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This argument by DHS chief Carol Adams makes no sense on so many levels…
Failing to quell a political furor, a top state administrator Tuesday defended being driven around by an $84,660-a-year special assistant as a good deal for taxpayers.
Human Services chief Carol Adams said she was able to answer office phone calls and work on her laptop while being shuttled by a worker, who did more than act as a chauffeur.
“Really, it would be a waste of the taxpayers’ money to pay me to drive when I could be working,” she said.
How much of a “waste” of taxpayers’ money would that be? The guy made over 80 large a year. Let’s say making her drive herself “wasted” 10 percent of her salary. Unless she’s making $800K a year, then the taxpayers come out on top.
Also, if making her drive herself is a waste, then why isn’t paying somebody $84,000 a year to drive part-time a waste? Shouldn’t that person be working on real projects instead of donning his little chauffer’s hat?
If she’s telling the truth, then there’s been a problem over there for a while now…
Adams also told lawmakers the agency under previous administrations used two drivers — one in Chicago and one in Springfield.
More from the Sun-Times…
[Senate President Emil Jones] said it was hypocritical for lawmakers to be on the attack over the use of drivers when they, for example, rely on staffers to shuttle them to and from the airport. “Those who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones,” he said.
That would be true if each legislator had an $84,000 driver. It would also be true if legislators had high-paid staff driving them around all the time. I see plenty of legislators driving themselves around Springfield or walking.
Steve Brown, a top aide to House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago), stopped short of calling for Adams’ and Wertz’s ouster. But he said the sex scandal is “a huge embarrassment and a continuing embarrassment for people who try to do a good job working in government.”
A spokesman for Gov. Blagojevich said the governor has not lost confidence in Adams but stressed that [chief of staff] Wertz is “not a gubernatorial appointee.”
The bus is warming up.
Adams has reassigned her chief of staff to special projects in the wake of publicity over a lawsuit alleging that her chief ordered her own driver to have sex with her in a shared Springfield hotel room.
posted by Rich Miller
Wednesday, Mar 7, 07 @ 8:27 am
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Didn’t the Governor proclaim that “business as usual” was gone in government when he took office????? It’s worse now than it ever has been.
Comment by ANON Wednesday, Mar 7, 07 @ 8:33 am
I wish that the driver issue was the only problem with hires at DHS. So many staff were placed from the campaign and were there only until the re-election and did nothing in between. Most of them were hired at a lower salary and then given a bump of $15,000-20,000 after they were certified. Look at the personnel records, it is all there where they were hired avoinding Veteran’s preference, brought in at lower salaries where qualified candidates wouldn’t accept the job and then jacked their salaries once they were in the door. It never stops.
Comment by Good worker Wednesday, Mar 7, 07 @ 9:02 am
This is what happens when you have one party rule in a state. The people in charge do what they please and justify even the most blatant misconduct. Shame on anyone who tries to defend Adams. She should have been told to go immediately.
No excuses, especially from an administration who was elected to reform our state from these abuses.
Comment by VanillaMan Wednesday, Mar 7, 07 @ 9:08 am
Again, this comes as no surprise to anyone working for DHS. Her reign at the agency has been a joke. She and her friends at the admin level are completely incompetent - and the agency has been run from the middle for the last 4 years. When you load the admin positions with buddies and campaign workers, what do you expect?
Comment by Matt Wednesday, Mar 7, 07 @ 9:27 am
REASSIGNED!? FIRE HER and everyone involved!
This administration didn’t have any trouble firing the many State of Illinois employees who truly did their jobs.
Comment by Who's kiddin' Who Wednesday, Mar 7, 07 @ 9:39 am
For the governor to imply that the placement of an agency’s Chief of Staff is not of the governor office making is such a joke or our Governor has no idea what is happening around him. Get serious people are not placed into these positions without approval from the governor’s office. In fact many are forced on the agency by the governor’s office.
