Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s administration has temporarily stopped interviewing some state employees about personnel practices after the workers’ union complained the interviews were coercive and might interfere with an ongoing federal criminal probe of state hiring, officials said Friday.
The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31, the state’s largest public employees union, requested that the interviews be stopped in a letter delivered this week. The union contends the interviews may violate their contract and wants the administration to explain details, including how many union employees have been interviewed and what they have been asked.
Blagojevich spokeswoman Abby Ottenhoff said the lawyers would not interview any more union employees until the state answers AFSCME’s questions, sometime next week.
“We can discuss the terms with the union, but we have no intention of stopping our internal review,” she said. “Our goal is to follow the investigation wherever it takes us.”
The Blagojevich administration hired two law firms–Schiff Hardin and Meckler Bulger & Tilson–to find out whether there are hiring problems beyond the state’s main personnel agency. As part of the assessment, attorneys for the firms were asking union and non-union employees about their experiences with the hiring process.
State records show Schiff Hardin has in the last year been paid more than $874,000 for legal services. The bills have been paid in a recent flurry of activity because as of early August the firm had only been paid less than $100,000.
The Meckler firm was paid more than $180,000 in the last year and stands to receive at least an additional $200,000 for legal services to the state by the middle of next year, state records show.
AFSCME spokesman Anders Lindall said the administration is right to halt the interviews.
“We hope it’s a sign they’re reconsidering this entire approach,” he said.
U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald said this year that his office’s ongoing investigation into allegations of endemic hiring fraud in Blagojevich’s administration had uncovered evidence implicating state agencies.
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jchase@tribune.com
