording over and over again? Can you hold a conversation on any other theme, or is your brain in a constant “hate state employees” loop. Please take up a hobby and try to expand your horizons.
- ol-timer - Wednesday, Aug 16, 06 @ 11:47 am:
Would it be interesting to see if any of the gov’s ‘exempt’ hires get moved to ‘real’ civil service protected positions is case the gov don’t get reelected?
- FORMER STATE EMPLOYEE - Wednesday, Aug 16, 06 @ 1:40 pm:
I guess my name says it all, but here’s my story. In June 2003, I received a letter from the Civil Service Commission that my job was being converted to an “at will” position, and a hearing would be held the following day. (Thanks for the notice). I had been employed by the state for 30+ years, beginning at entry level under Governor Walker, and had risen through the ranks with NO political connections or work on campaigns! I guess that was my problem - no $$$$ or work on “you know who’s campaign”. Superior evaluations and awards aside (who cares, right?) it was a matter of weeks before I became a Former State Employee. And guess what??? Before I even left, another person showed up to assume my position. He, unfortunately, had a long history of being fired from “every job he ever had” as he announced during a staff meeting. Lucky for him, however, he was a very good friend of the person in charge of the agency. Since that time he’s been bounced around to various jobs within the department - obviously his performance or lack thereof is an issue - but he’s still collecting the big bucks.
- Slap Me - Wednesday, Aug 16, 06 @ 1:42 pm:
There are two events taking place currently in the Term Appointment and SPSA hiring practices. Under the “getting rid of term appointments and reclassifying them as double exempt” you establish the opportunity for the governor and his hacks to control those that were term and came in under a Republican administration. At the same time it deflects attention from getting their own cronies into a nice job as SPSAs, usually starting at the standard of $80,000. So, you control the actions of the previous Term appointments, causing them to toe the line or get dumped. And since Blogo’s team can’t trust their own, due to the sound of the bus getting louder, It also keeps his hacks hands on the throats of their cronies just in case they might stray. Control the Term appointments, control the cronie SPSAs, create more SPSA positions. Add to this the overtime rule of taking compensatory time off for overtime worked and you have a hell of a team of SPSA folks campaigning for the governor. They won’t be missed from their jobs anyway because all the new hires don’t do anything anyway. Everyone else will breath a sigh of relief just to see the goofs out of the office. What a plan!!
- DOWNSATE - Wednesday, Aug 16, 06 @ 1:45 pm:
C’mon guys I missed Cassandra not beating us state employees up.She was gone long enough the both of my blackeyes healed.
- chinman - Wednesday, Aug 16, 06 @ 3:01 pm:
the poetic/ironic comedy of it all.
- Anon. - Wednesday, Aug 16, 06 @ 5:31 pm:
If anyone believes this cr$p, they are absolutely stupid. I know first hand, from working as a human resource employee at IDOT. The current administration is making a mockery of the civil service and Rutan court decision. Positions that are borderline clerical in nature are being made Rutan exempted and filled with political friends. You simply have to include reference in the job description that the position may be exposed to confidential information or is a public spokesperson. The fact that true spokespersons have all been re-assigned to CMS or that true confidential information of a political nature is rarely released outside of an extremely small circle seems irrelevant. The Civil Service Commission is charged with assuring that these positions are properly classified. Unfortunately, it appears that the present reality is that the commission rubber stamps anything approved by the Governor’s office. My attorney attended a hearing and reported that the commission approved 42 positions as Rutan exempted in less than three minutes. No review or debate, simply these positions have been submitted by the Governor’s office, all in favor.
The need exists for checks and balances to assure that only those TRUE upper level policy making positions receive the Rutan exempted status. The Civil Service Commission has obviously been too politicized to perform this function. A non-partisan committee needs to be established immediately to review the determination of Rutan exempted positions. IT IS A JOKE.
- anon at idot - Wednesday, Aug 16, 06 @ 5:48 pm:
seen it at the peoria idot district, its a joke, they are called “staff assistants”, then they are moved to “technical manager” positions (under rutan) after their probation with a big raise. One such person told others she had interviews with the govoners office. Others were mad, cause the opening sure as hell wasn’t posted, there was not the customary “promotion memo” that happens for every other position, but this person was sure letting people know about it.
What do they do?
The rest of us there don’t know yet……….
