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BOYS GOLF PREVIEW
Huntley’s Trent Craig
Local golfers dream of trip to state as a team / B1
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88 69 Complete forecast on page A8
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Searchable database incomplete State portal still doesn’t include local government salaries By KEVIN P. CRAVER kcraver@shawmedia.com State lawmakers in 2012 approved a bill to add the salaries of county, municipal and township governments to the searchable Illinois Transparency and Accountability Portal. Two years later, the data is
not there. Neither are the salaries of local library employees, which a 2013 bill added. And lawmakers – some concerned, others irate – are wondering why. The Department of Central Management Services that maintains the website says that the provisions of the bill were “subject to appropria-
spokeswoman Alka Nayyar said. “It’s something we’d be happy to do. We’re always looking for ways to promote transparency,” Nayyar said. But a local lawmaker who was chief sponsor of the bill in the House calls the explanation a lame excuse from a department with a history of
tion,” and that lawmakers never set aside any finding to implement the additions. The department estimated during the legislative process that it would cost $480,000 to implement the addition, and $240,000 a year to maintain the data. If the funding is appropriated the data can be added,
overstating expenses. “It’s an egregious breach of the taxpayers’ trust. This was done to have full disclosure and transparency. I don’t think this is an issue at all except that [CMS] didn’t wish to do it,” state Rep. Jack Franks, D-Marengo, said.
See DATABASE, page A6
SOCIAL MEDIA CONNECTS ‘BLUE’S CLUES’ CHAIR WITH SPECIAL NEEDS CHILD
NO MORE EXCUSES A special report
About this series “No More Excuses” is the Northwest Herald’s ongoing series about the public’s right to know in Illinois.
Layoffs raise new issues in Ill. hiring dispute By JOHN O’CONNOR The Associated Press
Sarah Nader – snader@shawmedia.com
Jennifer Falco poses for a portrait Friday in her Crystal Lake home. Falco sold her son’s “Blue’s Clues” thinking chair to a 2-year-old boy with sensory processing disBy JEFF ENGELHARDT n jengelhardt@shawmedia.com
‘I was L completely floored’
inda LeCroy had to think about the thinking chair. After coming across the famous red chair from the TV show “Blue’s Clues” at a local garage sale, the Lake in the Hills woman struggled to remember the name of the mother who was looking to buy such a chair for her special needs boy.
Garage sale turns thinking chair into healing chair
Because sitting in the chair did not provide the same intellectual stimulation it had on the show, LeCroy decided to post a Facebook message with a photograph of the chair on a page for people to post items and information about local garage sales. Within minutes dozens of strangers were commenting on the mes-
sage, attempting to find the woman who was looking for the chair about a month ago. “It was unbelievable to see so many people who didn’t know each other try to get this chair to that boy,” LeCroy said. “You just don’t see that very often anymore.”
SPRINGFIELD – Quinn’s unexpected move to deal with a scathing report about political hiring in his administration will not put the jobs scandal to rest as he mounts a difficult campaign for re-election. Quinn aides announced last week that the state Department of Transportation was laying off 58 people at the center of a state investigator’s findings that more than 250 people were im- Gov. Pat properly hired Quinn for political reasons at the agency over the past decade. The report found that the questionable hiring of “staff assistants” accelerated under Quinn, despite his claims to have cleaned up the practices of his predecessor, Rod Blagojevich. But the layoffs raise more questions about the administration’s handling of the issue, contradicting earlier decisions to merely reclassify rather than eliminate the positions. And they could open the state to lawsuits by the laid-off employees, something IDOT officials said they wanted to avoid last spring. “They obviously recognize they have a big problem,” said Michael Shakman, a Chicago attorney and anti-corruption campaigner who has filed a federal lawsuit seeking better monitoring of state hiring.
See CHAIR, page A5 See HIRING, page A6
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