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The Belleville News-Democrat editorializes on allegations brought by the former director of the Illinois Historic Presevation Agency that he was pressured to fire Republican employees and promote the wife of a Democratic legislator.

Blagojevich told the Chicago Tribune that the suit is without basis: “I have a one-word answer for you: absurd. Here’s another word: ridiculous, ludicrous. Ludicrous. It’s just ridiculous.”

That’s three words.

It is absurd to think Blagojevich would have sent one of his lieutenants to Crossland with a chart with the Republican workers’ names crossed off with red Xs. This is the governor who was going to keep politics out of hiring, not escalate it.

It is ridiculous to think Crossland would be forced to resign because he pointed out financial irregularities involving a lawmaker’s spouse. An audit eventually determined that McKenzie, the site supervisor of the Cahokia courthouse, improperly handled donations. She also was paid 1,327.5 hours over overtime in a 51-month period — overtime approved after the fact. By comparison, supervisors at four other sites received between 30 and 464 hours during the same period, according to the audit. […]

And it is ludicrous to think that Crossland would be pressured to create a higher-paying job for McKenzie at the same time she was being investigated.

More here.

posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Jul 18, 06 @ 9:17 am

Comments

When Daley babbled about preferential treatment on the Skyway he used the word “silly” about 20 times. Blago took his cue from Daley (or Mike Tyson?) by using the word “ludicrous” as well as “ridiculous” multiple times. I don’t want four more years of either one but I see both being re-elected.

Comment by Tom Tuesday, Jul 18, 06 @ 9:44 am
Let’s get rid of whoever approved all that overtime–before or after the fact.

Why would somebody in the Illinois Preservation Authority need overtime….what could they possibly be doing that couldn’t wait until tomorrow..or next week.

Is this another Blago method for ripping off the taxpayers and rewarding political supporters with govt money…raising their salaries via overtimes. Pretty easy to hide, etc.

Overtime largesse seems to be a favorite Democratic ploy for rewarding the faithful. Even John Stroger was forced to do damage control (at least verbally) in recent years because of grossly excessive overtime outlays to Cook County government employees.

Comment by Cassandra Tuesday, Jul 18, 06 @ 9:50 am
I can never keep this straight: is this the reform, or the renewal? I notice they don’t use that banner at their press events anymore, do they?

Comment by Puzzled Tuesday, Jul 18, 06 @ 10:24 am
Too bad the Republicans didn’t nominate a candidate who is any cleaner on this issue of political hiring. Both sides are equally dirty on this and most other corruption issues.

Both candidates have dirty hands and the rhetoric from both just cancels out in normal people’s minds. We’ll definitely have the lowest voter turnout in history. That means Blago easily stays in.

Comment by Anon Tuesday, Jul 18, 06 @ 10:48 am
Too bad there aren’t more people in state government like Maynard Crossland
willing to take a stand against this corrupt administration.
The Illinois Tollway and I.D.O.T. could of used an individual like Mr. Crossland 3-1/2 years ago when all the illegal hiring and firing started to take place.

Comment by Illinois Tollway Tuesday, Jul 18, 06 @ 11:14 am
Hey Tollway,
i just fell off my chair laughing.

Comment by Bill Tuesday, Jul 18, 06 @ 11:52 am
Illinois Tollway - employees have reported corruption in this administration. This administration retaliates against whistle blowers by transfering them to demeaning positions. Why would anyone want to blow the whistle when they know they will be transfered or fired. The inspector general’s office is doing very little about it.

Comment by Anon. Tuesday, Jul 18, 06 @ 12:13 pm
- Bill

Bottom line, all politics aside.
Do you believe our Governor and his administration are telling the truth and have done nothing wrong?
Are they not trying to mislead the voting public ?

Comment by Illinois Tollway Tuesday, Jul 18, 06 @ 12:18 pm
The Illinois Inspector Generalâ€™s office is a farce! Now there’s an office that could be eliminated.