- Lovie's Leather - Wednesday, Aug 16, 06 @ 5:56 pm:
Wow…Now this is what you call ending business as usual…
- El Conquistador - Wednesday, Aug 16, 06 @ 7:24 pm:
“Barris’ name was included on a list of more than 2,100 applicants who allegedly had political sponsors, the Chicago Sun-Times reported Wednesday. The list was formally released by the Civil Service Commission Tuesday.”
Post the list Rich please. It’s show time.
- "B Team" - Wednesday, Aug 16, 06 @ 7:25 pm:
Dearest Cassandra -
Some of those over paid and under worked merit comp employees such as the hydraulics guy where I work is an approval authority for every single piece of paper that has to do with water in our 9 county district. He is our Water God. Without him all of that paper will go through the central office. Talk about delays in approval!
Sweet heart, you cast a wide net without knowing what you talk about. People have gottten a single 4% raise in 3 1/2 years. That is not keeping up with inflation.
- Anon. - Wednesday, Aug 16, 06 @ 9:25 pm:
ol-timer - job movement of Rutan exempted employees to covered positions happens almost daily. After serving 6 months of a probationary period, they are moved into a coded position with a huge raise.
anon at idot - the staff assistant position is used throughout the entire department. A person who worked in the mailroom at IDOT was moved into a Rutan exempted Staff Assistant position (TM II) - she didn’t even know how to use the computer, was only familiar with opening mail, and her previous experience consisted of working in a bar, but she was very good friends with the bureau chief in personnel. The job description reads “a spokesperson and a liaison between the director, the Governor’s Office, the legislature, other state agencies and the general public.” “The incumbent serves as a departmental spokesperson on issues concerning personnel problems to create presentations to departmental management.” “S/He is in frequent contact with the legislators and the general public regarding proposed legislation and concerning bureau programs.”
Is that a JOKE or what?
- Reformed - Wednesday, Aug 16, 06 @ 9:56 pm:
Why not look to where the Executive Director of the Civil Service Commission came from. He’s got to be on the list too. He is a rubber stamp for the current administration.
- muletown - Wednesday, Aug 16, 06 @ 10:09 pm:
By no means am I a supporter of this administration. I do believe in patronage however. There are few working for the state who were not on someone’s list or had someone put in a good word for them. If you can’t work for a candidate in hopes of the possibility of having a chance for a job then why go through the pain? My complaint with this administration is people have been put into positions with no education or background for the posts they are now holding. There also has been to much circumventing of union and veterans preference issues in many hires. I do not agree with that. Because of this approach all state agencies are feeling the pinch of a rudderless ship. I commend the judge for backing out. It does show some form of integrity.
- zatoichi - Wednesday, Aug 16, 06 @ 10:44 pm:
Love Cassandra’s rants. Who does a good job that suits her? I have worked in very large, private corporations. Dilbert lives at a maximum in those organizations. Many hard working people trying to get ahead, but the kiss butt mentality or avoid work is also very real. Also worked in small organizations and see the exact same behavior. The basic politics never changes. Some past bosses/fellow workers were just plain morons. Others I would follow anywhere because they were terrific. Give it a rest. Yes, your taxes pay… yadda yadda. Your payment for health care, education, food, cars, real estate also pays for the same combinations of behind the scene idiots and dedicated, hard workers in the private sector.
- Justice - Wednesday, Aug 16, 06 @ 10:59 pm:
Cassandra, in your comment about “…job security for four years is absolutely inconsistent with 21st century employment trends.” did you just happen to miss “union positions?†Must have been an oversight. Oh, and of course the SPA position is also a locked in position unless you shoot Peter Rabbit in front of children being shoved forcefully around the gov during one of his photo ops. You really are naive and uninformed. Not surprising as you sound familiarly like one of Blogo’s top spokespersons, typically short on the real facts.
- Cassandra - Thursday, Aug 17, 06 @ 9:21 am:
Justice
No, I didn’t forget union positions. But we taxpayers lost that fight years ago when state employees were permitted to unionize.
And, in fact, union membership (with attendant lifetime job security regardless of performance)
has been declining in this country for decades.
So, in fact, employment at will is a current trend. Just not in state government.
- Still Anon - Thursday, Aug 17, 06 @ 1:16 pm:
“Lush pension” Cassie my dear, you are delusional! Read the formula - it’s barely good enough to be pitiful!