A Chicago attorney and anti-corruption campaigner is stressing that a court-appointed monitor is needed to ensure the state's Department of Transportation is in compliance with political hiring bans.
Michael Shakman's filing Monday in federal court comes in response to a motion by Gov. Pat Quinn's attorneys that the governor's administration's response to allegations of political hiring in the department had been both ``prompt'' and ``appropriate.''
Last month, Quinn aides announced the transportation department was laying off 58 people at the center of a state investigator's findings that more than 250 people were improperly hired for political reasons at the agency over the past decade. The report found that the questionable hiring of ``staff assistants'' accelerated under Quinn.
Shakman says the state investigator's findings are reason enough for the monitor.
