55 Comments - wordslinger - Thursday, Oct 29, 09 @ 9:46 am: More than anyone else, working stiff state employees should be furious. This vulgar abuse of the system is fodder for the know-nothing haters. Adams must have some clout that she can be rewarded for this kind of stuff on her watch. - VanillaMan - Thursday, Oct 29, 09 @ 9:47 am: Yeah - that’s our reformer governor. When he finds things like this, he promotes the abuser. He doesn’t care what political support she might have, he just ensures that she faces the consequences of her actions. Quinn is a man of action, a man with a sturdy backbone, and one that always considers what is best for Illinoisans. He isn’t at all like the last two governors. His actions concerning Adams and Randle clearly show that those with questionable ethics, get their due. - One of the 35 - Thursday, Oct 29, 09 @ 9:53 am: Vanilla Man hit the nail on the head. Quinn, like his predecessor, professed to be a reformer who would decisivley deal with this kind of employment abuse. What a tremendous dissappointment he has turned out to be. - cassandra - Thursday, Oct 29, 09 @ 9:54 am: Does Ms. Saddler have a chauffeur? That wouldn’t be a good sign. Adams seems to have had something of an agency director as royalty vision of her job. It remains to be seen what Ms. Saddler (and other Quin appointees) think–and how they behave. More importantly, how many other “chauffeurs” are in the state bureaucracy, hidden under various job descriptions that have nothing to do with their actual job tasks. My guess is that the official job description for this individual did not say “I drive the agency director around and that’s all I do, for $85k a year.” It’s hard for average citizens to evaluate the quality and efficiency of state government when so much is hidden…deliberately hidden. And Quinn really does show little appetite for transparency in this area, despite all of his speeches about how honest he is. - Plutocrat03 - Thursday, Oct 29, 09 @ 9:55 am: If Carol Adams was so brazen about public expenditures while in her position here, one can only eagerly await the expense reports she will submit when she is thousands of miles away. Who will have the interest is verifying her expense accounts there? - George - Thursday, Oct 29, 09 @ 9:55 am: Rich, you and this story might be jumping the gun here. The response said that the department had no evidence of their work, not that they did no work. That could just as easily mean the evidence of their work is in an FBI storage locker somewhere… - Anon - Thursday, Oct 29, 09 @ 9:56 am: plus ca change . . - OdysseusVL - Thursday, Oct 29, 09 @ 9:57 am: Vanilla Man nailed it. That’s it. I’m voting for Hynes. - George - Thursday, Oct 29, 09 @ 9:58 am: Odysseus, something tells me that was not VanillaMan’s intention. - Realitiy is - Thursday, Oct 29, 09 @ 9:59 am: Last I heard Mr Davis had a job at another state agency. - Plutocrat03 - Thursday, Oct 29, 09 @ 10:01 am: So are public officials who use public funds to commute to work and go from place to place required to report this as income? Tom Daschle did not report limo transportation to the IRS and it cost him the HHS post in the new administration. I know in private industry those types of expenditures are to be declared as such. Is that the kind of tax evasion the Mayor was talking about in wanting the citizens to rat out their neighbors? - Secret Square - Thursday, Oct 29, 09 @ 10:02 am: “This vulgar abuse of the system is fodder for the know-nothing haters.” You said it Word. It also feeds into the perception that all the state’s budget problems can be solved simply by cutting that line item for “Waste, Fraud, and Abuse.” - Little Egypt - Thursday, Oct 29, 09 @ 10:04 am: And this revelation about a well-paidState agency driver who has no documentation of any other kind of work comes as a surprise to whom? George, your comment, “The response said that the department had no evidence of their work, not that they did no work.” gave me my morning laugh. - wordslinger - Thursday, Oct 29, 09 @ 10:07 am: Secret, no question. - Montrose - Thursday, Oct 29, 09 @ 10:10 am: Cassandra- I can say with 100% certainty that Michelle Saddler does not and would never have a chauffeur. The difference between her and Carol Adams is night and day. - macbeth - Thursday, Oct 29, 09 @ 10:10 am: It seems to me that people are really scraping bottom to look for reasons to vote for Hynes. Good news for Quinn, I’d say. LOL. This is a meaningless story. What, you think Hynes-as-governor would do anything differently? That someone like Hynes is going to come in and make significant changes? Please. This says more about Carol Adams than it does Quinn. - Confused - Thursday, Oct 29, 09 @ 10:19 am: