* AP…
Illinois Senate Democrats say Gov. Bruce Rauner’s administration inappropriately spent money to move records from a closed prison to new warehouse space.
Sen. Andy Manar is a Bunker Hill Democrat. He questioned Corrections Department Director John Baldwin during an appropriations committee hearing Wednesday.
Manar says Department of Human Services records had been stored in at least one building on the campus of the former Dwight Correctional Center in Livingston County. But he says those records were moved to a Springfield warehouse the state recently leased for $2.4 million amid a two-year budget stalemate. […]
Manar says he was told the Dwight building needed extensive roof repairs. But there is other vacant state space.
* Finke…
“What was occurring at the Dwight facility that would cause these documents to have to be moved out of a state-owned facility to another facility that is leased to a private vendor?” Manar asked.
“I have no idea at all,” Baldwin replied. “I have not heard of that.”
Manar then asked Baldwin if he was aware the documents had been stored at Dwight.
“No,” Baldwin said.
Baldwin acknowledged the department has a number of vacant buildings on its hands, but told Manar he could not vouch for them being suitable for storing paper documents.
*** UPDATE 1 *** From the Department of Corrections…
Hey Rich,
I just wanted to clarify that CMS assumed full financial obligation for the facility in Dwight in 2014 and entered into an agreement with DHS on the DOCs behalf. The agreements between the agencies gave DHS access to several buildings on the grounds so they could store their files. Neither CMS nor DHS were required to notify the Department or the Director about when or why they moved the documents.
Nicole
* And this is from the Department of Human Services…
Hi Rich –
I saw your post about the DHS records being moved. The attached memo details some of the issues at the Dwight facility and illustrates the need for a new location. Please let me know if you have any questions.
Best regards,
Meredith Krantz
The memo is here.
*** UPDATE 2 *** Sen. Andy Manar…
Once again, our committee is left with more questions than when we started. The governor is more than halfway through his term and it’s as if no one knows who’s running what within the Rauner administration.
We’ve asked very simple, straightforward questions now to three different agency directors and the governor’s chief of staff. We have yet to receive a simple, straightforward answer back about why millions of taxpayer dollars are being spent to move and house old state paperwork in a former furniture store when Illinois has several empty buildings available at no cost.
These records were kept at the now vacant state women’s prison in Dwight. If there were maintenance concerns at that site, we would like to know the cost of remedying them because it’s hard to believe it would cost more than the $2.4 million that taxpayers will pay to lease the former furniture store.
Keep in mind, we are in a budget crisis and we are talking about the Rauner administration spending millions to find new homes for old paperwork. We have simple questions we would like answered: Who in the administration is directing this and why is it such a priority?
Bruce Rauner promised management expertise from a proven businessman. Given the mismanagement and confusion we’re witnessing, clearly the taxpayers are not getting what was promised.
- Arthur Andersen - Thursday, May 4, 17 @ 11:15 am:
Next on Andy’s agenda: DHS Director, did you know there are overcrowded prisons? And why are these prisons overcrowded?
- Winnin' - Thursday, May 4, 17 @ 11:16 am:
Waiting for the Illinois Policy Institute and its little buddies, the Edgar County Sleuths, to knock one out of the park on this juicy story. Big fish.
Big GOP fish fry to come.
Don’t hold your breath.
- IRLJ - Thursday, May 4, 17 @ 11:19 am:
Not good for an agency director to get caught this way. Begs questions like who is the private vendor and does the private vendor have ties to Rauner or others in the administration? If Baldwin didn’t know about it, who made the decision? After what process…?
- Perrid - Thursday, May 4, 17 @ 11:21 am:
Didn’t Dimas say in a statement that the facility they were at was not secure enough? No locked cabinets, too many people with access, etc. I thought I read something when this story first came out
- VanillaMan - Thursday, May 4, 17 @ 11:25 am:
BUT…BUT…BUT…Rauner’s opposed to government waste of our tax dollars!
Rauner’s single term in office has set back Illinois taxpayers harder than any big spending governor before him. Incompetency in the governor’s off is extremely expensive.
BUT…BUT…BUT…we’re not paying our bills, or repairing our state - we’re trying to screw those overpaid unions!
Show us the saving an AWOL governor generates, Mr. “Start-Up”.
- wordslinger - Thursday, May 4, 17 @ 11:28 am:
IDOC chief knows the value of a good stonewall. Still, he’s remarkably incurious about his job.
We’ve all seen this lease-deal movie many times before. What’s wildly brazen about this Rauner sequel is the Return of the Cellini Gang.
That has to be a red cape to the federales bulls.
- Michelle Flaherty - Thursday, May 4, 17 @ 11:40 am:
The Rauner Admin prefers to look at it this way: they commuted all that paperwork’s prison sentence to a life sentence in a former furniture store. And if someone politically connected happens to profit along the way, well, that’s just the price of good government.
Overall grade: A-plus.
Next question?
- Republican SOS - Thursday, May 4, 17 @ 11:42 am:
Rauner wants to fire the IDOT workers if they were improperly hired and is asking a court for permission. As I understand it, he can fire Frank Vala now these bad lease deals. I know Vala is his appointee but this is not what Rauner promised.
