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Workers go, bosses stay

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* I’m not opposed to moving state jobs out of Springfield into depressed areas. There is a cost factor to consider, as well as the need, but it’s not a terrible concept.

But this IDOT move raises more questions than answers…

The number of state transportation jobs Gov. Rod Blagojevich wants to move from Springfield to Southern Illinois may be shrinking.

After originally saying 148 Illinois Department of Transportation workers would be moved out of Springfield to an undisclosed location in southern Illinois, the agency confirmed that number now may be closer to 110 workers.

OK, another overblown promise. No surprise.

* But this is the weirdest part…

Those who may be staying in Springfield include the director of the Division of Traffic Safety and some of his top staff.

So, you move the rank and file workers far away, but their bosses will remain in Springfield? That’s bizarre.

posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, May 15, 08 @ 10:21 am

Comments

It’s really not bizarre at all with what has happened to IDOT and some of the high level managers that have been brought in at IDOT during the Blagojevich admin. Similar things have happened several times. It is bizarre in the regular world, but not in the Blago world. Sad to say.

Comment by trafficmatt Thursday, May 15, 08 @ 10:25 am
The actual unit is really about 70 the rest of the group is on the road most of the time collecting data

Comment by Wild Bill Thursday, May 15, 08 @ 10:25 am
If the workers go, then the Director of TS should go too. That would stop the move in a second.

Comment by He Makes Ryan Look Like a Saint Thursday, May 15, 08 @ 10:27 am
The appointed division head hacks don’t want to move to the sticks? Shocking! Probably just a negotiating ploy to get the TS director to cough up some legal defense contributions.

Comment by Vote Quimby! Thursday, May 15, 08 @ 10:29 am
In the linked story, The Southern says all 200 attendees at WMAY were state employees. HA!

Comment by Vote Quimby! Thursday, May 15, 08 @ 10:30 am
I’m surprised they didn’t move the boss to Chicago. Makes about as much sense as Benton.

Comment by Belle Thursday, May 15, 08 @ 10:31 am
They should stop messing with these workers. Come up with some other way to reward Benton for the recall vote.

Comment by wordslinger Thursday, May 15, 08 @ 10:31 am
I wouldn’t worry about it if was in the affected part of IDOT. In a week to ten days Blago will have forgotten this and moved on to the next press release. Same with the prison closings/relocation.

Comment by Leave a light on George Thursday, May 15, 08 @ 10:39 am
Quimby,
Springfield is the sticks.

Comment by Bill Thursday, May 15, 08 @ 10:49 am
“Springfield is the sticks.” All the more bizarre that the jobs stay here instead of going to Benton or to Chicago where all his other hacks work.

Comment by What planet is he from again? Thursday, May 15, 08 @ 11:03 am
Springfield may be the “sticks” for elite city slickers, but it’s still the big city in central Illinois. I love southern Illinois, and the Benton area is beautiful, but this charade by the pretend governor (little g) is just a polital ploy. It’s as predictable as a David Archuletta ballad. The problem with little Rod is that he hasn’t learned that idle threats don’t result in getting his way. His actions are akin to hitting the memory/repeat button on a CD player. Same song, same tune, same result…

Comment by SuperDave Thursday, May 15, 08 @ 11:04 am
It is not unusual in state government for a supervisor to rarely see subordinates. In some agencies, the top hierarchy is all in Chicago and a small contingent remains in Springfield.

Comment by The Cowgirl Thursday, May 15, 08 @ 11:06 am
Cowgirl, that’s true, but these workers were in the same building as their supervisors. Now they won’t be.

Comment by Rich Miller Thursday, May 15, 08 @ 11:10 am
Rich, I worked for an agency that once had the bosses in Springfield, years ago, with a much smaller office in Chicago. Then, with the move toward more government being in Chicago, the new bosses were all in Chicago. This is not really dissimilar. I’m not saying it is right, but it is not unusual.

Comment by The Cowgirl Thursday, May 15, 08 @ 11:18 am
Kind of hard to supervise employees, if the employees and supervisor are in different locations.