The funny thing is that Adams had 2 drivers. One is still employed at DHS and has no job duties. I work in the building and all he does is drive around in a state car all day or sleep at his desk. - RobRoy - Thursday, Oct 29, 09 @ 10:31 am: Anyone considering voting for a Democrat for Governor should have their examined. Or at the very least checked to see if they are a ‘pod person’…… - Louis Howe - Thursday, Oct 29, 09 @ 10:37 am: Nothing good happens in government without strong, principled, executive leadership. Adams isn’t the only former director that abused taxpayers and was allowed to continue working. In my view, the proper executive action when a political appointee with “sponsors” fails to perform their job duties is to determine whether the failure constitutes an ethical failure or job competence failure. If the failure is ethical, then the employee should be asked to resign. If job competence, then move the appointee to a position commensurate with their ability. In either case, the sponsors should be advised that their recommendation failed to perform. In good political organizations, sponsors know when a recommendation fails to perform that their future recommendations will be at risk. Unfortunately, all too often weak executive officer holders allow special interest groups and political sponsors to dictate personnel decisions. That certainly was the case with Blago. - Leave a light on George - Thursday, Oct 29, 09 @ 10:41 am: No macbeth you’re wrong. This says tons about Quinn. He promised to rid the state of this kind of BS. Even had a name for it, “fumigation”. Other than a few high profile dumps like Granburg at DNR he hasn’t followed through on any house cleaning. The few he has gotten rid of all got soft landings. Word, you’re correct. Frontline employee’s know who these bums are and where they reside in their respective agencies. Nobody would miss them and morale would improve 100% with their dismisal. AFSCME should say no to all consessions and taxpayers no to any increase in taxes until Quinn follows through on his promise. - Big Policy Nerd - Thursday, Oct 29, 09 @ 10:42 am: Team Hynes must be really scrapping the barrel to get this stuff out there… Hynes would never fix this ship because his whole life has been dependent on the Machine and specifically his father’s ties to the Machine. If there was no Tom Hynes getting people jobs and passing the money all around the 19th ward, Dan Hynes would never been on a statewide ticket and no one would have ever heard of him. The 19th ward is still packed with Tom Hynes proteges to this day. Everyone knows that. It will be fun to watch Tom Hynes pull his tricks down there on the south side once it gets closer to election day. - Just wondering - Thursday, Oct 29, 09 @ 10:47 am: =The 19th ward is still packed with Tom Hynes proteges to this day.= Not nearly as many as everyone thinks. - LakeviewLady - Thursday, Oct 29, 09 @ 10:52 am: I think you’re dead-on, Macbeth! Besides, after coming into office, I imagine Quinn had a few more pressing matters to attend to than firing drivers. Sounds like he’s taken care of it by doing some rearranging in the office. - Will County Woman - Thursday, Oct 29, 09 @ 11:07 am: Actually macbeth, when you can’t defend quinn’s actions as governor, but can only resort to a cheap attack against hynes, the Quinn camp has problems. Hynes hasn’t kept and high-paid blago holdovers of questionable character/integrity on the state payroll for political reasons, but quinn has. Hynes has clean hands, whereas quinn does not. and, that’s what people who commented prior to you are probably considering when they state that they’d rather votre for hynes over quinn. Re: big policy nerd lol…the quinn camp is clearly very threatened by dan hynes. tom hynes hasn’t been in politics for how long??????? only old-timers know about tom hynes. dan hynes lost the ‘04 senate primary to obama didn’t he? i guess that’s when dan hynes realized that he could not simply rely on his lastname to get him whatever he wanted politically. in fact he has publicly acknowledged this fact many times since losing to obama. dan hynes is standing on his own two feet today in running against pat quinn.let us keep in mind that it is quinn, not hynes, who IS the slated democratic candidate. and he is behaving like a slated candidate vis a vis political hiring. for him being slated is a liability and bad move because it totally undercuts his “i’m a reformer” claims. the carol adams thing and everything associated with her, going back to the blago administration, will be used against quinn, and rightfully so. she’s a liability too. - Italian Beef - Thursday, Oct 29, 09 @ 11:13 am: If you are talking about cleaning house over this