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Hundreds of state jobs that once were exempt from Rutan anti-patronage protections have been reclassified to remove them from political influence during the four years of Gov. Bruce Rauner’s administration. […]
[Joe Hartzler, who was special counsel to Rauner] said that “we knocked out like 2,500 patronage positions.” […]
At one point, several thousand state jobs were considered Rutan-exempt and subject to patronage considerations. Hartzler said the number is now below 1,500. […]
Hartzler said most of jobs in question have not been filled under the Rauner administration. […]
Hartzler said that Gov.-elect J.B. Pritzker’s transition team has been apprised of the situation. He said Pritzker is supportive of it.
That sound you heard is the collective groaning of the job-seekers attending today’s inauguration.
posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Jan 14, 19 @ 11:03 am
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no problem — Pritzker’s gang will do what Blago/Quinn gang did — violate the law with impunity — staff assistants at IDOT anyone?
Comment by jim Monday, Jan 14, 19 @ 11:09 am
@jim, do you have a single leg to stand on with that statement, or are you just hyper partisan?
Comment by Perrid Monday, Jan 14, 19 @ 11:11 am
Where there’s a will there is a way..
Comment by Wow Monday, Jan 14, 19 @ 11:11 am
Just pointing out the history of rampant violations of patronage hiring rules — you know, you can look it up, it happened then becauuse they wanted the job, and it can happen now. don’t be so naive.
Comment by jim Monday, Jan 14, 19 @ 11:17 am
Rauner created a new position at IBHE and placed someone there. Not sure what stops Pritzker from doing the same.
Comment by Anonymous Monday, Jan 14, 19 @ 11:18 am
Don’t worry, I hear they’re hiring over at West Jackson LLC.
See what I mean about the jokes?
Comment by 47th Ward Monday, Jan 14, 19 @ 11:18 am
–He said Pritzker is supportive of it.–
So is Noelle Brennan. And it’s good to keep her, and Judge Schenkier, happy.
Comment by Anonymous Monday, Jan 14, 19 @ 11:19 am
IDOT’s issues and failure/lack of desire to correct them have a federal court overseeing all hiring. Probably good in the long term but people who don’t know personnel rules led to a huge short term problem for the new governor to be able to get his own people in to begin changing the culture and policies.
Comment by Sense of a Goose Monday, Jan 14, 19 @ 11:21 am
First step is to fact check GovJunk and his lawyer
1. Did they really check with JB?
2. were most spots vacant?
3. are the spots policy or not?
Some are too quick to forget the GovJunk tradition of laughin’ and lyin’ TTFN
Comment by Annonin' Monday, Jan 14, 19 @ 11:28 am
I’d be real curious to see what the classification and pay of those jobs were. I don’t think there were 2500 plum gigs that got axed. How many of those are snow birds and seasonal stuff?
Comment by Anon-I-Guess Monday, Jan 14, 19 @ 11:30 am
I wonder if there will be a list, broken down by agency, of which positions were shifted over?
Comment by NIU Grad Monday, Jan 14, 19 @ 11:30 am
Ah yes, I fondly recall all the “liasons” that Governor Quinn desperately required just to interact with the various department heads, that he directly appointed, and interacted with through cabinet meetings.
Comment by Downstate Monday, Jan 14, 19 @ 11:50 am
Just a blatant attempt by a Republican to lock-in his people (under the protection of the personnel code) prior to a change in government. Look at the timing of the “hiring reform” and the timing of his EO on nepotism. What a joke.
Rauner never tried to reform hiring in Springfield. His fake Rutan process was a joke. Friends and family members of Springfield’s finest, and members of the Sangamon County Republican Party flowed into State government, into technical positions, w/o relevant experience.
It’ll all be changed.
Comment by Merica Monday, Jan 14, 19 @ 11:52 am
@jim, any recollection about where the concept of Rutan exempt positions comes from? GOP governor Jim Thompson…… so add that to your history lesson.
Comment by depressed in politics Monday, Jan 14, 19 @ 12:05 pm
Joe Hartzler was pretty trustworthy when he put Timothy McVeigh away.
Comment by Ron Burgundy Monday, Jan 14, 19 @ 12:07 pm
Over the last 4 years the ICC has created and filled many exempt positions, from high paying to lower level assistants. Curious where the cut exempt positions from.
Comment by Anon Monday, Jan 14, 19 @ 12:14 pm
The vast majority of those positions were titles that were included in the bargaining unit back in about 2010. The Rutan exemption should have been removed when the positions were included in the bargaining unit. I was able to fill a couple in my Bureau before the Gov froze them after the DOT scandal. We had to use contractual rights process so having the Rutan exemption was worthless.