Comment by Anon Thursday, May 15, 08 @ 11:19 am
Vote Quimby–”In the linked story, The Southern says all 200 attendees at WMAY were state employees. HA!”—-I think some reporting is getting twisted with a small rally that was for direct care workers which had nothing to do with wearing “Impeach Blago” tees. Asking for 50 cents an hour raise is far from a media sponsored event calling for Blago removal.

What I find ‘bizarre’ is Blago announcing he’s creating new jobs. How does one take a current job and turn it into creating jobs? Wanna really create some new state jobs they could try fully staffing the prisons down south.

The GA has funded vacant jobs which this adm. chooses not to fill. If Blago is serious about creating state jobs and spreading the ‘wealth’, there’s a place to start.

Comment by Princeville Thursday, May 15, 08 @ 11:22 am
I wish my supervisor was way far away, in a far off land where he would quit making me do all my work.

Comment by SSS Thursday, May 15, 08 @ 11:23 am
From a good-government/business perspective, a physical reorganization of this magnitude should be driven by one (and only one) factor; the operational needs of the organization including the customers it serves.

Issues such as rent, office space, etc. are not reasons to move an entire government division 200 miles down the road. The cause for (and being able to demonstrate) the need to relocate a large influx of staff/operations to better serve the organization and tax payers needs to be demonstrated.

To my knowledge, that due diligence has not been performed. Can someone enlighten me as to how the reorganization addresses IDOT’s operational needs? Please do not mention office space or rent. Those dogs simply won’t hunt.

Comment by Bird Man Thursday, May 15, 08 @ 11:28 am
I thought wonder boy was going to create 300,000 new jobs in Illinois — imagine if just 10% of those were in southern Illinois, the unemployment rate would be nearly cut in half.

Comment by SuperDave Thursday, May 15, 08 @ 11:29 am
Since 2003, Chicago-based bosses have replaced capital city-based bosses in many agencies.

Blagojevich’s administrative actions continue to build a class society within Illinois government. This is definately not a good thing. Chicago-based bureaucratic heads get paid more. Their physical proximity to other bureaucratic head annoints them unequally in comparison to the public servants they are in charge of, based in Springfield.

Results of this class-based bureaucratic division is being seen in our state government today. We are seeing more frustrations, more anger, less efficiencies, fewer results and poorer moral within state government. While some Chicago-area residents dismiss Springfield complaints on these points as ignorant whining, what is becoming quite clear under this administration has been a palpable disrespect for public servants actually serving the public and a raising up of politically appointed agency heads based in Chicago.

You can say this isn’t new. But the extent that this mismanagement has been expanded in this administration is new. Watching Blagojevich tamper with IDOT and making these decisions, are only further proof of his flagrant incompetence.

Comment by VanillaMan Thursday, May 15, 08 @ 11:32 am
Wasn’t the state reason for the move efficiency and cost? How efficient is it to have the boss in a different office, let alone different county from the worker bees? How is it saving the state money if the bosses or the workers have to travel to see one another? Something just isn’t adding up here.

Comment by SMC Thursday, May 15, 08 @ 11:37 am
Bill, thanks for the compliment about Springfield. The finest people I know are either farmers, blue collar workers, hillbillies, or rednecks. They have been raised in the “sticks” as you call it and have great family values, virtues, morals, and principles. How many indicted and/or sentenced public officials from Illinois do you know that have come from the “sticks”? None. All have come from the “city”. I rest my case.

Comment by Little Egypt Thursday, May 15, 08 @ 11:39 am
Ladies and Gentlemen!

Bill was saying “sticks” as a form of compliment!

Springfield is the “sticks”, and Chicago is the “match heads”.

See? It all works!

Comment by VanillaMan Thursday, May 15, 08 @ 11:44 am
Do we all know why Traffic Safety has been where it’s at for so many years? Because it’s right next door to the USDOT offices - the federal guys who work directly together. So we’re going to move the state guys 175 miles away - makes a lotta sense?