kind of stuff, a good place to start would be the legislature. People on both sides of the aisle have their hands all up in the cookie jar when it comes to this stuff. How about a law that limits the number of people any elected official can recommend for a tax payer funded job. (A Man can dream) Second, since we are talking about “cleaning house” let’s get a list of all people who are “double-dipping” off taxpayer funded pensions and make it available to the public. We can start with Roland Burris, Former Comptroller Netsch, Bobbie Stelle and yes Tom Hynes. - this old hack - Thursday, Oct 29, 09 @ 11:29 am: not only that, Policy Nerd, but Dan won the 19th Ward by a only a handful of votes in the 2004 Senate primary, which suggests that whatever fearsome Tom Hynes organization that might have existed in the past to “pull tricks” as you say, has either lost the ability to perform such magic; or, what is much more likely, that you simply don’t know what you are talking about. Look, I’m not a bursting at the seams Hynes supporter myself, but it is very clear that Dan has built up an organization of devoted followers based not on patronage (the state Comptroller has zero jobs to fill) but on his performance in office. He deserves credit for that much. - this old hack - Thursday, Oct 29, 09 @ 11:40 am: (follow on to above) from Chicago Board of Elections, 2004 Dem Primary, 19th Ward: Dan Hynes 51.2% Barack Obama 41.5% (other candidates split the rest) Where are the “tricks”, Policy Nerd? The fact that Dan only got 51% AND that an African American (with a funny name, no less) got over 41% (in Beverly of all places) not only shows your argument to be false but also shows the long long way Chicago and society in general has come in 25 years. - Rich Miller - Thursday, Oct 29, 09 @ 11:41 am: ===in Beverly of all places=== Actually, a whole lot of African-Americans live in the 19th Ward. - Fmr Sr Staff of "Madame Clerk" - Thursday, Oct 29, 09 @ 12:14 pm: When are we going to find out what Dorothy Brown’s personal chauffeur makes on County taxpayer dollars? “Madame Clerk” CLAIMED he has a “real job” and was just “swinging by to pick her up on his way into the office.” Oh please. Why is he being paid a Senior Analyst salary (which is AT LEAST a Grade 20!) just to drive her around in her gas-guzzling, county-paid-for, Ford Expedition???? When is she going to be held accountable for her actions? (and someone please ask to see the notes that Squire Lance, her 2nd in command, wrote to all of us over a grade 18, telling us how many $100 fundraiser tickets we were REQUIRED to buy… or else?) - WizardofOzzie - Thursday, Oct 29, 09 @ 1:12 pm: Someone should take a hard look at Dan’s senior staff in Chicago. There are a whole lot of 19th ward people around. If you compare senior staffs there are a whole of smart people in Quinn’s office with a lot of advanced degrees. People have already forgetten what kind of shape state government was in when he took over. A lot of progress has been made but there is a long way to go. People can complain about about the “holdovers” but there are some bright people. Jack Lavin has a masters from U of Chicago and did a great job at DCEO. Ginger Ostro, masters from Harvard. Carol Adams has a doctorate. The people that have been kept around are the smartest of the bunch. - VanillaMan - Thursday, Oct 29, 09 @ 1:17 pm: Odysseus, something tells me that was not VanillaMan’s intention. I really don’t have any intentions. I understand and respect why both Quinn and Hynes has supporters and consider those who support them to be sincere, intelligent and thoughtful. But why is our reformer governor such a disappointment when it comes to reforming? - He Makes Ryan Look Like a Saint - Thursday, Oct 29, 09 @ 1:27 pm: Adams needs to be bounced. Quinn keeping her on shows that it is business as usual. I am sure this is just the tip of the iceburg with Ms Adams and DHS. - Anon - Thursday, Oct 29, 09 @ 1:35 pm: ==there are a whole of smart people in Quinn’s office with a lot of advanced degrees. People have already forgetten what kind of shape state government was in when he took over. A lot of progress has been made but there is a long way to go.