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Here we go again

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Illinois

The only way stories like this will ever stop is if Illinois finally bans campaign contributions by state contractors. Period.

The governor pats himself on the back for not taking state employee money, but contractors have a lot more cash on hand.

The Blagojevich administration is claiming that a study of the stateâ€™s fleet of cars ordered more than three years ago has generated millions of dollars in savings. But, officials wonâ€™t release the results of the study, which was conducted by a company that has contributed thousands of dollars to the governorâ€™s campaign fund.

As the state embarks on a plan to begin its first large-scale replacement of vehicles since the governor took office, the fact that the study isnâ€™t being made public is drawing fire from some lawmakers.

“I think if they donâ€™t respond to these inquiries on how they spend our state dollars, thereâ€™s something amiss,” said state Rep. Jack Franks, D-Woodstock. “They should have to respond. I donâ€™t think their objection is valid.”

In May, Lee News Service requested a copy of the study, which was called for by Gov. Rod Blagojevich in one of his first acts after taking office in 2003. The request, made using the stateâ€™s Freedom of Information Act, was denied in June. The administration says it cannot release the study because it is exempt from state open records laws.

The company that did this study just won a no-bid extension of its contract. That’s the way things are usually done in Springfield.

posted by Rich Miller
Friday, Jun 23, 06 @ 7:47 am

Comments

Nobody can deny the state troopers need safe cars that aren’t worn-out. And that seems to be the main part of the contract. But where is the transparency in government operations? Why hide the info from FOIA? If there’s nothing to hide, why hide it? The excuse given does not (surprise) ring true.

Comment by Gregor Friday, Jun 23, 06 @ 8:03 am
Nothing that takes place in Illinois state government should be hidden from the Illinois taxpayers. It isn’t like they are dealing with issues of national defense or security!

Anytime any political representative of the people hides or cloaks something from the taxpayers, it automatically makes us question his reasons for doing so. The veiled “trusts” that Denny Hastert put in his wife’s name rather than his own and Denny’s decision on hiding his name in the trust that he and the other two investors had formed regarding their “land investment deal”, certainly makes Illinois and US taxpayers question what other “investments” and self-enriching endeavors that he has chosen to be involved in that he prefers to “cloak” from the public’s view.

“Truth” and “open disclosure” should be the premise that our Illinois state government should operate under.
As a sidebar, I hope that Governor Blagojevich (who portrays himself as an environmentalist) has insisted that a certain percentage of the new “automobile” replacement vehicles are hybrid vehicles. It would send out a prominent national message that Illinois plans to be one of the nation’s leaders in lessening our nation’s dependence of foreign oil. This national exposure for Blagojevich should thrill our governor and his future plans for national political office someday.

Comment by Beowulf Friday, Jun 23, 06 @ 8:20 am
I have a study that says the GOP is far better at manaing the State’s money than Democrats. I can’t release the results in detail so you will just have to trust me on this.
So the justifictions why it’s not under FOI is why? Wait let me guess, trade secrets. Yeah, that’s it. Releasing it might give other potential competitors too much information, and after all the company that got the contract paid the campaign a lot to get access, that would be fair.

Comment by frustrated GOP Friday, Jun 23, 06 @ 8:45 am
It would appear to be SSDD.

Comment by Dr. Yan Friday, Jun 23, 06 @ 9:38 am
The old-timers here know the “mark the report draft so it’s FOIA-exempt” trick. The problem with that is one shouldn’t pay for a completed contract without getting a final product; those pesky auditors take offense at things like that.
Here comes CMS Finding 06-1.

As far as Maximus goes, they are a solid firm that has done plenty of work for State agencies over the years. It’s too bad they are wrapped up in this mess.

Comment by NumbersGuy Friday, Jun 23, 06 @ 10:06 am
Did they study the fleet of vehicles belonging to the State Police? A few months back there were a series of articles about squad car shortages and breakdowns during chases due to the aging.

Last night I pulled up next to one clearly marked state trooper’s vehicle. The doors and trunk were lined with rust at the bottom and the vehicle looked like a few beaters I drove in college (sans the markings and lights of course). The vehicle itself seemed to tilt to the left.

If the trooper vehicles were included in that study, then the “savings” need to be severely questioned. I’ll take safety over “savings” any day.

Louis G. Atsaves

Comment by Louis G. Atsaves Friday, Jun 23, 06 @ 10:54 am
I’m opposed to pols shaking down contractors, but it’s not a simple question.

If contractors can’t give to pols, why should public sector unions be allowed to give to pols?

