Governor's office kept clout list
Most on patronage roster wound up on state payroll
The computerized list obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times was created and stored off state property, a source said, and the administration used it to track favors it handed out if Blagojevich needed something in return from the employees' patrons ﾽ a charge the governor's office vehemently denied.
The political sponsors on the 2003 list include top Blagojevich fund-raisers Antoin "Tony" Rezko and Christopher G. Kelly, identified as "TR," "CK10" and "CK."
Other patrons of those hired include Al Ronan ("AR"), a lobbyist whose former firm was convicted in a bid-rigging scheme; Blagojevich's now estranged father-in-law, Chicago Ald. Richard Mell ("RFM" and "Mell"), and a host of other insiders whose spouses and children wound up on the state payroll.
The jobs were handed out between January and July of 2003 in the early days of the Blagojevich administration. They ranged from powerful administrative and deputy director posts to more menial positions doing secretarial work and supervising a state park's gift shop. The newspaper used state records to confirm that at least 274 of the 292 people on the list have or had state jobs.
Blagojevich spokeswoman Abby Ottenhoff said she wasn't familiar with the list the Sun-Times obtained and insisted that all vacancies were filled "within the guidelines of the law." She also denied that jobs were doled out in hopes of reaping political favors later on.
However, the administration for the first time acknowledged it has been keeping track ﾽ from the beginning ﾽ of politicians and others who refer people for state jobs.
"When we started, there wasn't a formal mechanism yet because we didn't anticipate how many different recommendations would be coming in from all over the state and hadn't figured out a good system for keeping track of all of it," she said.
The existing system is now kept on computers in the personnel division. It isn't subject to public review because "it is considered part of a personnel file" and is therefore private.
"This was created to help us track the status of applications, not favors of the recommenders, unlike the previous administration's process," Ottenhoff said
The list's disclosure comes as a federal probe of the governor's hiring practices heats up. Last week, two former state employees said they were dismissed and made scapegoats for refusing to guide poorly qualified, politically sponsored job applicants through the hiring process. The FBI has recently contacted the two.
Last November, the Blagojevich administration was hit with a wave of federal subpoenas seeking hiring records. At the time, the governor insisted that qualifications always trump politics when it comes to handing out state jobs.
"Qualifications all the time," he said.
What the governor didn't say then was how extensively some of his political friends had infiltrated the state's hiring process.
In Ronan's case, the personnel list shows he recommended Lynda Mlinarich for a job as a legislative liaison with the Illinois Gaming Board at the same time his lobbying firm represented Argosy Gaming Co.
Less than a year later, Ronan's lobbying firm was at the center of a federal bid-rigging investigation at McPier that led to convictions of his firm and an employee, though Ronan himself has not been charged.
Ronan also was identified as the patron for former Illinois State Toll Highway Authority administrator Scott Okun, who resigned last month and is under investigation for allegedly forcing a tollway vendor to hire a firm that employed a cousin.
Attempts to reach Ronan, Mlinarich and Okun were unsuccessful.
Rezko and Kelly appear on the list seven times.
In one instance, Rezko sponsored Ahmed Almanaseer for a trade office intern post in the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, the list shows. Almanaseer was working for the state at the time his father, Dr. Imad Almanaseer, was a member of a state board that oversees hospital construction. Rezko had recommended some members to the board.
Reached Tuesday and asked about Rezko, Ahmed Almanaseer said he no longer works for the state, owns his own business and "was not in a position to speak right now."
There are also examples on the list of people in high places sponsoring their relatives.
Illinois AFL-CIO President Margaret Blackshere was listed as the sponsor of her son, Michael, who holds a $69,684-a-year job with the DCEO.
The union chief said she approached Blagojevich's top aide, Lon Monk, before the governor took office to express interest on behalf of her son in the DCEO post focusing on community development.
Monk, who served as the governor's first chief of staff and now is helping run the governor's re-election campaign, would not answer any questions about the list and how his name appears as a sponsor five times.
"You need to talk to the governor's office," Monk said, declining to say whether he was aware such a list outlining political sponsors was kept. "That's a government issue."
Blackshere said she sees nothing improper in approaching Monk, particularly since her son has a college diploma and had experience in Cook County government dealing with capital planning.
"I gave my son an opportunity by saying, 'OK, here's an opportunity. You'll have to earn it. You'll have to do the interview, the application, that's all. Everything else is up to you, young man,' " she said. "With his degree, with his experience, all of that, he earned the job."
The list also identified:
- Department of Natural Resources chief Sam Flood as the sponsor for his son Scott, who was hired as a site superintendent.
- Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) as the patron responsible for helping his son Jeffrey Rush into the door at the Corrections Department, where he was hired as a $52,208-a-year prison administrator.
The name of Illinois Appellate Court Justice Sue Myerscough also showed up on the list as a sponsor for Laura Norton, who was hired as a personnel liaison in the governor's office and now works as a $67,608-a-year senior public services administrator at the Corrections Department.
Myerscough, however, said she was "very surprised" to learn her name was on the list and said she did not do anything to help her former administrative asssistant land a job in the administration.
"I don't know what it means," said Myerscough, a Springfield resident who ran unsuccessfully for the Illinois Supreme Court in 2002. "I was never asked for a reference, not by Laura, not by anyone in the administration, not by anybody."
A government watchdog said the sponsor list creates serious questions, particularly as Mayor Daley's former patronage chief, Robert Sorich, is on trial for allegedly corrupt hiring practices at City Hall.
"As much as we talk about change, it seems we're still playing the clout game. We're still tracking favors," said Cindi Canary, director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform.
"The governor does have a free hand for most of these positions. From the sounds of it, that free hand could have been exercised much more sensitively. It's stunning we see this against the backdrop of the Sorich trial," she said.
"Here," Canary continued, referring to the governor's list, "it really looks like that the trump card is connections. I don't think there's any implication all these people aren't qualified necessarily. But qualifications aren't enough. It's qualifications and patrons."