== I’ve got one o’ them thar “advanced degrees,” too, and I haven’t been overwhelmed by the brilliance of any of them. Bob Greenlee had one, too, and is as smart as any of them. I also haven’t seen any progress, unless you consider cutting my pay and then freezing it to be progress. But Blago did that, too. - cassandra - Thursday, Oct 29, 09 @ 2:05 pm: Even though I am not a Quinn fan, I don’t find Quinn’s decision to put Adams in a do-nothing political job with frills (getting to live abroad) all that unreasonable. He had to get her out of DHS–the place was (and still is) a disaster, and she had stayed on way too long as it is. He couldn’t afford to have her in the job as the primary approached yet he may have had reason to believe the Legislature would make it difficult for him if he tried to fire her outright. She’ll take a pay cut, it appears, and she is not leaving with kudos from everyone, to put it mildly. It’s not that soft a landing. Now Quinn needs to move along and do something about DCFS. This agency is becoming a disaster too, as recent child deaths in Oak Park and Mount Prospect illustrate all too tragically. In both cases, DCFS had a substantial investigative presence, but the children (infants under 2 years) died anyway, violently in one case. This is unforgiveable and Quinn should not tolerate it. When lives are at stake, as was the case at DHS, we shouldn’t quibble. Just get the problem executives out of there. - southern illinoisan - Thursday, Oct 29, 09 @ 2:09 pm: This is a glaring example of how PQ feels about reform. This is pure politics and he now knows that to stay in the big game he will have to play the patronage card. These people are all DEMOCRATS. You may try to label them Blagojevich dems or with some other name. And this is why Senator Cullerton won’t call the fumigation bill. There are party members to protect no matter who sponsored them. If Quinn had any backbone he would stand up to the Party and fire anyone who was appointed by Rod Blagojevich. And for those who say there are talented people who need to stay to get things done, I say hogwash! Most of the Blago appointees are morons, who are either to stupid or lazy to do their job. And if you think electing Dan Hynes will change all of this, think again. The only way to totally clean house is to elect someone from the other party. - Bill - Thursday, Oct 29, 09 @ 2:12 pm: ==Someone should take a hard look at Dan’s senior staff in Chicago. There are a whole lot of 19th ward people around.== Just compare the way Hynes’ office is run compared to Quinn’s. That will show you the value of having people who know what they are doing compared to eggheads who don’t have a clue. Ostrow sure did a great job on the budget didn’t she? Lavin is a nice guy but I don’t see much economic development around Illinois, do you? Queen Adams? You gotta be kiddin’. Besides, what’s your point? Quinn didn’t hire these scholars, Rod did. Should we bring him back as Quinn’s cheif of staff? His whole team is still in place. Quinn and Filan included. - Leave a light on George - Thursday, Oct 29, 09 @ 2:13 pm: @Cassandra “When lives are at stake, as was the case at DHS, we shouldn’t quibble. Just get the problem executives out of there.” Adams was a well known problem long before Q. became Governor. Why did this take so long? - Bill - Thursday, Oct 29, 09 @ 2:14 pm: ==A lot of progress has been made== Oh yeah? Like what? doubling the state’s debt? - Big Policy Nerd - Thursday, Oct 29, 09 @ 2:16 pm: Just some background on my earlier comment since it was requested…I grew up near 103th and Western… Attended Catholic Schools my whole life. (Go Caravan) My father had a union job, worked hard and it paid the bills, mother and aunt taught catholic school, uncle was a Cook County sheriff. Back then everyone on the block was either a school teacher, or had a job with the Union, City or County. While the neighborhood has become more diverse (as you noted Rich) as my Great Uncle (god bless him) used to say, ” if you needed a job, you went and talked to Tom Hynes.” He ran a tight ship. Tom would see what he could do, then come election time you would knock on a few doors, bring the kids with you to pass out lit, and always donate a few bucks at the ward events at the Cork and Kerry. Come election day, everyone in the neighborhood voted. I don’t care if there was a special election for dog catcher. People were going around to make sure you voted and you voted the right way and that was how it was done. I don’t think it was much different than things used to be anywhere else. And Tom Hynes still has clout in the 19th…Dan Hynes old staffer (who tom appointed) is the committeeman. - VanillaMan - Thursday, Oct 29, 09 @ 2:30 pm: Just compare the way Hynes’ office is run compared to Quinn’s. Ooops, you shouldn’t have wrote that. Dan Hynes has two offices, and his record in Springfield is totally unimpressive. Lolita and Dawn had better presence in Springfield than Dan has had. Hynes has ran his office from Chicago. The last two ladies who held the office made sure everyone knew they knew where the state capitol of Illinois was and worked in that office on a regular basis. Hynes hasn’t done that. Also, pleaser remember that Hynes pretty much have done little to