Dan Rutherford

Editorial

IT'S MADDENING when an elected official withholds information from us that we believe we are entitled to. Even more so when our state’s highest attorney and a judge have sided with us.

It’s infuriating when we are paying for that elected official’s court battle to keep that information secret.

That’s where Illinois residents find themselves today in the case of subpoenas served to Gov. Rod Blagojevich by federal investigators looking into corruption in his administration. So far, we have shelled out more than $150,000 to private law firms so Blagojevich can fight to keep the subpoenas secret.

BUT WAIT … doesn’t the state have an attorney general to render legal advice in these sorts of matters? Indeed it does, and Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s office gave its opinion in October 2006. It said in a letter to Blagojevich that the subpoenas were public documents under the state Freedom of Information Act. It wasn’t even a close call, the AG’s office said at the time.

That’s not the answer the governor’s office wanted (actually, it never asked Madigan for her advice), so it went elsewhere. In this case, to the Springfield law firm of Londrigan, Potter and Randle — which taxpayers have paid $33,800 thus far — and the Chicago firm Bell, Boyd and Lloyd, which has received $124,850.

“It’s precisely what I expected to happen,” said Paul Orfanedes, attorney for Judicial Watch, one of the government watchdog groups that sued to get the subpoenas released. “The governor didn’t want the advice of the attorney general. He wanted to get the advice he wanted to hear, so it’s cost the taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars and taken up the court’s time. It’s disgraceful.”

ON JAN. 9, Sangamon County Circuit Judge Patrick Kelley affirmed Madigan’s interpretation, and said the governor must release the subpoenas to the Better Government Association, the Chicago watchdog group that also sued for their release.

The administration says it is only following instructions from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in not releasing the subpoenas. Sorry, governor, we’ll side with Attorney General Madigan and Judge Kelley on this one.

There is only one reason for not releasing these documents, and that is that they may contain details of the administration’s hiring practices that the U.S. attorney is investigating.

OF COURSE, the governor’s office is appealing Kelley’s decision, an action we find curious (though hardly unexpected) from an official whose administration boasts at every turn of its openness and who swept into office on a platform of reform and renewal.

“If the governor actually believed any of his rhetoric about ethics, there wouldn’t be any appeal,” said Jay Stewart, executive director of the Better Government Association. “The last thing he really wants to do is level with the public and let them know what’s going on with his administration.”

On the bright side, the attorney for the Better Government Association said he hopes the case will go before a higher court within a month — a fast pace for an appeal.

Let’s hope this moves quickly. After all, we’re paying for it by the hour.

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