Madigan: Fire holdovers from Ryan, Blagojevich

SPRINGFIELD - Saying he's frustrated with the slow pace of reform in the wake of Rod Blagojevich's ouster, Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan proposed sacking everyone hired to top state jobs by the previous two governors and making them reapply.

The potential purge could affect nearly 3,000 people associated in some way with former Govs. George Ryan and Blagojevich. Ryan is in prison following a federal corruption conviction. Blagojevich is awaiting trial.

Madigan contends that while Blagojevich has been removed, scores of his appointees and aides remain on the state payroll and that Gov. Pat Quinn has not quickly followed through with the promise he made to "fumigate" state government shortly after taking office.

If Madigan's plan becomes law, those affected would continue in their jobs for 60 days during which the governor could rehire or reappoint them. Madigan said he's not passing judgment on them, but said more action is needed to cleanse state government.

"I'm not satisfied with the pace of change," said Madigan.

Quinn also supports the idea and didn't take it as criticism.

"It's one that we need to use to reassess everything in state government and if we see something that isn't proper, we can act accordingly," the Democrat said.

Spokesman Bob Reed said Quinn has been moving with "deliberate speed" to evaluate the performance of his predecessors' choices, but has had to juggle it with trying to balance the budget and push ethics reform.

Madigan's announcement came as former federal prosecutor Pat Collins and Senate President John Cullerton emerged from a closed-door bargaining session on ethics reform to say they expect many of the ideas a Collins-led commission put together to be approved by lawmakers in the coming weeks.

"I'm pretty optimistic we can get agreement on everything," Cullerton said.

The ethics commission was assembled shortly before Quinn became governor and tasked with finding solutions to change the state's chronic governmental and political problems. Its recommendations call for limiting how long legislative leaders can serve, overhauling how legislative maps are drawn, limiting campaign donations and empowering state and local prosecutors to pursue corruption cases often left to federal authorities.

Unveiled with much fanfare late last month, the report has often been portrayed in the media as a political line-in-the-sand from Collins to lawmakers, many of whom immediately viewed it and the commission as adversarial.

"We cannot endorse efforts to selectively implement some reforms while ignoring other key proposals," the ethics report authors wrote in its introduction.

But Collins said Thursday the report is not an ultimatum to lawmakers and there's room for compromise as long as the "core values" of the report remain.

"We understand that everything we say is not going to become law tomorrow," said Collins, who helped put away former Gov. Ryan.

Some proposals such as redoing the redistricting process would require a constitutional amendment, which requires voter approval. The deadline to get such an amendment on the statewide ballot is next May.

Cullerton said Thursday those issues are likely to be held over for future action.

As for Madigan's purge of governors past, Cullerton said he supported the concept.

• Daily Herald news services contributed to this report.