nothing to the office since Didrickson held it for one term. The heavy job of bringing the office into the 21st Century was done by her. Hynes has pretty much sleptwalked over the past 12 years, waking up in time for opportunistic primaries to lose. Hynes didn’t screw anything up - but just as his lot in life - he has gotten where he is by the Fates, and his father. So Bill, present Hynes differently. His strength cannot be based on his job as Comptroller. It is based on his integrity, the length of his statewide office experience, and his somber personality, not on any awesome job he’s done as Comptroller. Netch and Didrickson kicked butt during their terms - Hynes benefitted. - Bill - Thursday, Oct 29, 09 @ 2:32 pm: The Hynes family is revered in the ward because they exemplify the values that the community holds dear. People work hard, educate their children and demand excellence, give back to the community, and help their neighbors out. Dan isn’t comptroller because of his Dad, he holds a statewide office because he is competent, honest, works hard, and always does what he thinks is right for the state not necessarily himself. Illinois can’t do any better than Dan Hynes. - Bill - Thursday, Oct 29, 09 @ 2:36 pm: Vannie, Who cares about Springfield? I was talking about his performance in office not the geographical location. - steve schnorf - Thursday, Oct 29, 09 @ 2:56 pm: What in the world gives with all this rage and hatefulness lately? Quinn, for having inherited a terrible mess, right at the beginning of a legislative session, has done fine so far. I would have done some things differently on the budget, but if I want to make those decisions I need to circulate petitions. Quinn has hired some very good people. Is his administration perfect? No, none are, but its a great improvement so far. Hynes has some outstanding people in his Springfield office: some he brought in, some that he kept. He has been a fine public servant, and along with Madigan, was one of the few high level Ds blowing the whistle on the previous Gov. Dillard and Brady are both good people, though Brady is more conservative than I am. I don’t know Schillersrom well, but everything I hear from people who do know him is fine. I don’t know McKenna, but I know his detractors and that says pretty good things about him. Jim Ryan is as decent a guy as I have ever known, and again, a faithful public servant. I think on both sides of the aisle we have a abundance of ability and quality in the Gov race. We can hardly go wrong. I can’t understand why so many of you feel compelled to say such negative things. Disagree with someone on policy, great. State your disagreement and argue it. But these are the types of people we need more of in government. If you have someone you think would do a better job, advance them with their credentials and experiences. But I don’t get this rush to demonize good people in the process. - Old History Professor - Thursday, Oct 29, 09 @ 3:20 pm: I am not taking sides in this Pat Quinn/Dan Hynes back and forth, but I say respectfully to Bill and his comment, “The Hynes family is revered in the ward because they exemplify the values that the community holds dear…” I am not too familiar at all with Dan Hynes, but based upon his Father’s actions as County Assessor, Tom Hynes is not someone who I would consider to have “exemplary values.” He was the Todd Stoger of the 1980’s. Allow me to indulge in a personal story…After I got my first teaching job at DePaul, my wife and I bought a nice two flat near Ravenswood and Irving Park. It was a nice modest home and a nice old Chicago neighborhood and it was a fair price for what we could afford. In comes Tom Hynes as Assessor and pow what did we get??? A huge property tax increase that rocked us. A few years later, another wallop, then a few years later another wallop. No one knew how they calculated those big rate increases and one one was given any chance to fight it unless you were connected to Hynes and the Machine. People were scrambling to come up with the cash and left the neighborhood. Back then, like many today, you just didn’t have $1500 to magically come up with. If you were in with the Machine or had a business downtown, you got a break. Anyone else who owned land and wasn’t connected got walloped. Meanwhile, Cook County government was in a nose dive and heading for broke and all we got stuck with more monster tax bills with no improvements in county services to show for it. Recent news shows that things still haven’t changed at all. Thanks for the trip down memory lane! - wordslinger - Thursday, Oct 29, 09 @ 3:58 pm: –Just compare the way Hynes’ office is run compared to Quinn’s. That will show you the value of having people who know what they are doing compared to eggheads who don’t have a clue.