Comment by joe schmoe Thursday, May 15, 08 @ 11:52 am
Joe Schmoe, you are correct about Traffic Safety being close to the Ilinois Division office of the Federal Highway Administration. However, that will only last as long as the GSA signed a lease for the FHWA offices. I worked in Traffic Safety at its inception from 1967 to 1970 (four employees to start). I then moved over to the Fed side and worked for FHWA for a few more years. While working for them, we moved twice (both times far away from IDOT). GSA doesn’t care where the office is located. It just happens that this lease is next door to IDOT. The next one could be at the southwest end of town, far away from IDOT headquarters.

Comment by Little Egypt Thursday, May 15, 08 @ 11:59 am
==Springfield is the “sticks”, and Chicago is the “match heads”.==
….and we all know that matches are sometimes lit to cover the smell of something. The current adminstration, perhaps?

Comment by Cranky Old Man Thursday, May 15, 08 @ 12:12 pm
ANON - in some cases it was weeks before the new boss bothered to contact the new employee after consolidation. And it should be noted that many jobs showing as based in Springfield are actually filled by people who live in Chicago. More creative math where negatives are turned into positives. How convenient!

Comment by Belle Thursday, May 15, 08 @ 12:48 pm
Rich,
I don’t think you have a good idea of how many jobs in Springfield are supervised by people in Chicago (many of whom) regularly come down to Springfield on Mondays. They are in the Springfield office Tuesday thru sometime Thursday when they leave for Chicago. Then the Springfield employees have to get their work done on Friday and Monday preparing for the next week’s visit from on high. Meanwhile, the Chicago brass collects mileage, per-diem and hotel reimbursement for travel to where they should be in the first place, and basically work a 3-day week.

Comment by BehindTheScenes Thursday, May 15, 08 @ 12:48 pm
VnillaMan your 11:32AM comment was right on.

Comment by Leave a light on George Thursday, May 15, 08 @ 1:26 pm
What amazes me is the fact that the IDOT spokesperson has mouthed various reasons for the move…when one version gets too much flack he spouts out another version. When the legislative personnel asked questions about the move that supposedly has been in planning for about 2 years, no one in IDOT or CMS can provide any answers. IDOT/CMS will not even provide direction to a legitimate source for facts about the planned move.
The Annex building lease expired almost a year ago, you would think that someone at CMS or IDOT would have a long range plan if vacating the building was a consideration knowing the lease was not going to be renewed.
The IDOT Traffic Safety Division is only a pawn in another of Blago’s misguided revenge missions. It’s retribution not economic stimulus that appears to be the motive. Let’s not forget Vandalia Correctional Center (a southern Illinois facility) was once on the chopping block as a means of retribution just like Stateville and Pontiac this year.
The legislature and the citizens need to take Mr. Milrod “Testicular Virility” Blagojevich to task by showing their own fortitude by ending his reign of ineptitude and retribution.

Comment by curious george Thursday, May 15, 08 @ 1:34 pm
The dir of ts should have to move with his subordinates, but ask them(employees) and they would probably rather the incompetent hack stay in spfd, this guy has done more harm to idot than one can possibly imagine remember if his lips are moving ____-_______ you know the rest

Comment by Anon Again Thursday, May 15, 08 @ 1:57 pm
Bill, then you’ve never been to Benton.

Comment by Vote Quimby! Thursday, May 15, 08 @ 2:08 pm
Apparently, someone on the staff at a Lee Enterprises newspaper office outside Spfld loves to jump to wild and somewhat slanderous conclusions and thinks s/he can get away with it. Stellar journalism, indeed.

Comment by Rich Miller Thursday, May 15, 08 @ 2:11 pm
WHAT! Unqualified journalists at a Lee newspaper? I’m aghast! (former Lee staffer)

Comment by Vote Quimby! Thursday, May 15, 08 @ 2:13 pm
Rich, given the financial picture at Lee Enterprises, perhaps your deleted commenter inadvertently posted a piece s/he was trying to sell to the National Enquirer.

Comment by Arthur Andersen Thursday, May 15, 08 @ 2:30 pm
I was in the Lee ESOP plan in 2006 and was able to purchase shares at the ‘discounted’ price of $24.50! Hmmmmm…not my shrewdest move. I was never so happy to leave a job.

