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The stone wall

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Illinois

The governor’s office has previously released other lists of those who were passed over for state jobs, but refused to do so once this particular case came up. It’s just one more unanswered question in a long, long, LONG list.

Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s office has concluded that names and qualifications of unsuccessful state job applicants should be released to the public, but Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s administration says it won’t comply.

The administration should heed its own rule that explicitly defines so-called “eligible lists” as public records, an aide to Madigan wrote in a letter to the governor’s office and his Department of Central Management Services. […]

Agencies under the Democratic governor hired the son-in-law of a Democratic congressman to be a pilot and the son of a St. Clair County Blagojevich campaign contributor as a prison business administrator. The information on other job applicants could shed light on whether more qualified people were passed over. […]

But Blagojevich’s personnel office took special interest in Brian Keen, then the son-in-law of U.S. Rep. Jerry Costello of Belleville. In an internal memo obtained by the AP, a Blagojevich staff member said she wanted the military veteran’s application “graded ASAP” and followed with other e-mails about it and Keen’s attempts to get the proper certificate to fly state planes.

The Corrections Department hired Bernard Ysursa Jr., son of a Blagojevich contributor, as an East St. Louis prison administrator. Officials said he was the best candidate interviewed but that he needed more experience, so they made him an intern — a position exempt from the veterans preference law. But another internal document shows that the agency created the internship a full week before Ysursa even interviewed for the job.

Eventually, they’re going to have to own up to all this stuff, whether it’s to reporters or to the feds.

On a related note, we’re all still waiting for Lisa Madigan to issue a formal opinion on whether the governor has to release federal subpoenas to the media, or at least whether he has to provide some details about them.

AG Madigan has said she believes he should, but until we get an actual formal opinion there’s no way to force him to do it other than extended legal efforts. Stu Umholtz could be making some hay with this, but he seems more interested in… well, I’m not sure what he’s interested in. Stu? Are you out there, man? A little help?

posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Oct 26, 06 @ 9:07 am

Comments

Rich, Everyone knows that he will wait on all these until AFTER the election when it doesn’t matter. The interesting thing is I talk to people all over the state and can’t find ANYONE that is going to vote for this guy, yet he is up in the polls. I just shake my head.

Comment by He Makes Ryan look like a saint Thursday, Oct 26, 06 @ 9:22 am
This race is too wacked to be polled correctly.

Comment by VanillaMan Thursday, Oct 26, 06 @ 9:46 am
What Stewie needs to do is follow the Blago campaign against Jim Ryan to a tee. They blamed JR, rightfully or not, for not investigating GR. Stewie needs to do the same to Madigan. She has done nothing on the gov, Cook County Board or Chicago City hall. The only thing she has said about the gov was the elasing/sale of the THompson center. He also needs to get adopted by a powerful politician, perhaps Obama.

Comment by Wumpus Diva Thursday, Oct 26, 06 @ 9:52 am
The Attorney General is right, the Gov’s counsel is wrong. He seizes on a federal appeals court decision arising out of Virginia to argue that CMS cannot lawfully follow its own administrative rule that makes these records public information. The federal appellate case concerned federal FOIA law, not this state’s FOIA law or the CMS rule. To get around that problem, he argues that because the Illinois FOIA law is “based” on the federal law, the appellate case governs. That is only half true. Yes the Illinois FOIA is modeled on the federal FOIA law, but that does not make federal decisions interpreting the federal law controlling. To compound the wrongheadedness of his position, CMS says that future lists will be released because they will include a notice to applicants of the potential for release. Such a notice adds nothing new because the current, legally-adopted administrative rule gives notice to the world that these lists are public. No further notice is needed. This is nothing more than legal stonewalling by the Gov’s counsel for political reasons, and an affront to the role of Attorney General as the state’s legal officer.

Comment by Publius Thursday, Oct 26, 06 @ 9:58 am
It doesn’t matter. The only reason the gov’s counsel is stoewalling is to wait until the election.

Once the election is over, not only will no one care — but most of this (unfortunately) will be forgotten. And then Blagojevich will be calling everybody drunken sailors again.