Comment by JW Wednesday, Mar 7, 07 @ 9:46 am
It’s aggravating seeing people with little or no education get these plum jobs. While that may sound harsh, many people with bachelor’s, MBAs, LLBs and perhaps even PhDs don’t receive salaries like Ms. Wertz or Dr. Adams’ driver. That is a shame, and if the governor’s office is SOOOOOOO concerned with streamlining government then perhaps they should be worried about getting rid of hacks like these. They should also start to reconsider things like exempted positions and 4D3 personnel. I don’t know too many businesses that would hire a high school graduate to run the office and make $90K for their services. Blago is full of bologna.
Comment by Team Sleep Wednesday, Mar 7, 07 @ 9:51 am
To: Good worker - Wednesday, Mar 7, 07 @ 9:02 am
It would blow your mind if you knew the salaries and raises they’ve handed out at the Illinois Tollway in the last fours + years. Sure hope Patrick Fitzgerald investigates the Illinois Tollway a state agency flying below the radar.
Comment by Keeping Tabs Wednesday, Mar 7, 07 @ 10:01 am
Exempted positions and 4d3 positions are not secret hiring procedures. Their existence is publicly known. Any citizen with a modest amount of curiousity can find out how the politically connected can get hired into state government legally. If loopholes exist, it wouldn’t be that
difficult to close them. However, there is no political will to do so. Legislators who benefit from state pork including state jobs pork are hardly going to cut off what benefits them, their friends and their relatives. I haven’t seen any significant proposals lately for reforming state civil service hiring procedures and reducing patronage and cronyism.
Maybe a side effect of the GRT would be that business entities would take more interest in how their contributions to state coffers are actually being spent. Right now, most business owners see our porky, corrupt state government as having little or no relevance to them because they don’t have to pay much to fund it. If business needs something, they have their lobbyists bribe the appropriate state Legislator via “campaign contributions” or worse. Maybe with higher business taxes, they’ll pay a little more attention to where their money is going.
Comment by Cassandra Wednesday, Mar 7, 07 @ 10:36 am
Dr. Adams at DHS should go and Ms. Adams at Lottery should go too, for abuses (remember the OAG report?) that would make the some of DHS abuses pale by comparison.
Comment by anon Wednesday, Mar 7, 07 @ 10:40 am
Has anyone looked back at the “Hiring List” that Defrates had to find these names? It would be interesting.
Comment by He Makes Ryan Look Like A Saint Wednesday, Mar 7, 07 @ 10:50 am
No need to look back at “the list” for these names. None of them would be on the list.
All the names shown in the articles — Wertz, Estes, Davis et al — they came in (along with many, many others) with Sec. Adams. She brought a lot of folks in with her.
Comment by what a joke Wednesday, Mar 7, 07 @ 11:30 am
Not only is the driver being paid $80 large he is/was getting a pension not available anywhere else. It would have been a sweet job until you had to share the hotel room.
Comment by Jeff Wednesday, Mar 7, 07 @ 11:34 am
Anyone working in state, county, municipal, or public ed knows that you easily get rid of this kind of nonsense and cut at least 20% from a budget without a decline in service.
This is what makes the claim by the state pols that massive tax hikes are “needed” to fund essential government services so nonsenical.
When, oh when, will some media organization make it a crusade to create an independent “operational evaluation” group, perhaps by an organization as motivated as a fiscal “Citizens Utility Board”, to look at issues like featherbedding, waste, corruption, and “fairness” of public employee compensation and benefits, and come up with an apolitical plan to live within the governments’ means?
We have “ratepayers advocates” and “childrens advocates”, why not have a “taxpayers advocacy” government watchdog group?
Lord knows that none of the legislators with this mindset are allowed to run in either Party.
Comment by PalosParkBob Wednesday, Mar 7, 07 @ 12:19 pm
Bob,
Neither you nor anyone else could persuade a Democratic or Republican GA to cut 20% fron agency budgets. Probably some small agencies could be eliminated (though they were created by citizens’ elected representatives), and some functions could be eliminated at larger agencies.
