Jeff Dailey resigns as Illinois Tollway ED in wake of Blago arrest

Illinois Tollway executive-director Jeffrey Dailey resigned Wednesday (Dec 17) after just four weeks in the job, part of the fallout from the dramatic arrest of the state Governor Rod Blagojevich on federal corruption charges.

The Tollway made this statement: "Executive Director Jeffrey S. Dailey today submitted a letter of resignation to the Chairman of the Illinois Tollway Board of Directors, effective immediately.  Dailey expresses disappointment in leaving the Tollway, but cites a desire to pursue other engineering and transportation planning opportunities. Upon acceptance of Dailey's resignation the Illinois Tollway Board of Directors will appoint an Acting Executive Director and begin a search for a new Executive Director."

An executive-director is legally apppointed by the board of directors of the Tollway but according to local reports part of the corruption of Illinois politics and the Tollway is that normally the board of directors merely rubber-stamp the Governor's nominee for executive-director. The law constituting the Tollway, legally called the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority (ISTHA), gives the Governor no role or authority to make any appointment of staff, and no legally prescribed role in the appointment of an executive-director.

The law 605 ILCS 10/ Toll Highway Act gives board members a four-year term precisely to insulate them from pressure from politicians like the Governor but apparently they normally just go along with this abuse of power.

One of the most sensational incidents in the federal complaint against Governor Blagojevich includes wiretaps of the Governor describing a shakedown of a highway contractor over the contract for the Tollway's $1,800 million "Green Lanes" initiative, suggesting that the Governor can direct Tollway contracts.

The Tollway website still contains evidence of the Governor's extra-legal involvement in Tollway activity, one item stating: "On October 15, 2008, the Illinois Tollway was directed by Governor Rod Blagojevich to launch the Congestion-Relief Program Phase Two – Tomorrow’s Transportation Today. The new $1.8 billion Capital Program includes development and implementation of Green Lanes and funding for an Interchange Improvement Program to continue congestion-relief and mobility improvements, while introducing new opportunities for regional environmental and economic benefits."

No Governor of Illinois has legal authority to direct the Tollway, yet this abuse of power is openly displayed on the Tollway website. This is the very program over which the Governor planned a half million dollar shakedown, according to the federal compaint.

The law 605 ILCS 10/ Toll Highway Act gives the Governor no authority to direct the Tollway and no authority at all over Tollway contracts either, so staff like Dailey and the board of directors of the Tollway were faced with being accomplices to brazen corruption centered on the Governor's office, or turning a blind eye to it.

Dailey is the third executive director to have been appointed and to have resigned under Gov Blagojevich in six years. Dailey was chief engineer at the Tollway from 2004 until Dec 2007 when he moved to Dallas TX to the North Texas Tollway Authority.

Acting executive-director of the Illinois Tollway is Dawn Catuara.

Report of Dailey's appointment in October is here:

http://www.tollroadsnews.com/node/3796

TOLLROADSnews 2008-12-18