Comment by Vote Quimby! Thursday, May 15, 08 @ 2:38 pm
My question is: How much damage can GROD do if he knows the ship is sinking? Can anyone stop him from doing the “Scorched Earth” policy before the ship goes down?

Comment by He Makes Ryan Look Like a Saint Thursday, May 15, 08 @ 2:45 pm
I have been to Benton many times and thoroughly enjoyed myself. They have an excellent Food4less. I must admit to not seeing much difference between the patch and Benton except maybe Springfield has more Wal-Marts.
===Meanwhile, the Chicago brass collects mileage, per-diem and hotel reimbursement for travel to where they should be in the first place, and basically work a 3-day week.===
So,. what’s wrong with that?

Comment by Bill Thursday, May 15, 08 @ 2:48 pm
Bill, did they let you step outside the federal courthouse while in Benton?

Comment by Vote Quimby! Thursday, May 15, 08 @ 2:53 pm
Simple question: If these 148 or 110 are transferred to Benton will the State purchase the homes these people own in Springfield or are they simply on their own to sell/buy their home? I assume sales in Benton would jump and, while comparable home prices would be cheaper than Springfield, is there an existing volume of homes for sale the the families moving there. Pretty lousy spot to put “working” people who are not part of whatever politics is driving this issue.

Comment by zatoichi Thursday, May 15, 08 @ 2:58 pm
Benton (pop. 6,000) does have 14 homes listed with a realtor for under $45,000….

Comment by Vote Quimby! Thursday, May 15, 08 @ 3:02 pm
…and if you buy all 14 I’ll give you a special deal!

Comment by Bill Thursday, May 15, 08 @ 3:15 pm
Word out of TS is that Most are planning on going and will find trailers, rent houses whatever. I have heard most will drive down Monday mornings, and leave Friday afternoons. Doesnt do much for the economy down there if they bring supplys from Sprinfield. It will also not provide any jobs that GROD promised. So What is Benton getting for this?

Comment by He Makes Ryan Look Like a Saint Thursday, May 15, 08 @ 3:26 pm
What a good test of the competence of the current administration. They have been discussing this move for two years they say, but in that time have been unable to figure out: how many people they are moving, where they are moving these guys, into what building, in how much space, and at what cost. I’m glad these guys are involved in planning new roads.

I understand that when Sen. Bomke and Reps. Poe and Brauer visited the IDOT HQ facility to see if there was enough room to house these folks there, the tour was provided by a group of IDOT security cops instead of management staff.

Must have thought they were going to load up on highway maps. Or management was all in Chicago.

Comment by Cogito Thursday, May 15, 08 @ 3:44 pm
Keep it simple. Why not just pay Big C a reasonable rate of rent and forget about moving?

Comment by Hickory Thursday, May 15, 08 @ 3:50 pm
ok…how about they rent the trailers to CHURCHES over the weekend?

Comment by Vote Quimby! Thursday, May 15, 08 @ 3:58 pm
Bill, Benton has the usual fast food places and an Applebees. You didn’t get any bargains there on food in restaurants or grocery stores. I’m from that area and you may be confusing Benton, IL with Benton, AK. Quim, out of the 14 houses listed for under $45K, you should at least see a picture of them before buying. Most of the housing for sale in the small towns in Franklin County are ready to be demolished, have been trashed by renters, have been eaten up by termites, or are falling in from mine subsidence. Population at the 2,000 census was 6,880, they have one barely operating hospital, a few nursing homes, a Beatles B&B, a Day’s Inn ready to close, Rend Lake (great IF you have a boat and gas), a few campgrounds (for those TS workers who will live out of a camper until retirement).

I still think this talk of moving TS is sabre rattling on the part of Blago. He wants something in exchange for not moving these people. Don’t know yet what it is but stay tuned, there will be some kind of surprise. There always is.

Comment by Little Egypt Thursday, May 15, 08 @ 4:19 pm
SSS 11:23

I wish my supervisor was miles away so he’d quit doing my job and let me do it. It’s easier when you only have to do it once!

