I’ve known Mary Lee Leahy for a long time, and I have a lot of respect for her, but she really should have known better than to get back into state government, particularly with this crowd.
Leahy was hired in 2003 by Blagojevich to review state hiring practices and identify unnecessary jobs. In April, she was deposed as part of the lawsuit by the former IDOT employees. It was during that deposition that IDOT lawyers told her not to answer questions. Attorneys for the fired employees then went to court seeking to force her to answer.
The latest court papers were filed the same day that Leahy - who won the landmark Rutan ruling to keep politics out of most state hiring decisions - declared the decision is “alive and well” 26 years after it was handed down. She spoke Tuesday at a public policy luncheon sponsored by the Institute for Government and Public Affairs and the University of Illinois at Springfield.
However, Leahy told the audience she would not discuss allegations that the Blagojevich administration has circumvented hiring rules to put politically connected people into state jobs.
“Many of you read that I had a deposition taken in a case that’s now pending, challenging layoffs by the current administration,” Leahy said during her speech. “… There’s a motion now pending in the district court to resolve exactly what questions I can answer or not answer. That’s why I really do not feel that I can comment on anything going on right here in Springfield right now.”
She was used as a prop by the very people who did just about everything they could to get around the rules emanating from the very Supreme Court case she won.
Read the whole article if you’re not clear on the context.