Comment by Timbuktu Tuesday, Jul 18, 06 @ 12:27 pm
I believe that the governor has done nothing wrong and is telling the truth to the people of Illinois.

Comment by Bill Tuesday, Jul 18, 06 @ 1:57 pm
Love the article. What’s funny is that Blago’s administration has totally revamped the overtime situation at the State - for the worse. It use to be that it was only the lowly paid State employees that could acquire overtime. Not managers and Director’s. But now the $80,000 and up employees get it too. Wonder how much that is going to cost us?!

Comment by Julie Tuesday, Jul 18, 06 @ 1:59 pm
Bill, if you get any emails from Nigeria… please go ahead and agree to the deal….

Comment by Gregor Tuesday, Jul 18, 06 @ 2:01 pm
Bill

Enough said, guess the State of Illinois is in good capable hands.

Comment by Illinois Tollway Tuesday, Jul 18, 06 @ 2:21 pm
Bill,

Now everyone else is falling off their chairs laughing!

Please don’t post stuff like that again. I was drinking a Coke while I read it and almost choked.

Time is running out on Rod and his gang of political thugs. Tick. Tick. Tick!

Comment by Bubs Tuesday, Jul 18, 06 @ 2:55 pm
Many, and I do mean many, current state employees making $80,000, $90,000, or even $100,000 plus a year that are now receiving overtime pay in the form of compensation time off from work for time they spend working over 40 hour per week. It is absolutely ridiculous. Thank you Blago for an absolutely stupid rule change.

However, it is a pretty slick way to get the state to pay for state workers taking time off to work on campaign issues. Much smarter than Tristano’s way, but with the same effect.

High paid Blago supporters can turn in time sheets reporting significant amounts of overtime and then take that time off, with pay, to work for the campaign. Very tricky and hard for Fitzgerald to get his hand around any fraud involved.

Comment by Anon Tuesday, Jul 18, 06 @ 3:01 pm
Overtime and/or comp time to non-union employees?
Lower management was told clearly that there was no such thing available to us. Those “huge” salaries we all earned(less than bargaining unit, no raises, and loss of 4% to pay retirement) gave the agency the right to expect, in fact, demand our available at any time. Then, a new, politically appointed manager came on board who advocated comp time for the many, many hours employees of welfare agencies gave for the benefit of the clients we served. Next thing we know we’re all being investigated and disciplined, even tho the supervisor had put out a memo advising comp time was available. At no point did anyone want to address the Fair Labor Standards Act and its application to the lowlife managers, they just hung us all. And now we read of $$$ for overtime to handle an historic site in Cahokia - how many visitors does the site have annually? Not enough time to do work during regular hours? Get real.

Comment by just another of Blago's scapegoats Tuesday, Jul 18, 06 @ 3:23 pm
Bill, this is a new high. Even for you, man.

Comment by NumbersGuy Tuesday, Jul 18, 06 @ 3:33 pm
Is it too early to start a pool as to when the Governor gets indicted (and how many counts), or is it too late already?

Comment by Randall Sherman, Secretary/Treasurer, Illinois Committee for Honest Government Tuesday, Jul 18, 06 @ 4:20 pm
Indicted: Spetember 13, 2006
Counts: 27

Comment by Illinois Tollway Tuesday, Jul 18, 06 @ 4:40 pm
Illinois Tollway -
From your lips to Gods ears.

Comment by Julie Tuesday, Jul 18, 06 @ 4:52 pm
Bill 1:57 says “I believe that the governor has done nothing wrong and is telling the truth to the people of Illinois.”
Let me phrase that to make it more truthful:
“I believe the governor thinks he’s done nothing wrong and wants the people of Illinois to believe he’s telling the truth.”
There…..that’s more like it.

Comment by Walking Wounded Tuesday, Jul 18, 06 @ 6:53 pm
Bill man, do you live in Illinois and read the papers or listen to serious news? This administration is a disaster, led by an egotistical incompetent.

By the way, has anyone else noticed that we are getting a new “governor’s spokesperson” almost every week now? They may have been there all the time but we have only heard from the usual ones like Becky every other day.

