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This one goes out to the oh-so-nice commenter who asked whether someone was paying me to write about the troubles at the Department of Natural Resources. Cracks like that will only result in more postings on this topic, my good friend. From Bernie Schoenburg’s column this week:

The Illinois Department of Natural Resources has lost more than 100 employees through layoffs, but they have a new official - who happens to be a past contributor to Gov. ROD BLAGOJEVICH.

JOSEPH ANGLETON, 58, of DuQuoin began this week as office director of mines and minerals within DNR. He’s being paid $73,500 annually, said JOE BAUER, spokesman for the agency.

Angleton is former president of United Mine Workers of America District 12.

He was appointed by the governor to the State Mining Board on July 1, 2003, Bauer said, filling one of three labor positions on the board. That job paid $13,294 annually. On July 14, 2003 - two weeks after the appointment - Angleton donated $1,000 to the governor’s campaign fund. And on Dec. 23, 2003, he gave another $100. He also gave $1,600 to Blagojevich in 2002, bringing his two-year total to $2,600.

The UMWA has also been a contributor to the governor, giving $27,000 total in 2002 and 2003, including $5,000 on July 24, 2003. Angleton was a member of the union’s political action committee, Bauer said.

posted by Rich Miller
Saturday, Feb 5, 05 @ 6:55 pm

Comments

Some zany newspaper colmnist wrote the following about the critical importance of DNR.

“Why should you pay attention to any of this? After all, they’re just state bureaucrats. Nobody wants to pay higher taxes.

Here’s why you should care about this. The Department of Natural Resources manages state parks, wildlife areas and open spaces. Each generation is entrusted with maintaining and improving these precious resources before passing them along. And we’re not doing a very good job.

Many of the local and regional site managers have been replaced with Democratic political hacks who have little or no experience. Skilled, experienced managers might be able to juggle things long enough to ride out the budgetary storm. The hacks have neither the skill nor the experience to keep things on an even keel. Sportsmen and conservationists throughout the state are rightly concerned that we’re heading for an implosion.

Until the Tribune ran the story about Burchyett, the governor had shown little interest in the agency, other than as a source of cash for the rest of his ever-increasing budget and a source of jobs for his political supporters. Last year, he tried to purge the agency of scientists and trained field researchers until the General Assembly stopped him in his tracks.

The governor has yet to even visit a state park, depending on the yes-men and women he’s surrounded himself with to reassure him that everything is fine.

Until the Tribune took up Burchyett’s cause, the stock response from the governor every time somebody complained about the DNR cuts was to say, essentially, “I’ve got other priorities.”

I believe the birds, bees, grass and trees took care of themselves long before DNR was created. I wonder when we will see equal concern for the handiwork the GRod misfits at DHS are using to “manage” those with mental illness and substance abuse problems.

Comment by Anonymous Sunday, Feb 6, 05 @ 8:42 am
That’s where you’re wrong. They didn’t take care of themselves.

But you make a good point about how the state is taking care of vulnerable humans.

Comment by Rich Miller Sunday, Feb 6, 05 @ 4:16 pm
DHS is being run just like DNR - by a bumch of political hacks with no experience, complete disregard for any process that existed prior to this governor’s inauguration, a total inability to get along with themselves, and having to jump through the numerous hoops that the governor’s office has set up to insure that “business as usual” no longer exists. That seems to translate into “we don’t care about the mentally ill, the poorest among us, or the environment around them”. Definitely not business as usual.

Comment by Anonymous Sunday, Feb 6, 05 @ 8:23 pm