On the day that the governor begins running his first TV ad of the season, he’s hit with two potentially troubling stories in the Chicago Tribune.
The first is a potentially ominous tollway contract piece.
The Illinois State Toll Highway Authority has fired a computer software company that won a contract to track construction projects three months after it contributed money to Gov. Rod Blagojevich–even though the firm initially was not a finalist in the bidding process. […]
The company, Cantillon said, failed to design the system needed to responsibly manage its ambitious $5.3 billion road reconstruction plan. “We just didn’t get off to a good start,” she said. “CapitalSoft’s product wasn’t delivering the features we needed.” […]
But documents the Tribune obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show that CapitalSoft finished fourth behind three other companies seeking the contract.
The criteria for submitting bids said “no more than three (3) bidders with the highest overall score” would be invited to give a presentation.
But an exception was made for CapitalSoft, which donated $5,000 to the Blagojevich campaign while the tollway was evaluating proposals for the contract.
And the second is about a grand jury investigation that nobody had heard about until now.
A Cook County grand jury is investigating whether Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s administration improperly used its power to shut down a suburban landfill run by a relative of his estranged father-in-law, sources said Thursday.
One of the officials for the state Environmental Protection Agency involved in shutting down the Joliet dump acknowledged Thursday that he and another EPA administrator had recently testified before the grand jury.
But William Child, bureau chief for the EPA’s bureau of land management, declined to say what he was asked.
A law enforcement source confirmed the investigation centers on the EPA’s decision to close the landfill in January 2005 and whether the governor’s office engaged in official misconduct or abuse of power in calling for the EPA to look into the landfill.
Sources said the questioning has centered on whether the EPA was pressured by officials in the governor’s office to deviate from standard procedures on the case.
Uh-oh.