State Freezes County Job Training Funds, Alleges Corruption

By Kevin Robinson in News on Aug 19, 2009 5:40PM

The state put the brakes on county spending for the Presidents Office of Employment and Training (POET) Tuesday, citing corruption and mismanagement of the funds. “POET has been a mismanaged agency for a long time,” said Republican County Commissioner Timothy Schneider of Streamwood. “This department has seen rampant waste, corruption and mismanagement for many years.” Earlier this year Shirley Glover, who oversaw the program, pleaded guilty to charges of stealing $100,000 and was sentenced to four years in prison. And in January of last year, three former POET employees were charged along with two ministers of conspiracy to funnel more than $2 million from banks and taxpayers for bogus training.

Cook County got $5.7 million from the federal Recovery Act for job training, and has already spent $1.1 million of that. The Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity is accusing the county of letting ineligible youth between the ages of 14 and 24 into the program paid, and failing to pay participants or provide “meaningful work experience”. "We're taking this action so the program will continue and the participants can get paid for the work they do," said Marcelyn Love, a spokesman for the state commerce department. The state has frozen over $2 million in state funds for the program, and is asking the county to return $1.8 million in unspent funds dating back to 2007. The county has also been directed to provide documentation related to the summer jobs. Karen Crawford, whom County Board President Todd Stroger appointed two years ago to clean up the agency said in a letter that “POET is confident that upon (the agency’s) review of the requested documentation, said suspension will be rescinded,” claiming that claims that funds went unspent were due to an "administrative error". 4th Ward Alderman Toni Preckwinkle, who is running for County Board President said, "This is another example of a good program that has been obstructed by the waste, fraud and abuse of the current Cook County government," promising in a press release to institute more transparency and accountability in county programs.