And what about businesses regulated by the government? Doesn’t it seem like an abuse for pols to shake down businesses that stand to gain or lose base on regulatory interpretations?

But if we take all the forms of monetary kickback out of politics, does it seem like we are tipping the scales in favor of the people who manage large amounts of patronage?

Comment by Carl Nyberg Friday, Jun 23, 06 @ 10:57 am
if this is proprietary software, then of course this wouldn’t go out for bid. That would be like Linux bidding to provide tech support for Microsoft.

Comment by Anonymous Friday, Jun 23, 06 @ 11:20 am
O.K, here we go again, this is a matter for Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan; Open Access and Opinions Division

http://www.ag.state.il.us/government/pac.html

In addition, MAXIMAS recently won the state contract to do income withholding and modifications for Child Support. I believe that prior to the Governors former Executive Inspector General, Z. Scott’s firing, she investigated MAXIMUS for a bidrigging scheme (that a former Child Support employee blew the whistle on) and it lost the contract in 2005 and the contract was awarded to a company called PSI. Now, due to its affiliation with the Governor’s office as outlined in the article, MAXIMUS has again secured the same contract with the state’s Child Support Division.

Business as Usual!

Comment by One Man Can Make A Difference Friday, Jun 23, 06 @ 12:37 pm
The claims that the Blago administration is not taking contributions from state employees is bogus. I know for a fact that they have been soliciting state employees to make contributions to the guvs campaign. This guy just makes me sick, just says what people want to here regardless of whether it is true or not.

Comment by MagicDragon Friday, Jun 23, 06 @ 9:08 pm
This study should be made public. The taxpayers and state employees who rely on these vehicles ought to know what’s in it. Having said that, I’m very skeptical about the savings claims.

The vehicles that have been trimmed from the state fleet for the most part were rolling wrecks that agencies were ready to dump anyway.

State Police aren’t the only ones driving high mileage, unsafe vehicles. Most light trucks and cars in the IDOT fleets have 150,000 or more miles on them. Many maintenance yards have trucks with well over 200,000 on them.

It’s not unusual for these vehicles to go into the shop (run by CMS) and come back with bills for $3,000 to $5,000 or more. If CMS can’t do the work, they send it out to a dealer’s service center. Then the agencies are charged for “overhead” for the CMS paperwork in addition to the cost of the repairs. This is saving us money? They should let the agencies make their own arrangements for repairs. I know it could be done cheaper if they would do it that way.

Comment by road kill Friday, Jun 23, 06 @ 9:23 pm
I wish someone would study amount of money wasted to continue to repair state police vehicles or any other state car, these monies were poured down the drain ,would you spend $20,000 in 2 years to keep a 150,000 mile car running ,answer -only if you didn’t want to buy a new one because you would want to look good to the voters and make them think you are saving money when in fact you wasted the tax payers money , it is all smoke and mirrors poeple.

Comment by peeved Saturday, Jun 24, 06 @ 7:11 am
The State police cars are specialized, like Elwood Blues says, cop tires, cop motor… the police package cars come with a lot of things that make them different from a standard car. This also makes them more expensive to buy, even in quantity, and the investment in all the extra stuff bolted into one means you want to run them as long as you can to get your money’s worth out of them. But for the safety of the officers and the public, you can’t run them to the point they are falling apart. Not replacing the cars on a regular schedule was one of the little tricks the administration used to reduce operating expenses and “solve” the immediate budget problem… by deferring the replacement expenses into the future. Now the future is here, you got a backlog of worn out cars, troopers desperate for rides and it’s going to cost more.

Hey, that seems awfully familiar, where else have we seen this kind of budgetary process?

Comment by Broderick Crawford Saturday, Jun 24, 06 @ 9:51 am
Companies, unions, and individuals contracting or bargaining for taxpayer dollars, should be prohibited from political donations and politicians/parties should also be prohibited from accepting it.

This won’t stop money flowing to power, but it will greatly improve public confidence in our institutions.

To really be effective, time restrictions would also be needed that prevent donations within four years before or after the contracting or bargaining.

Comment by Anonymous Sunday, Jun 25, 06 @ 2:58 am
According to our IDOT vehicle coordinator - the software used to track our vehicles has crashed and hasn’t been replaced. When blogo got in, all of our vehicles were assigned new tracking numbers. Our coordinator wisely maintained the old numbers. With the crashed tracking system, the new vehicle numbers no longer work.

Comment by Anon Sunday, Jun 25, 06 @ 12:29 pm
Buon luogo, congratulazioni, il mio amico!

Comment by Azzurra Saturday, Nov 4, 06 @ 4:06 pm