What’s up with all the new faces all of a sudden. Does the admin. think we’ll go along with some new faces telling us how wonderful the Virility King is? I’m so tired of it all.

Comment by Disgusted Tuesday, Jul 18, 06 @ 7:23 pm
Tollway,
I hope that you are not one of them.

Comment by Bill Tuesday, Jul 18, 06 @ 7:24 pm
Disgusted,
Yes, I occasionally read the papers.
Today I read about a trucking firm moving into southern Illinois thanks to the Governor and his administration.
I read about how Illinois is a leader in providing access to health insurance for children, seniors, and veterans.
I read about how Illinois is working to provide every four year old child with pre-school with plans for 3 year olds coming.
I read about the new shooting gallery in So Il.
I read about the President complimenting Illinois on job growth and its growing economy.
I read about how Governor Blagojevich has increased state funding for education more than any governor in history.
I read about how the governor is tackling the fiscal mess this state was left in without raising income or sales taxes.
I read about how the governor is fighting for stem cell research to improve the quality of life for all of us.
When Rod and Todd win by large margins, then what will all of you write?
When the governor is not indicted thereby being exonerated, then what will all of you write?
O yeah, then you will be back to concentrating on his hairdo, where he lives, his taste in music, and the same pathetic bs that flows here instead of substance.There is only about 110 days until the moment of truth. What are you thinking?
When the real people speak in a loud voice on election day and return the governor to office you will be back on the ol’ blog writing about how much smarter you are than the average voter and what a terrible mistake we all made by voting for Rod and Todd.
We the people shall prevail!

Comment by Bill Tuesday, Jul 18, 06 @ 7:42 pm
The Belleville News-Democrat only â€˜nicked the eggâ€™ in this editorial. If they really want to get a full blown version, they should have someone from the paper talk to IDOT employees in Collinsville about all the â€˜illegal hiringâ€™ that has taken place in the last 3.5 years. I especially like the one about the guy who showed up in a suit and stated that he was starting work at IDOT that day. No one knew he was coming and after some phone calls, they found him a desk in Land Acquisition and then had him fill out a job application. He was given a newly created position (Condemnation Manager TM V) and the job he had recently vacated was six grade music teacher.

Comment by state worker A Tuesday, Jul 18, 06 @ 9:19 pm
I hope the Feds revisit this situation with the state reps wife. She reportedly is a site manager for HPA- and a small site at that. There is no mechanism in place to actually PAY cash overtime to someone of her job title. Merit comp employees have NEVER been allowed to collect cash overtime, and until just last year, we were not even eligible to get comp time- and only for those hours past the 40 hour mark (which means the first 3.5 hours were for free).

If the dept had her in some funky made up title, then she possibly could have been covered by RC-62, which again, only gets cash overtime if allowed by management (which they stated they didn’t know about). One more thing- can anyone really explain the difference in her overtime that she claimed, and the lack of OT earned by her counterparts? Hmmm. Can you spell (smell) corruption?

Comment by Roy Slade Tuesday, Jul 18, 06 @ 9:45 pm
Gov’s Office issued big press release http://www.illinois.gov/PressReleases/ShowPressRelease.cfm?SubjectID=26&RecNum=4939 touting the fact that the new budget allowed HPA sites to re-open 7 days per week for the first time in 4 years. How could this woman rack up so much overtime if sites were only open 5 days per week?

Comment by Reformed Tuesday, Jul 18, 06 @ 10:31 pm
Bill

What are you going write about, when our governor and many of his administration are indicted?

Comment by Timbuktu Wednesday, Jul 19, 06 @ 10:13 am
Bill, Hitler built the Autobahn. He must therefor fall in our favor according to your logic. Though Blogo has a penchant for high-profile PR, he is being outed for what he truly represents and will certainly exact his revenge…..the wheels on the bus go thump, thump, thump!!

Comment by Justice Thursday, Jul 20, 06 @ 10:26 am