In a scenario reminiscent of the “Thrilla in Manila” or “The Rumble in The Jungle,” two Illinois officials are battling it out over what one is calling the “poaching” of employees from his government office.
The stats of the two men stand up as follows:
“The Auditor General is a constitutional officer of the State of Illinois charged with reviewing the obligation, expenditure, receipt and use of public funds. The office issues approximately 150 post-audits of State agencies each year, reviewing an agency's financial records, compliance with State and federal laws and regulations, and program performance after the close of its fiscal year.”
The Executive Ethics Commission (EEC) “is a nine member commission that promotes ethics in public service. Its purpose is to help ensure that State business is conducted with fairness and integrity.”
Like Superman, I am sure both believe in, “Truth, justice and the American way.”
The big difference in the statistics is that Fornoff has deeper pockets and the EEC can pay employees more money than the Auditor General.
Holland is calling foul because Fornoff has hired eight key employees from his office in the last six months by enticing them with salary increases of up to 28 percent.
The Chicago Tribune reported, “The Ethics Commission went on a hiring binge after getting a budget increase in response to a law that added "another set of eyes" over the state's purchasing practices. Those rules were reformed in the wake of Blagojevich's arrest on political corruption charges, impeachment and removal from office as governor.”
Fornoff claims innocence in the “poaching” charge saying, "We just posted the positions, and very experienced, talented people came and applied — a lot of MBAs and CPAs. We hired on that basis.” He denied his new employees were recruited specifically from Holland's office.
Seven who left for the commission were from a 55-member division that Holland says does "the bread and butter" financial examinations in his office. The eighth employee was a key computer expert, he said. He is upset that another government agency with a “big pot of money” used its monetary strength to circumvent a state hiring freeze.
The biggest salary increase went to one worker whose annual pay rose from $39,024 to $50,000. The highest new salary was $60,000, and the average increase was 17 percent, comptroller records showed.
So the ethics bosses are sparring over ethics. It all comes down to the definition of “poaching” which is to take or appropriate unfairly or illegally. What Fornoff did is not illegal, but is it unfair that he has more money in his budget? Not for the eight new employees who just got a nice raise. Unanimous judges decision to them.
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