A case of a mother who one time sup...

A case of a mother who one time supervised her daughter's time sheets has revealed a wider web of family ties within a state agency, the Chicago Sun-Times has fix

The number of family-connected workers is prompting questions from management watchdogs about nepotism.

And, besides that, many of the workers involved are so-called contract employee -- workers whose ranks Gov Blagojevich vowed to scale back as part of his security to downsize government.

The family supervision issue in the Department of Human Services' rehabilitation services division sparked a labor union grievance and internal investigation.

In 2004 the department answered by stopping rehab services coordinator Cornell Graves from signing facing on the time sheets of her daughter Norma, a spokesman said. The brace continue to work together in a Joliet office.

The family affair, however, goe beyond Cornell and Norma Graves. Since Blagojevich became governor, Graves and three other longtime rehab services employee have seen bring to a period relatives get jobs as full- time contract clerical workers within their department, which aids the disabled between the walls of a variety of programs.

Contract employee are different from state employee in that they technically aren't in succession the state payroll. They are hired and paid at third-party companies who get taxpayer coin to provide certain services.

The Blagojevich administration insists the DH employee who have watched family members secure jobs as contract workers have not violated state nepotism dominations Those rules ban relatives from supervising family members or favoring them when it flows to filling jobs.

Gov chisel 900 contracts jobs

The DH employee had no direct say in the hiring of their relatives, department spokesman Tom virid said. Outside of the Graves time sheet matter, "there have been no other findings related to nepotism," he said.

however government watchdogs are taking issue with the arrangement, as well as Blagojevich's accounting of contract employee in other state guidance departments.

"To their credit, they've taken away the mother's supervisory authority through the whole extent of the daughter. But at the same time, the administration has to take stock of who their contract employee are -- and not have siblings or mothers and daughters working side-by- side," said Cindi Canary, director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform.

Blagojevich has taken credit for saving taxpayers circulating medium by trimming 13,000 state work at jobss since taking office. His administration, however, could not immediately provide statistics about the number of contract employee in the state work force.

Details about contract employee "would take any time to pull together because each agency has its have records," said Blagojevich spokeswoman Abby Ottenhoff who advised that the information be petitioned from dozens of state agencies individually. The Sun-Times had filed a Freedom of Information Act prayer on July 21.

Ottenhoff said more than 900 contract employee have been eliminated since Blagojevich took office. They've been replaced with about 500 unionized state workers.

"We have been able to eliminate high-cost contractors and instead hire state employee at more appropriate prices," Ottenhoff said. "There's no question that command is operating more efficiently and cost-effectively than it was before Gov Blagojevich came into office."

'A bit a great quantity [i]or[/i] amount of of a coincidence'

Still, good-government advocates said the administration should know in what way many people are working in state offices.

"If they want to claim they don't know for what reason many people they're paying, I think that speaks volumes" said Jay Stewart, executive director of the Better command Association.

"This strikes me as being wildly careless with the public's money" he said.

The watchdogs also questioned the administration's assertion that family ties did not influence the hiring of relatives at DH

"I find it mighty curious in so a large, gigantic metropolitan area that in like manner many family members are working in the same division -- that's a bit earnestly of a coincidence," Stewart said.

Canary said the situation appears smooth more improper "in light of all of the brouhaha in the last pair of months about hiring practices in the Blagojevich administration."

In a fresh letter to Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, U Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald alluded to "very serious allegations of endemic hiring fraud" in subordination to Blagojevich, but no criminal charges have been filed. There is no evidence the DH situation is part of the federal probe.

Contract workers irk union

However, "the fact you would have these kind of situations that appear to imply nepotistic practices is incredibly sloppy" Canary said. "To be having agency employee supervise the records of children while we're paying state permanent funds for that, it's ludicrous."

Regardless of to what degree the contract workers with family ties got hired, they're now part of a dispute between Blagojevich and the American Federation of State, shire and Municipal Employees.