– Bill, I seem to recall Rich publishing a photo a ways back of the back of your head. You’re really not down on egg heads, are you? For the others, Beverly and Morgan Park are the salt of the earth, black and white, great communities in the state of Illinois. Here’s to them. - Stuck with Sen. CPA - Thursday, Oct 29, 09 @ 6:07 pm: @Old History Professor Sorry, I thought assessors just assessed property values - not levied taxes. Are you saying Tom Hynes inflated values to benefit the Machine? And why are we talking about Tom Hynes, anyway? - Bobs yer - Thursday, Oct 29, 09 @ 7:29 pm: A pox on all these CC D’s. Geez. It’s like a 3d world country. Do they have Swiss bank acounts too?? Quinn’s been tested and found wanting. Hope that one of the R candidates shows some leadership. Just a little would be a huge improvement. - macbeth - Thursday, Oct 29, 09 @ 8:00 pm: === And why are we talking about Tom Hynes, anyway? === For the same reason we’re talking about Carol Adams’s driver. And for the same reason we’re acting all hrrmphed because some of us think Quinn is supposed to keep tabs on Carol Adams’s employees. It’s all the same. So, yeah, I expect the Sun Times to come up with a good Tom Hynes expose so we can connect the son to the father, slap our heads, and say, “Gee, Dan, what were you thinking?” This blog is turning more Fox-News-like by the day. - Will County Woman - Thursday, Oct 29, 09 @ 8:15 pm: Macbeth et al. Tom Hynes is only Dan Hynes’ father. Tom Hynes does not work for the Comptroller’s Office, and he isn’t going to be hired to work for Governor Hynes in any capacity. Tom Hynes’ record as assessor has no bearing on Dan Hynes as comptroller. Carol Adams and her driver employee were a stain on the Blagojevich administration, and they are a stain on Quinn administration because he has kept them in his employ. And, as such they are fair game to discuss. - Will County Woman - Thursday, Oct 29, 09 @ 8:46 pm: Big Policy Nerd, what does all of that have to do with Dan Hynes? Dan Hynes is not his father, is he? By all accounts Dan Hynes is somewhat shy, studious and low-key. From everything that I have ever read about Tom Hynes, he had a lot more personality than his son. If Lisa Madigan can be given a pass and deemed “her own person” etc. with a father STILL ACTIVE IN EVERDAY POLITICS/GOVERNMENT in Illinois, then why can’t Dan Hynes be given a pass and judged solely on the job that he has done as an elected official too? - cynically anonymous - Thursday, Oct 29, 09 @ 9:50 pm: Has anyone else heard murmurings that Carol Adams has an import/export business and has been dealing with African trade the whole time she was at DHS? - Emily Booth - Thursday, Oct 29, 09 @ 9:54 pm: I remember Carol Adams being called before the legislature to discuss her need for a chauffeur. This may have been around the same time as Pajama Gate. Adam’s “Chief of Staff”, Teyonda Wertz, is still at DHS. We received a memo today about travel reimbursement being further reduced. How ironic in the wake of chauffeurs on staff at DHS. Regarding belt-tightening, I counted 7 PSA/SPSA vacancies posted at DHS so hiring is still going on. Get your bids in. - Will County Woman - Thursday, Oct 29, 09 @ 10:06 pm: no, but i do recall reading in the tribune that when he appointed adams to the african trade post, quinn in effect stated that he was appointing her to the post because she took some collegiate level courses about africa (sometime ago) @emily booth that’s what i don’t get. the state is in fiscal crisis, yet hiring is still going on. i can understand the need to fill some positions as they become vacant—especially those that are vital to running state government/providing important state services. but, i do not understand all of the political hiring done at the executive level. it’s really a slap in the face to illinoisans that political hiring is still going on for purely political reasons. quinn’s supporters keep trying to spin him as a reformer and good government type. unbeleivable!and in the midst of a fiscal crisis its downright shameful. - Confetti - Thursday, Oct 29, 09 @ 10:13 pm: Regarding Carol Adams’ export business, it is also rumored that she used the state’s laptop at home to conduct transactions… - Chi Gal - Friday, Oct 30, 09 @ 2:13 am: Come on, Quinn wasn’t going to get tough with Adams…. once again, she is an African American and that is a target audience he has gone out of his way to not upset. Let’s just move her into a plush position that we don’t need — move her out and don’t upset anyone. Hope nobody notices - unlike the two at U of I. Quinn = Disappointment Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.