SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — A federal court monitor says Gov. Bruce Rauner’s administration is not fully cooperating in her review of state hiring and the Illinois Department of Transportation improperly hired at least one employee last spring.
Special Master Noelle Brennan filed an update Thursday. It’s in response to an anti-patronage lawsuit expanded to state jobs because of abuses discovered under former Gov. Pat Quinn.
But Brennan says IDOT officials have failed to notify her of planned political hires. Her office discovered one improper hire in April.
Rauner’s office responded it is working to “clean up the mess we inherited.”
Illinois political hiring was severely limited by a 1990 U.S. Supreme Court case. Officials developed a system for determining proper hiring in 1991 but Brennan says it’s too vague and should be discarded.