Posted on 07/10/2005 9:01:40 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) - A state official on leave amid an investigation into a half-million-dollar contract awarded to his brother-in-law also recently changed an agency overtime rule in a way that benefits his new wife.
Robert Millette, director of finance and administration for the Illinois Department of Transportation, decreed in January that any employee who serves as a "technical manager V" would be eligible for time off in exchange for working overtime, a perk not previously offered, a department spokesman said.
Millette's wife, Angela Korbar, is in the "technical manager V" category as a personnel manager in the Transportation Department's Carbondale office.
She was hired in January 2004 - the same month Millette took the unusual step of moving his office to Carbondale. The two applied for a marriage license in September.
Millette, 33, has been on paid leave since July 1 while state officials investigate whether he was involved in awarding a questionable state contract involving power-washing buildings and bridges to PWS Environmental Inc., a company owned by his sister's husband.
The investigation was prompted by an Associated Press report that the company was getting $522,000 in state jobs. The company's owner, William Mologousis, is married to Millette's sister.
Experts say most of the work the company was hired to do - including washing road salt storage barns for IDOT - is unnecessary, especially amid a state budget crisis, or could be done by state employees.
The FBI has also questioned IDOT employees.
Several calls to Millette's cell phone seeking comment in the past week were not returned, nor were calls to Korbar's office and home.
Department spokesman Matt Vanover said the overtime change came after Millette was asked to find financial incentives for non-union employees, who have not had a pay raise in several years. Lower-ranked managers were often reluctant to take promotions because they would lose overtime benefits; the change could encourage them to accept higher-ranked jobs, Vanover said.
Vanover said Millette did not recommend Korbar for her job or intervene on her behalf. He said Korbar has so far used 14 hours of overtime as compensatory time off.
A day before the suspension, Transportation Secretary Timothy Martin had praised Millette, saying: "He's pushed the envelope a lot of times and that's what the governor has suggested we do, is be able to show good value, change the way things have been done."
Niece-potism
'He said Korbar has so far used 14 hours of overtime as compensatory time off.'
Much ado about nothing here. No big deal!
Now the cleaning contract may be another thing?
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