Ground the Fleet

Sun Times reports on Auditor General William Holland's finding that officials taking IDOT flights pay only 14% of the true cost of the flights and that it would be cheaper to take existing commercial flights:

The Legislative Audit Commission ordered the audit in August 2005 in response to an Associated Press analysis of air fleet use in the first 2½ years of the Blagojevich administration. That analysis found Blagojevich's administration had taken more than 3,000 more flights than were taken in the same period under his predecessor.

Gee, I wonder if it has anything to do with this place being empty, an underutilized state asset?

Or the fact that Chicago dominates state government as never before.

At the very least, it's an abuse. I say ground the fleet. Take commercial like the taxpayers.

UPDATE: More abuse revealed in the Blagojevich administration. Tribune:

DeFraties, the former personnel chief at the Department of Central Management Services, and Casey, her former assistant, have cooperated with federal investigators in an ongoing probe of alleged hiring irregularities involving the Blagojevich administration.

The documents DeFraties and Casey filed with the Civil Service Commission to buttress their case for reinstatement include several e-mails between Blagojevich's office, the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, and Central Management Services personnel officials. In the correspondence, the governor's office requests personnel officials to expedite the hiring process or provide updates on the status of some job seekers. In some of the e-mails, the personnel officials resist the requests and tell the governor's office to keep its hands off the hiring process.

Sun Times story with this:

Casey responded that Caro lacked "credible experience or [a] related degree."

Three weeks later, Caro was hired as a public service administrator in the state agency and now makes $48,600 a year. In May 2004, he donated another $500 to the governor.

Reached by phone, Caro said he did not know whether his campaign contributions factored into his hiring -- something Ottenhoff denied. Pressed whether he knew his lack of qualifications for the job was an issue, Caro said, "Can you hold on one second?" He never returned to the line and did not answer subsequent calls.

The story cites an additional example as well.