Blagojevich Defends Hiring Procedures

July 25, 2006
BY JOHN O'CONNOR ASSOCIATED PRESS

SPRINGFIELD, Ill.-- Gov. Rod Blagojevich defended his administration's hiring practices and expressed confidence in top aides Tuesday despite a federal investigation into his handling of jobs that are supposed to be shielded from politics.

But the Democratic governor could not explain why his office has offered different accounts of when it implemented a hiring process intended to keep political considerations from influencing who gets state jobs.

"Well, I don't know. I can't speak to that," Blagojevich said at an event in Rolling Meadows.

The Associated Press reported this week that Blagojevich's chief of staff was signing off in late 2004 on candidates' names for jobs that are supposed to be insulated from politics.

That's nearly 18 months after aides said a "blind" hiring process was adopted so that names--and thus political connections--would not be considered.

Asked later if the system is completely blind today, spokeswoman Abby Ottenhoff said, "The design of the system is to not include the identity of candidates." She could not say when the administration completed its switch to a hiring process that omitted names.

Blagojevich, who was elected on a promise to clean up government, continued to portray the federal investigation as evidence of his attempts to fight corruption.

U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald wrote in a letter last month that he has found credible witnesses to "very serious allegations of endemic hiring fraud" in multiple Blagojevich agencies. But Blagojevich maintains some of those allegations are the result of his independent inspector general rooting out problems and referring them to law enforcement.

"A lot of what we're seeing with this issue is an example of our systems working," Blagojevich said.

The Democratic governor has acknowledged his personnel director, Joseph Cini, is being scrutinized by federal prosecutors, and his own inspector general also has accused Cini of trying to subvert state hiring laws. Key hiring documents also went to then-chief of staff Lon Monk, now Blagojevich's campaign manager.

Still, Blagojevich said he's not worried about questions surrounding their activities. "Absolutely no wrongdoing has been leveled at anybody who is close to me," he said in an interview with Chicago's WGN-TV.

Most jobs in state government are protected by laws and court rulings that prohibit hiring decisions based on political clout and give preference to veterans and minorities.

Blagojevich has long maintained that his hiring system for such protected positions did not consider names--that is, his office decided when to fill job vacancies but did not know the names of who would be hired.

When the AP reported in June that lists of 1,800 jobs--accompanied in 1,200 cases by names--were approved by top Blagojevich aides early in 2003, spokeswoman Abby Ottenhoff said the blind system was implemented in spring 2003. After the AP report that Monk was approving individuals for protected jobs as late as autumn 2004, Ottenhoff then said the process was phased in.

She did not answer a question about whether Blagojevich knew that Monk was involved in approving job candidates by name.

"But it's important to know that the appearance of a name on a form is in no way an indication that rules weren't followed," Ottenhoff said.

Contributing: AP writer Michael Tarm.