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Sunday, September 17, 2006
Law - "How Blagojevich aides bypassed state rules for favored job applicants"
The ILB has posted a number of entries on the hiring scandals in some of our sister states. Today the focus is again on Illinois. For background, start with this ILB entry from 6/21/06, this one from 6/5/06, and this one (which the ILB loves) from 5/18/06.
Today a front-page Chicago Tribune story reports on an investigation conduced by its reporters Ray Long, John Chase and David Kidwell. The story begins:
Skirting state hiring rules, Gov. Rod Blagojevich's administration gave jobs to at least 360 people whose applications were sent through back channels by the governor's office and other political heavyweights, a Tribune investigation has found.More than 70 workers with political pedigrees were hired through internships meant for college students--even though all were older than 35 and a few were in their 60s.
In addition, Blagojevich's administration nearly doubled--to more than 740--the number of high-level state jobs he can fill without following hiring rules.
In a broad examination of hiring across state agencies, the Tribune found that these maneuvers and others were used to systematically subvert a process that is supposed to be free from political influence.
That wide-ranging pattern of hiring abuses has also caught the attention of federal investigators involved since 2005 in a probe of the Blagojevich administration, according to sources familiar with the investigation.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on September 17, 2006 10:04 AM
Posted to General Law Related