Comment by Fed Up State Employee Thursday, May 15, 08 @ 5:08 pm
As a former 10 year Chicago state employee my boss and all of my coworkers were in Springfield. Most of the people I sat by also had to report to people in Springfield. No one from Springfield EVER came up to Chicago, they made us come to them. Business travel is not glamorous on the state’s travel budget, especially when it took 2-3 months to get reimbursed. I get so tired of reading all of the comments dissing Chicago and all of the people that work there. I saw so many good people leave because they were forced to start commuting to Springfield weekly (which was not discolsed to them until after they accepted the job). And to get back on topic, I hope they find a solution to the IDOT jobs move that meets everyone’s needs. Something seems fishy…

Comment by Former Chi-town Employee Thursday, May 15, 08 @ 5:37 pm
It would be more acceptable to develop a Traffic Safety “satellite office” in Benton and even in Chicago for economic stimulus purposes. A “satellite office” representing DECA would also be appropriate in Benton. Leave the Traffic Safety Division in Springfield alone. It is not right to take jobs away from one person and give it to another 200 miles away.

I also agree that the director should relocate with his management staff. While I don’t care for the director for many reasons, I must give credit where credit is due. His sole purpose has been to save lives and he is very dedicated to this mission. Traffic safety statistics prove his devotion. It hurt to say that, but it is the truth.

Comment by No Nickname Thursday, May 15, 08 @ 6:04 pm
For your information, every former Director with Traffic Safety has been devoted to saving lives as well. Some worked it harder than others, but if you were to ask the Feds who provide Traffic Safety Grant Monies to IDOT you’ll probably find that the IDOT Traffic Safety employees who got laid-off in June of 2004 did more than those before them or since to raise the bar in Traffic Safety Program efforts in Illinois. Significant backlogs were eliminated before the Blago administration came in and groundbreaking Highway Safety Planning was implemented. More grantees than ever before were at work throughout the State and performance measures showed their effectiveness.

I don’t believe that the Blago administration could take credit for any of that and add to that the fact that upon the layoffs of June 2004, IDOT couldn’t/wouldn’t provide Auditor General Bill Holland’s staff with “any documentation at all to validate the layoffs and after being stonewalled for over 1.5 years Holland’s office finally garnered enough information to report how Traffic Safety failed to streamline operations and actually spent more money since the layoffs under the guise of a material reorganization and failed to claim full reimbursements from the Feds thus costing Illinois taxpayers even more money.

This whole move to Benton is predicated upon retalation for many things including the lawsuit that was filed by laid-off IDOT employees.

Comment by To No Nickname Thursday, May 15, 08 @ 7:04 pm
Take this to the bank, a contract is being prepared to do a cost analysis for the TS move to Benton. Somebody do an FOIA on that…Bet it’s (the contract) under 25K and says the state will save lots of money. Yea right and Baloneyvich is the best Governor in US History!!! If it has been in the works for 2 years then why do a cost analysis now? Something is rotten in Denmark.

Comment by save a horse ride a harley Thursday, May 15, 08 @ 8:45 pm
Scully and I are busy with other files right now, but if we were on this case, we would ask:

-What happened to Jeff Schoenberg and his Facility Whatchamacallit Law? Did you get put back in your corner, big guy?

-Can the USDOT block this move through the power of the purse?

-According to state law and admin code, if this move was in the works for a couple years, a paper trail to that effect should be on file at CMS Real Estate. Is it there?

-If the lease at the Annex “expired,” how is IDOT paying the rent? No lease usually means no rent check, at least for most landlords. Did New Frontier get special treatment or has IDOT been freeloading for almost a year?

-Is the “Dan Kent” who awards federal TS grants to IDOT for passthrough to the State Police the same Dan Kent who retired as Deputy Director of the State Police?

-Finally, “No Nickname”, can you crunch some numbers for Scully and me? We think if you can find a correlation between the appointment of a political hack as Director of Traffic Safety and a reduction in fatal accidents, you could help us prove the existence of alien life forms.

Comment by Fox Mulder Thursday, May 15, 08 @ 11:44 pm