* AP…

A Chicago attorney and anti-corruption campaigner is stressing that a court-appointed monitor is needed to ensure the state’s Department of Transportation is in compliance with political hiring bans.

Michael Shakman’s filing Monday in federal court comes in response to a motion by Gov. Pat Quinn’s attorneys that the governor’s administration’s response to allegations of political hiring in the department had been both “prompt” and “appropriate.” […]

Shakman says the state investigator’s findings are reason enough for the monitor.

* Shakman says a whole lot more than that. From his filing…

The centerpiece of Governor Quinn’s argument is that all the issues identified by the [Inspector General’s] Report have been addressed. As noted above, the Report did not probe the involvement of the Governor’s office and did not state the numbers of transfers that violated the Decree. Thus, whatever the Governor’s responses, they don’t address those issues. Nor are they sufficient to address the identified violations in a manner likely to prevent reoccurrences.

Governor Quinn responded to the Report by directing IDOT to (i) retrain executive staff, who “will be required to attend a Rutan training course,” (ii) annually compare employee job descriptions with actual duties and if there is a discrepancy, “the job descriptions must be clarified,” (iii) hire an outside consultant to review exempt positions and provide updated descriptions to CMS to decide if they are really exempt, (iv) not create new exempt positions until the Governor says to do so, (v) abolish the “staff assistant” title, (vi) create a new definition of “technical” and an oversight board, (vii) “ensure” that all transfers into non-exempt positions are lawful and (viii) review prior audits for compliance.

What is missing in the Governor’s Response? Like the Report, the Governor’s response provided no explanation for the root causes of illegal hiring (in violation of Rutan) or for illegal duty assignments to often-meaningless jobs, followed by illegal transfers to non-exempt positions (both in violation of the 1972 Decree). Rutan and executive orders previously cited by the Governor, June 6, 2014 Response clearly did not prevent illegal hiring, illegal job assignments or illegal transfers. Missing from the Report and the Governor’s response is an analysis of why these violations occurred, the methods used, and structure to give reasonable assurances that violations will not occur in the future. Without that, the Governor’s directives will just be more words on paper.

How meaningful are the Governor’s remedial actions? The Governor is embroiled in a hotly-fought election contest against a candidate who focuses on the IDOT employment mess; the Report describes serious problems with IDOT employment practices, mostly on Governor Quinn’s watch; the Plaintiffs’ motion seeks a monitor to investigate and report, and the right to take discovery. What is surprising is how little the Governor has actually done in response.

(i). Retraining is not a solution because there was training before, as the IG’s Report notes. It did not prevent violations.

(ii). Comparing job descriptions and actual duties may provide more evidence that job titles have been manipulated, but will not address why. It will not prevent new “discrepancies” in a system operated for political purposes, as has occurred since early in the Blagojevich administration. The real question is how to prevent political misuse of job titles. […]

(iv). Freezing creation of exempt positions until the Governor says otherwise may be good public relations, but is not good public policy. Some positions should be exempt. The process of creating legitimate exempt positions should not be suspended until the Governor says otherwise. Rather, proposed exempt position descriptions could be prepared and circulated to Plaintiffs’ lawyers and a monitor. That process has worked well for other governmental agencies subject to Court orders in this case. It results in a credible exempt list approved by the Court.

(v) - (iv). Abolishing the “staff assistant” title, creating a new definition of “technical” and an oversight board fall into the category of closing the barn door after the horses have left. The problem with “Staff Assistants” was not inherent in the position. Rather, hundreds of positions were used to employ people who had clout, but who did little or nothing. Eliminating the “Staff Assistant” job title does nothing to prevent the same misuse of other positions. Nor does defining a “technical” job description and reviewing that determination prevent reoccurrence of patronage practices in other jobs. This case has demonstrated the creativity and willingness of public officials to engage in political manipulations in violation of the Decrees and their own internal written policies. Here “[t]he actions of IDOT officials violated Administrative Order No. 2 (2009) and IDOT’s own personnel policies,” Report at iv, not to mention this Court’s Decree. More than restating the rules is needed. Independent, external oversight is necessary.

(vii) - (viii). Ensuring that all transfers to non-exempt positions are lawful and reviewing all prior audits for compliance are also after-the-fact efforts that do not identify causes, prevent repetition or provide a trustworthy policing mechanism.

All these steps could have a role in a comprehensive effort to devise permanent, long-term solutions. But they appear mainly to be public relations efforts to show that the Governor is doing something – and to support his argument that the Court should do nothing.

*** UPDATE *** From the Rauner campaign…

“Bruce agrees with Michael Shakman that the governor’s phony reforms ignored the underlying corruption inside his administration and will not prevent illegal hiring at IDOT in the future. Pat Quinn said he would end patronage four years ago — he was lying then and he’s lying again today. The only way to end illegal patronage hiring is to submit to Michael Shakman’s call for a federal hiring monitor at IDOT.” - Rauner Spokesperson Mike Schrimpf