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Quinn says agencies must follow hiring rules

SPRINGFIELD - Gov. Pat Quinn deflected blame for state hiring problems Tuesday, saying agencies must follow anti-patronage hiring rules - even when the candidates are those the governor's office favors.

The Democrat responded to questions in Chicago about an investigative report released Friday that found the Illinois Department of Transportation circumvented clout-busting regulations and improperly hired 255 people in the past 10 years, using a procedure that the Office of the Executive Inspector General said accelerated in 2010 and 2011, after Quinn took office.

IDOT responded last week by laying off 58 people who still held the questionable "staff assistant" positions and instituting other reforms.

Ann Schneider, the former transportation secretary who resigned suddenly in June, responded to the report by saying Quinn's office recommended the "vast majority" of candidates and she felt pressured to hire them.

"All departments have a duty to make sure that they comply with the rules that I've set down and rules that are set in law," Quinn said Tuesday when asked about the allegation. "I expect that, and I expect accountability."

At issue are U.S. Supreme Court rules that say a governor may only hire without open interviews when the job involves policymaking or confidential information. The investigation found IDOT created job descriptions that involved such duties but the workers in them mowed lawns and answered phones.

The report found no evidence Quinn was aware of the subterfuge. He said Tuesday when he learned of the problem, he "took immediate action."

That initially meant a monthslong review of five dozen remaining staff assistant's jobs for applicability of the anti-patronage rules. But in the end, Quinn said it was acting secretary Erica Borggren's decision to eliminate the posts.

Quinn was asked whether that set the state up for a lawsuit similar to a case won by 16 IDOT workers dismissed in 2003, which cost the state millions of dollars to settle.

"We'll take that as it comes," Quinn said. "We thought the proper way to go, based on the report, was to abolish that position."

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