Better Government Association

State cleared way for Jones' wife to get job

Rule change let her become mental health chief

April 11, 2007

BY DAVE MCKINNEY Sun-Times Springfield Bureau Chief dmckinney@suntimes.com

SPRINGFIELD -- The Blagojevich administration rescinded its rule that the state's mental health chief be a medical doctor just before the wife of Senate President Emil Jones got the job. A top Jones aide and the state Department of Human Services insist the promotion of Lorrie Jones, a psychologist, was legitimate under state law. But a government watchdog called the move "curious" given that the job was tailor-made for the spouse of Blagojevich's top legislative ally.

"Why in 2003 was there a great burning desire to have an M.D. in this position and then two years later it isn't necessary?" said Jay Stewart, executive director of the Better Government Association.

The job Jones' wife has held since September 2005 pays nearly $80,000 per year more than what she was paid when she was hired at DHS in January 2002, more than three years before she married the Senate leader.

Her $186,000-a-year pay as director of DHS' division of mental health exceeds the $128,100-a-year salary of her boss, DHS Secretary Carol Adams, but is equal to what was paid to Lorrie Jones' predecessor, Dr. Christopher Fichtner, who resigned in 2005.

When Fichtner was hired to head DHS' mental health division in early 2003, the Blagojevich administration crafted job qualifications dictating the person in the job be licensed to practice medicine. Fichtner had an M.D.

But after he left and before Lorrie Jones was promoted, the administration pushed through changes in the job's qualifications so a medical degree was not required. Jones is a long-practicing psychologist who does not have an M.D. She does have a doctorate.

Leigh Steiner, who held the post prior to Fichtner, also did not possess an M.D.

State law does not require the head of the state's mental health division be an M.D. but it doesn't prohibit it, either.

Given the way state law reads, an aide to Emil Jones said there is nothing improper about job qualifications being changed in a way that ultimately benefited his wife.

"She is an accomplished professional who had a well-established career prior to this job. Why shouldn't she be paid as much as her predecessor?" said Jones spokeswoman Cindy Davidsmeyer.

The Senate president was one of his wife's boss' chief defenders after the Sun-Times reported that Adams and her chief of staff, Teyonda Wertz, had hired high-priced assistants who acted primarily as drivers.