Comment by Yvette Thursday, Oct 26, 06 @ 10:13 am
Sad but true Yvette. Still, I hope not. But they are naked and it needs to be said over and over if only to keep the hope of integrity alive in Illinois.

Comment by Publius Thursday, Oct 26, 06 @ 10:24 am
BTW — whatever happened to the hate crimes commission? Is the Nation of Islam person still on it?

Last I heard everybody was in secret diversity consultations. Am I naive to think that these consultations are still going on?

Or did, ahem, Blagojevich sorta push this to the back burner and hopes everybody forgot?

I didn’t forget. I still want to know why a Nation of Islam member is still a part of the committee.

Comment by Yvette Thursday, Oct 26, 06 @ 10:26 am
Memo to: Tim Martin & Brian McPartlin
The Illinois Tollway’s and I.D.O.T.’s hiring records from the last 3 years 9 months should be made public immediately! Compare the hires to the qualifications and salaries. It’s enough to make you physically sick.
This will not be over after the election!

Comment by Guy Fawkes Thursday, Oct 26, 06 @ 11:09 am
Rich,
I agree, I have been waiting for a formal opinion on the subpoena issue along with parental notification and a few other LEGAL issues piling up in the AG’s inbox.

In addition, I have not seen where any of the MSM have asked Umholtz about his opinion on the subpoena issue. They have asked him about corruption, parental notification, utility rates, etc.

Maybe you could ask Umholtz?

As for corruption, Umholtz’s platform…tough on corruption…is backed up by action and results.

As for his opponent, I wanted to know what she has done, so I went to the AG’s website and searched “corruption”.

A trip to Poland doesn’t count in my book.

Comment by CrunchyCon Thursday, Oct 26, 06 @ 11:37 am
Speaking of I.D.O.T., why is that agency getting a pass on its internal failure to make sure that the i’s were dotted and the t’s were all crossed on the AMTRAK deal to run more trains downstate? They are getting away with letting the blame be placed on the railroad by AMTRAK. But I.D.O.T. should have made sure everyone was on board before they said the trains would be leaving the stations! Could it be that they have placed incompetents in charge? Pardon the pun.

Comment by Publius Thursday, Oct 26, 06 @ 11:38 am
bashing tim martin and his loser staff is fun. everybody give it a try it feels good.

Comment by chinman Thursday, Oct 26, 06 @ 12:17 pm
Attorney General Lisa Madigan needs to step things up with regard to Blago and his goons.
If the tables were turned Blago would sell you out in a heartbeat.
Time to dump Emperor Blagojevich!

Comment by Illegal Cargo Thursday, Oct 26, 06 @ 12:20 pm
Would “Rodâ€™s Shakedown Shuttle” have anything to do with selling Illinois Tollway bonds when they doubled the toll rates 2 years ago?
Who got rich off those deals?

Comment by Illinois Tollway Insider Thursday, Oct 26, 06 @ 1:07 pm
Interesting - Corruption is why Blago got elected and why he will be defeated. Live by the sword, Die by the sword. Or in this case the corrupt payoffs.

Comment by Citizen A Thursday, Oct 26, 06 @ 2:28 pm
Looks like the 2010 Democratic primary fights have already begun.

First on Lisa’s list, get Blago off the field so she can concentrate on the Alexi threat.

Comment by Cassandra Thursday, Oct 26, 06 @ 3:10 pm
Lisa needs to pay a little visit to CMS and retrieve the list. The rules are the rules. The taxpayers have a right to know.

I am a Republican, however, I voted for Lisa Madigan. I feel she has done a good job, is very fair and plays by the rules. If she doesn’t make an attempt to have CMS hand over the list, it will destroy her credibility with many.

Comment by Rex Thursday, Oct 26, 06 @ 4:11 pm
Blago says he will not comply with the rules. Imagine that!

This guy has absolutely no regards to the law, the constitution or the legislative process.