Comment by LTSW Monday, Jan 14, 19 @ 12:27 pm
any word about pink slips??
Comment by Anonymous Monday, Jan 14, 19 @ 12:34 pm
The special master and the Court overseeing Rutan hiring have created a system where hiring the most qualified person is very hard to do. All position, Rutan exempt or not, now need to go through the Rutan hiring process. This process is unnecessarily complicated and formalized. A list of questions must be developed and asked of all interviewed candidates. No follow up of any kind is permitted to the interviewer. So there is no way for there to be the normal back and forth that one would generally expect when hiring a job candidate so that one might to get to know the candidate and determine not just if the person is qualified, but will be the right fit for the organization. This system makes no sense in the context of hiring people who will be involved in the development of policy and/or legal advice. I really hope Pritzker’s administration can renegotiate this system.
Comment by Shevek Monday, Jan 14, 19 @ 1:00 pm
I appreciate this move. I think Rutan interviews/process are a fundamental protection. I only wish the higher ups had been subject to them. Some Agencies had totally incompetent leadership under Rauner
Comment by Honeybear Monday, Jan 14, 19 @ 1:10 pm
Honey bear,
I agree with you, it’s almost like when the democrats had a teacher running a prison. Funny how that happens.
Comment by Iggy Monday, Jan 14, 19 @ 1:25 pm
I know it’s not a popular thing to do these days, but maybe give him a break and wait and see? One thing that Trump has done, bring up the debate of what is essential? I think we can agree we have a fiscal mess here in Illinois. JB nor Rauner was my candidate. He is my governor now, and my President is Trump. I am trying to find more compassion this year. Here’s to making it out of January!
Comment by Echo The Bunnyman Monday, Jan 14, 19 @ 1:36 pm
We really need more details about these positions to make any judgment. From the story, it appears that many of the jobs were classified as Rutan-exempt, even though they were union jobs or had some other kind of protection that kept a new governor from simply firing the current employee and and hiring someone new. In those cases, the jobs would not be available for Pritzker to use to reward loyal job-seekers as long as the old employee continued to hang on. To the extent the removal of Rutan exemption is for this kind of job, I see it as a good reform - if a governor can appoint someone that the next governor cannot fire at will and replace with his or her own loyalists, the job should not be political and exempt from Rutan.
Comment by Whatever Monday, Jan 14, 19 @ 1:42 pm
You don’t need the Rutan anti-patronage protections. Ask anyone who works for the state of IL. There are a lot of job vacancies that needed to be filled while Rauner was in office. However, you will need a college education to fill most of the jobs.
Comment by Mama Monday, Jan 14, 19 @ 1:47 pm
@Jim 11:09 & 11:17, Skirting Rutan didn’t start or end with Blago. Just sayin. Don’t be so naive.
Comment by anon Monday, Jan 14, 19 @ 2:17 pm
Iggy, totally fair. Both parties do it. It craps on the frontline folks like me.
Comment by Honeybear Monday, Jan 14, 19 @ 2:21 pm
Shevek, I disagree. A good senior manager can craft the questions in a fair and even way to get the best candidate. You just have to put effort into it, something a lot of managers aren’t willing to do. Not saying that’s you. But I’ve experienced management complaining about Rutan for years and then seen a great manager handle it really well. Rutan works, it’s not hard. It just requires effort.
Comment by Honeybear Monday, Jan 14, 19 @ 2:26 pm
When interviewing for many identical or similar positions, managers can make Rutan work. If you interview for just a few positions in a year, it is hard to think of everything.
Comment by Last Bull Moose Monday, Jan 14, 19 @ 2:44 pm
@Last Bull Moose - Thank you. That is exactly right.
Additionally, this process makes it cumbersome to give promotions to people who already work at an agency. It’s generally a no-brainer to give someone a promotion when you know she is already doing the work and doing it well. Instead, you have to have them put in their application in the pool; go through the interview process; and get a score with everyone else. Of course that person is going to score at the top because their experience is going to fit into the criteria you create. Unfortunately, that means you’ve taken, sometimes, a couple months or more to give that person a promotion, and then you have to start over to backfill the new vacant position. It is incredibly inefficient.
Comment by Shevek Monday, Jan 14, 19 @ 5:04 pm
Something is wrong when seniority overrides
qualifications. People that did not even meet the posted requirements have been promoted over qualified individuals. Needs to be fixed.
Comment by Covert Tuesday, Jan 15, 19 @ 3:47 am
While Rauner may have removed some in my agency he absolutely created some….so there’s that.
Comment by The Dude Tuesday, Jan 15, 19 @ 7:43 am