Quinn previously announced 58 of the “staff assistants” who got jobs through political connections would lose them at the end of the month, but now a lawsuit has been filed on behalf of many of those people to try to stop the firings on the grounds that there is no merit to them “except to provide political cover” for Quinn, the Associated Press reported.

So for now, 173 out of a total of 245 of the people secretly hired as “staff assistants” still have government jobs, many of them at the transportation department.

Now, I know how the world works. Many, many people get jobs because they’re recommended by someone who knows someone. Heck, I’d even go out on a limb and suggest Bruce Rauner has hired a few people that way over the years.

But this is just getting ridiculous, isn’t it?

The state inspector general Ricardo Meza called the hiring of a total of 245 people by both former Gov. Rod Blagojevich and current Gov. Pat Quinn improper. The Associated Press reported that 62 percent of those hires occurred while Quinn has been governor. Meza found people were hired without the jobs being advertised so that anyone could compete for them. And they were hired into positions protected as being of a policy-making nature, but it turned out many of them were doing no more than answering phones or mowing lawns. And yet, at least 103 of them, if not more, are going to get to keep being employed.

I get that it wasn’t their fault that IDOT managers and Quinn’s top aides skirted the rules, but so what? State jobs, funded by taxpayers, that do not involve any strategic or policy-shaping work should be advertised so that anyone can apply, be screened, maybe get an interview and have a shot at being hired. Meza’s report said that didn’t happen here.

IDOT spokesman Guy Tridgell told reporters, “The issue was about poor management practices and not about the employees” in explaining the rationale for letting more than 100 of these workers keep their jobs. The employees might be doing terrific work answering phones or mowing lawns or even something more technical than that, but they got their jobs through a corrupt, closed process. They got their jobs without any other taxpayers being aware they could seek those jobs too. The fact remains that, right now, more than 100 workers are now holding jobs no one else even knew about. What about the hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds who also might like a shot at a good-paying government job answering phones or mowing lawns?

What if I know someone who mows lawns and who has much more experience at it than the people who had connections to Democratic politicians who got hired and now are being protected?

Why shouldn’t those employees hired improperly have to compete for them in the same way as anyone else?

The Chicago Tribune reported that the 103 IDOT workers who Quinn’s office said will keep their jobs include 83 who have moved into positions that come with job protections they didn’t have when they hired in as staff assistants. Another 20 don’t have those protections, but still are not expected to be let go, Tridgell said.

Get hired for a protected policy job but end up doing routine work. Then move into a job with protected status or file suit to try to keep your routine job no one else knew about?

Sigh. Only in Illinois.

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