Jan. 14--Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner said Tuesday that he will try to undo a host of moves made by Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn on his way out of office, saying his predecessor was "inappropriate" in making a flurry of last-minute appointments and hires.
"It's been clear that there has been some inappropriate decisions, either it's with appointments or reclassifying employees," Rauner said during his first news conference since taking the oath of office Monday. "What we're going to do is across the board cancel all appointments, we are going to cancel all hires, cancel all, rescind all, the actions that the governor has taken since Nov. 1.
"We want to rescind everything that we possibly can and take a fresh, hard look over time," Rauner added.
Rauner's comments came after he filed paperwork to sweep away dozens of pending appointments made by Quinn, including the reappointment of Aaron Jaffe, the Illinois Gaming Board chairman who has been unafraid to speak out against some efforts to vastly expand gambling in Illinois.
Others whose pending nominations were rescinded by Rauner included Denise Kane, the longtime inspector general of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, and former Sen. Miguel del Valle, a Chicago Democrat who also previously served as Chicago city clerk and had a reappointment pending for the Illinois Student Assistance Commission.
It was unclear whether Rauner's decision to roll back all of Quinn's actions include doing away with an executive order Quinn issued that would require all governors to make their income tax returns available for public inspection before May 1 each year.
During the campaign, Quinn pressed Rauner to release copies of his entire tax filings, including schedules and attachments Rauner has not released. Rauner repeated his usual response that he's gone "well beyond the requirements under the law" in releasing his tax information.
Still, the refrain was at odds with an order Rauner signed Tuesday aimed at toughening ethics laws in the state. According to a news release from the governor's office, the directive would prevent government employees from negotiating for a new job as a lobbyist while they are still working for the state, and ban them from taking a lobbying job for one year after leaving their position.
It would also beef up disclosure requirements for state employees by requiring them to divulge wherher they hold other, nongovernment jobs and say if they or their immediate family are involved in legal action against the state or have more than a 5 percent interest in property the state is leasing.
