Posted on 07/17/2013 5:36:18 PM PDT by Olog-hai
A former California transit executive tapped to clean up Chicago’s scandal-tarnished Metra commuter rail agency said Wednesday he was pushed out barely two years into the job for doing exactly that and resisting pressure from some of Illinois’ most powerful politicians.
Alex Clifford was allowed to speak publicly for the first time Wednesday about his lucrative buyout, which critics have called hush money and a waste of taxpayer funds. Clifford alleged that House Speaker Michael Madigan pushed Metra staff for a pay raise for a political pal and that Madigan and another politician also sought patronage hires. Clifford also described an episode in which he was asked to simply write a $50,000 check to an organization of U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush’s choosing.
When he refused, Clifford said he got a taste of Illinois politics at its worst.
In hiring a new director, Metra’s board had searched for “somebody who would be squeaky clean and not tainted by, if you will, Illinois politics,” Clifford said. He was just a year into the job when Madigan pushed for a campaign contributor to get a pay raise at his Metra job. …
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
Chicago and Illinois .... Organized Crime funded by the taxpayers of Illinois.
I wish more would come forward with this sort of thing in Chicago.
The state of Madiganistan is now $100,000,000,000 in debt. The corruption, nepotism, and sleaze in Illinois is now so complex, convoluted and pervasive that it is virtually impossible for anyone to understand it all.
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