Comment by anon Thursday, Oct 26, 06 @ 4:29 pm
I agree with Guy Fawkes 11:09. It would be VERY interesting to see the other candidates qualifications compared to the people that actually got the job. We had one case at IDOT where an ET I position was posted. First of all, it was very limited, only a â€˜selectâ€™ few were suppose to know about the opening. A former co-op applied for the position (guy A - he was well liked, polite, had the education and had received an excellent evaluation) along with another person (guy B). Well guess who got the position â€“ guy B. Within a few days, guy B was bragging about how he and the administration manager (the person who did the interviewing and hiring) is a â€˜good friend of the familyâ€™. Guy B, had no previous experience or education and as it turns out is completely useless. He comes in late, takes excessive smoking breaks and reads the papers and magazines all day and then leaves early. However, he made the statement that he was eager to learn the position but canâ€™t seem to retain any thing that is taught to him for more than a week.

Comment by state worker A Thursday, Oct 26, 06 @ 5:31 pm
The Governor should be required to release any information regarding federal subpoenas that is connected with his office/administration. That is a public office. If you have nothing to hide and you are completely innocent then come clean. The image that I get from this is that he is trying to hide something that was done illegally. From his previous actions, I get the feeling that he has no regard for the law and that rules are made to be broken. If he can do the crime, he needs to do the time.

Comment by state worker A Thursday, Oct 26, 06 @ 5:39 pm
The Governor should be required to release any information regarding federal subpoenas that is connected with his office/administration. That is a public office. If you have nothing to hide and you are completely innocent then come clean. The image that I get from this is that he is trying to hide something that was done illegally. From his previous actions, I get the feeling that he has no regard for the law and that rules are made to be broken. If he can do the crime, he needs to do the time.

Comment by disappointed supporter Thursday, Oct 26, 06 @ 5:40 pm
This guy has absolutely no regards to the law, the constitution or the legislative process.

Well, sometimes we are forced to live in a democracy.

Comment by Six Degrees of Separation Thursday, Oct 26, 06 @ 6:19 pm
An outstanding factor in all of the accusations of wrong-doing by the Gov. is the fact that Z. Scott, Executive Inspector General, her Deputy Inspector General and her Chief Financial Officer all quit and left the Office of Executive Inspector General when the truth came out that wrongs by the Gov’s office had been committed. Somewhere down the pike, these folks will enter into the Feds investigation and the truth will be like a spear into the target painted on Rod’s chest. Also, shoved way back into the fog is the fact that the Gov. terminated an existing contract with IPAM (contracted to blueprint, document, graph, and coordinate the State of Illinois building and facilities consolidation into a single entity). IPAM was sued by the State, counter-sued and the IPAM data is in limbo with the State Facilities (under CMS) in disarray. The buildings and facilities are crumbling (just ask any State worker) and are becoming dangerous to enter in some cases. There are not enough building and facility staff to care for all of the State properties but nobody seems to care, especially the Gov. Oh well, the entire infrastructure of Illinois is in jeopardy due to this administration but nobody seems to really care enough to correct the problems. Maybe next time.

Comment by PatriotUSA Thursday, Oct 26, 06 @ 7:42 pm
Lisa Madigan should take the State Police with her to CMS and confiscate files, much like the FBI does when it raids offices. Oh what a Kodak moment that would be.

Comment by Little Egypt Thursday, Oct 26, 06 @ 8:22 pm
Judy cares, hang in there, Help is on the way.

Comment by Citizen A Thursday, Oct 26, 06 @ 8:24 pm
SLEEP WELL EMPEROR!

Comment by TICK TICK TICK Thursday, Oct 26, 06 @ 9:31 pm
Prepare for the funniest joke ever….

Lisa Madigan going after Blagojevich backfires. Democrats decide to stay with Blago, reelecting him… but they turn on Lisa and vote for Umholtz, who is elected as Attorney General….

I know, I know… it would be much funnier if I were serious!!!

Comment by Lovie's Leather Friday, Oct 27, 06 @ 12:02 am
PatriotUSA: State of Illinois infrastructure is indeed crumbling - there are leaking roofs all over the place. Just take a look at the Old State Capitol and Lincoln’s Tomb. That is just the tip of the iceberg. There has been no paving on any state property not paid for by IDOT for at least 4 or 5 years. Lots of roads and parking lots are evolving into gravel.

Comment by In the Sticks Friday, Oct 27, 06 @ 12:48 am