QUOTE OF THE DAY
Chicago Tribune: Report slams IDOT political hiring
Gov. Pat Quinn failed to rein in patronage abuses at the state transportation agency after replacing now-imprisoned Rod Blagojevich, and Quinn’s directors repeatedly hired politically connected workers in violation of the rules, the state’s top ethics investigator found.
Hundreds of people were hired into a special “staff assistant” position without having to go through strict personnel procedures under rules designed to keep politics out of most state hiring, according to a confidential report by Executive Inspector General Ricardo Meza obtained by the Tribune.
The rules have been in place since before Blagojevich took office in 2003, but many of those improper hirings at the Illinois Department of Transportation happened under Quinn’s Democratic administration, the report said.
Chicago Tribune: Food cart activist questions city’s downtown food stand move
When the city announced this week that a nonprofit organization had been granted permission to sell Asian kale salad and other “healthy, local food” out of repurposed newsstands downtown, Mayor Rahm Emanuel heralded the agreement as evidence of his commitment to create jobs by allowing businesses to innovate.
But an activist who has been working unsuccessfully for years to get the city to allow food carts to sell tamales and other humble snacks throughout Chicago neighborhoods greeted the business permit — granted to e.a.t. spots — as an example of the Emanuel administration playing favorites with an upstart business serving upscale food while working-class entrepreneurs can’t get City Hall to act.
Beth Kregor, director of the University of Chicago’s Institute for Justice Clinic on Entrepreneurship, said she was struck by the optics of e.a.t. spots getting the go-ahead to sell items like tofu scramble wraps and gluten-free muffins at four shuttered newsstands that the city said were “located throughout the central business district.”
Chicago Sun Times: Ex-IDOT boss blames gov’s office for majority of improper hires
In a blow to Gov. Pat Quinn, his former transportation secretary has accused his office of pushing “the vast majority” of improper political hires in her agency even though an ethics report released Friday shied away from blaming the governor’s office.
A report by state Executive Inspector General Ricardo Meza alleged that “countless” legitimate job applicants for state jobs were sidestepped by hundreds of political appointees installed in state transportation jobs for which politics weren’t supposed to play a role.
Meza’s report centered on four former Illinois Department of Transportation employees, including two ex heads of the sprawling state bureaucracy for presiding over the allegedly improper hiring scheme but largely was silent on the governor’s office playing a direct role.
Chicago Sun Times: Cubs cut grounds crew’s hours to avoid paying health benefits
Thanks a lot, Obama.
Add the Affordable Care Act – or, specifically, the big-business Cubs’ response to it – to the causes behind Tuesday night’s tarp fiasco and rare successful protest by the San Francisco Giants.
The staffing issues that hamstrung the grounds crew Tuesday during a mad dash with the tarp under a sudden rainstorm were created in part by a wide-ranging reorganization last winter of game-day personnel, job descriptions and work limits designed to keep the seasonal workers – including much of the grounds crew – under 130 hours per month, according to numerous sources with direct knowledge.
Chicago Sun Times: Illinois Supreme Court rejects Rauner’s term limits appeal
Despite last-minute pleas from Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Rauner, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled Friday that the November ballot will not include a referendum on term limits.
The state’s top court ruled Friday afternoon without comment.
Earlier Friday, the Illinois State Board of Elections finalized a ballot that does not include a referendum on term limits.
CARTOON OF THE DAY