Perhaps that’s what we should have been doing for the past 5 years (oops–it’s what we have been doing for the past five years). It’s tiresome to hear the same old bs from people who either know nothing or are knowingly untruthful.
Comment by steve schnorf Wednesday, Mar 7, 07 @ 1:06 pm
I totally agree with Who’s kiddin’ Who. Adams and any like her need to go immediately!! If what Adams and others of her staff did does not qualify for discharge, nothing does. And while the governor is at it, he needs to make sure there are no other heads of agencies doing the same or similar things. I am totally disgusted by all of this.
Comment by Just a Citizen Wednesday, Mar 7, 07 @ 1:47 pm
All of you disgruntled posters on here need to contact your legislators and let them know you are not happy about this, as I did.
Comment by maggiemae Wednesday, Mar 7, 07 @ 2:06 pm
maggiemae–thanks for the suggestion. Emails on their way just in case they haven’t checked Cap Fax today.
Comment by Just a Citizen Wednesday, Mar 7, 07 @ 2:37 pm
Joel Brunswald had a driver at IDNR. His name is Ed Hoover.
Comment by whodat Wednesday, Mar 7, 07 @ 5:12 pm
Does Emil Jones still have that so-called body guard that was making in excess of $60,000? He is or was the live in boyfriend of Emils friend,in the Senate as Sgt. at Arms. Does Emil need a body guard ? Isn’t that like having an $84,000 a year chauffer ? Stupid is as stupid does!!
Comment by WARDOG Wednesday, Mar 7, 07 @ 5:18 pm
Come on everybody, you have to admit having a flunky who makes 80K as a driver, cannot figure out how to make hotel reservations (tee hee) and is forced to bang boss has to be considered a whole new way of doing business.
Even Fawell never tried to bang the drivers
Comment by GettingAdamsed Wednesday, Mar 7, 07 @ 5:26 pm
In reference to the title of this posting: Adams is in “deep, deep” something, but “denial” wasn’t the word that immediately popped into my mind.
Comment by Anonymous ZZZ Wednesday, Mar 7, 07 @ 5:49 pm
Steve:
thanks for enlightening me on how, for the last five years, state, county, municipal, and education governments have greatly streamlined operations, cut the waste out of medicaid as recommended by the common sense solutions of IPI, eliminated all the unqualified relatives and cronies of politicans from guv payrolls, and have instituted processes where the lowest cost, qualified vendors to the local governments always get the work rather than the “pay to play” contributors.
Thanks for letting me know that those hundreds of people representing businesses that get contracts from the state are really attending those $1000 per plate fundraisers, and writing six figure checks to boot, because they genuinely believe in the candidates and causes.
The only problem is that those same people are also paying for $1000 rubber chicken dinners for those candidates’ opponents when they’re in power.
Of course, everything must being running with Third Reich-like efficiency in Illinois,and those of us who claim waste and corruption MUST be tired and untruthful, or not know what’s going on.
Thanks for straightening me out Steve.
I’ll remind you of how right you are again when the next indictments and scandals come around….
Comment by PalosParkBob Wednesday, Mar 7, 07 @ 6:01 pm
Emil Jones’ wife works for Carol Adams, and reportedly has her own driver. Perhaps that’s why Sen Jones is not interested in pursuing this issue. Any DMH people know more about this??
Comment by Decatur Dave Wednesday, Mar 7, 07 @ 6:20 pm
Oh schnorf,
There you go again. Instead of blasting every commenter who provides suggestions to your query, why don’t you enlighten us?
Surely you must have some ideas since we can’t provide any coherent workable solutions. You do, don’t you?
Or are you saying that you think that state government is in complete and utter disrepair and there are no solutions?
Comment by Papa Legba Wednesday, Mar 7, 07 @ 6:54 pm
How pathetic are you when you’re method of valueing your worth is if you have a chauffeur or not. These people are very obvious in the fact that they come from nothing, and are now trying to look like landed elites. Again, pathetic.
Comment by Disgusted Wednesday, Mar 7, 07 @ 6:57 pm
That would be your, not you’re. Oops.
