Gov. Pat Quinn says it was up to his transportation secretary to follow employment rules even when hiring candidates the governor’s office favored. He says he didn’t know about the Illinois Department of Transportation circumventing rules against politically motivated hiring.
58 IDOT workers with the title “staff assistant” were laid off last week, after a report from the state executive inspector general. While that report states that the number of improper hires peaked after Quinn took office, he says he wasn’t pushing through applicants.
“I was not aware, and when I learned, I immediately…called for an audit and review of the whole matter,” Quinn said. “The reforms we’ve instituted are designed to make sure that these kind of problems don’t occur again.”
The former head of IDOT claims that the governor’s office did push through the majority of those hires. The report found no evidence that Quinn himself was involved.