Official under Blagojevich resigns

SPRINGFIELD -- A high-level official in an agency under Gov. Rod Blagojevich has resigned during a review of his ties to a company doing business with the state.

Mark Kolaz will leave his post as chief of staff for the Department of Central Management Services Oct. 15, Blagojevich spokeswoman Rebecca Rausch said Wednesday.

Kolaz will take a private-sector job in a move that has been "planned for some time," although he officially submitted his resignation Friday, Rausch said. She would not elaborate and said she did not know what the new job would be.

Kolaz, who made $121,000 and had been with the administration since Blagojevich took office in January 2003, did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment.

The Associated Press reported last week that Kolaz owns 20 percent of Modern Mailing & Printing Services, which has done more than $1 million in state work since 2004.

Kolaz and the company did not reveal the arrangement and get a waiver from the governor, as the law requires, when it bid on and received a $120,000 contract in 2004. Nor are there waivers on file for contracts signed before Kolaz joined the Blagojevich administration, despite contract language requiring such information to be reported.

A CMS spokeswoman said Wednesday the agency has not completed a review of the situation.

Earlier this month, the AP reported that a federal grand jury is investigating alleged embezzlement by Kolaz's former wife. Some of money Christine Egizii Kolaz is accused of taking from a family business went to another enterprise she co-owned with Mark Kolaz.

The incident occurred before Kolaz worked for Blagojevich. No criminal charges have been filed.