Comment by Disgusted Wednesday, Mar 7, 07 @ 6:58 pm
While this is going on, finding out about the highly paid people at the top of DHS that have questionable job duties and skills to go with them, way low on the totem pole at DHS they are looking at ways to cut money from the budgets at the centers that work hands on with people who can’t do for themselves.
Maybe if the Gov’s office concentrated his attempts to save money (there’s a hired consultant group to look at this) at DHS to getting rid of the people that aren’t doing frontline, necessary day to day work, they’d find a whole bunch more money.
Let the wheels on the bus roll.
Comment by Tessa Wednesday, Mar 7, 07 @ 7:17 pm
Teyonda Wertz has a HUGE photo of her and the Governor in her office…wonder if she has taken that down, since she is not a “gubernatorial appointee”. Of course she is, she came from Louanner Peters.
Comment by Beyond Disgusted Wednesday, Mar 7, 07 @ 7:59 pm
We recognize that the Legislators will not act unless backed into a corner.
SO, why aren’t the MSM out there digging up material for exposes? There sure seems to be a lot of us who would be willing to lead them to fountains of information…
I agree that even on the surface so much of what is discussed here and then “exposed” in the media is disgusting but when will people do something about it?
Many of these Jokers just got elected/re-elected and we are stuck with them - unless John Law comes calling.
After having worked in newspapers over 25 years ago, I saw back then how lazy many reporters were and can only surmize it has gotten worse.
Who or what will be our “savior?”
Comment by Link Wednesday, Mar 7, 07 @ 9:38 pm
Carol Adams heads what is essentially the state’s social services agency for the poor, the sick and the elderly. She has a Chief of Staff, a driver and numerous assistants. What is wrong with this picture? Are the state legislators asleep?
Comment by Emily Booth Wednesday, Mar 7, 07 @ 9:52 pm
Based on Wertz’s salary it appears she has to be a Senior Public Service Administrator, an exempt position that would have been a four year term appointment of the Governor. Therefore, I really have to question how she is not an appointee. Maybe he doesn’t understand the difference between a cabinet member and the hundreds of other people, who are appointees to a position like that held by Wertz.
Comment by fed up dem Wednesday, Mar 7, 07 @ 10:13 pm
He knows, trust me. Think about all the secrets Werts has. ALl the contracts and sweet heart deals. Can anyone afford to have her hired
Comment by Concern Citizen Wednesday, Mar 7, 07 @ 10:28 pm
All of you folks that have information about any improprieties should let the press know. You can “tip off” the Chicago Sun-Times reporters who are working this story at dmckinney@suntimes.com and cfusco@suntimes.com and wwoodward@suntimes.com.
Comment by Yorel Wednesday, Mar 7, 07 @ 10:59 pm
“Really, it would be a waste of the taxpayers’ money to pay me to drive when I could be working,†she said.”
No, let’s call this what it is - her scheduling these things at her convenience. Without a driver, she’s putting in a longer day. This isn’t about the taxpayer’s money, we pay her the same if she puts in a 3 hr day or an 18 hr day, driving, sleeping, emailing, eating or whatev. So a driver just makes it easier on her.
If she’s commuting between the capitol city (Spi) and the Capital City (Chi), Amtrak is ~$35/day for state employees, which comes to at most 10% of the ‘drivers’ salary/yr.
Comment by OAD Thursday, Mar 8, 07 @ 12:20 am
Papa said, “are you saying that you think that state government is in complete and utter disrepair and there are no solutions?”
The folks running the show have to understand the concept of public service and stewardship of resources. The Guv’s cabinet and most of their underlings are at best “self servants” first concerned primarily with creating golden parachutes and/or building their resumes and then “public servants”. They don’t know and they don’t care. How can you fix that?
Comment by Diego Thursday, Mar 8, 07 @ 6:12 am
We voted the Dem’s in will vote them out if action is not taken agaist Ms. wertz & Ms. Adams
Comment by 3 years to next election Thursday, Mar 8, 07 @ 10:40 am