- Winnin' - Thursday, May 4, 17 @ 11:42 am:
clealy the doin of Rauner and the frat boys he controls.
- Michelle Flaherty - Thursday, May 4, 17 @ 11:46 am:
Regarding the updates …
Ummmm, shouldn’t someone at either agency have spoken up like yesterday? Is anyone monitoring what the cabinet directors are saying in public forums?
It takes 24 hours for someone to day, hey, that’s not his building anymore?
- Annonin' - Thursday, May 4, 17 @ 11:48 am:
Wonderin’ if the rapid responders sent that memo over to DOC 3 weeks when the scandal was first exposed
Let’s play a new game. DopeyDuct list about 65 conflicts of interest on his SOEI FILIN’ LET’S CHECK ON ONE — Zest Health care and report back.
- Anon - Thursday, May 4, 17 @ 12:12 pm:
In reading the DHS Inter-office memo there seems to be a serious issue with work orders being marked as completed without any work being done.
- Daniel Plainview - Thursday, May 4, 17 @ 12:16 pm:
All of those maintenance issues have solutions beyond entering into sweetheart lease deals for connected pals. What a joke.
- Ghost - Thursday, May 4, 17 @ 12:24 pm:
Those issue could be fixed for less then the cost of the lease, and we would get devades of use after the repairs.
So steal pensions to save money but dony reduce costs by repairing and using state owned land? thisnis just burning cash. very easy cost savings.
anyone ever totaled all the lease payements across the state? the state is forever so we should own everything we use. i bet tjose lease payments would cover bonds to construc new 100% owned state of the art favilities for all employees and storage
- Thinking - Thursday, May 4, 17 @ 12:35 pm:
The waste is one thing in terms of whether the was other vacant space where they could be stored.
But let’s not take eye off of the fact that the lease was bid as a combination of office space and warehouse space and it was then awarded for warehouse space. If you are a property owner interested in doing business with the State, those are 2 different things. Factor in Chip Smith being the leasing agent for CMS (dad was chair of Sangamon County Republican Party and best of friends with Bill Cellini). One has to ask how this lease got approved when the company it was awarded to only came into existence 2 days before bids were due, and CMS changes what it was that was being bid on without telling anyone, and it goes to Cellini ’s daughter, and Chip Smith is the leasing agent. Where was the chief purchasing officer on stopping this?? Where was the Policy Board on stopping this?? It seems the fail sails that were put in place to stop this failed epically.
- Thinking - Thursday, May 4, 17 @ 12:36 pm:
Fail safes
- Questioning - Thursday, May 4, 17 @ 12:53 pm:
What about the leasing of the building shared with Harbor Freight in Springfield?
Word is that it’s currently (and very expensively) being worked on so DoIT staff can be moved from various state-owned locations into this leased space.
How many other examples of such waste are going on? Sheesh.
- Thinking - Thursday, May 4, 17 @ 1:20 pm:
Questioning-DHS was suppose to be in the Harbor Freight space, DOIT was suppose to be in the Barney’s space. DOIT didn’t like the Barney’s space so this is where things got swapped out.
- Michelle Flaherty - Thursday, May 4, 17 @ 1:27 pm:
Look at it this way, the Quinn administration would have left the paper in Dwight and moved the inmates to the furniture store that Cellini’s family owns.
- Anonymous - Thursday, May 4, 17 @ 1:30 pm:
This is one example of the corruption that makes Illinois government what it is: rotten. How many other instances have there been, and happening presently, that are not spotlighted?
Don’t mock “Waste, Fraud, and Abuse” - its real, it’s here, and its significant. Stopping it would not close the huge Gap of Special Interest (Billions), but why not make the effort to stop what you can because it will help AND it’s the right freakin’ thing to do! Reward whistleblowers, they have guts and are taking a risk for the common good.
- Ginhouse Tommy - Thursday, May 4, 17 @ 1:53 pm:
Everybody knows that this is just business as usual in state govt. People with connections get what they want. As far Mr Cellini goes he was the only person in the state who could just walk into the Governors office without prior notice or appointment. He would say “I’m going to talk to the Governor” and walk right in. Whatever he wanted he got. He was always looking for ways to make money. This really is not surprising. Old habits.
- Cheswick - Thursday, May 4, 17 @ 2:15 pm:
Roof repairs? Because the state does not fix its buildings, i.e. the JRTC, The Stratton, the Armory, the…
- PDJT - Thursday, May 4, 17 @ 2:16 pm:
When Rauner said he was going to shake up Springfield, he meant the hard working state employees who belong to unions, not the slimy political hangers on who leach off of the Illinois taxpayers.
- wordslinger - Thursday, May 4, 17 @ 6:30 pm:
I’m sure Kass will be all over this obvious ongoing Cellini corruption under Rauner.
Because Kass is an honest man.
I kid.
- Smoke - Thursday, May 4, 17 @ 6:53 pm:
There is a story here. Get the details. What are the records and what makes their retention worth millions a year? What about those “incomplete” work orders? There must be an investigative reporter somewhere in town!