From the Chicago Sun-Times:

Overpaid pol makes state deadbeat list

February 26, 2003

BY DAVE MCKINNEY SUN-TIMES SPRINGFIELD BUREAU

SPRINGFIELD--In the eyes of the state, Connie Peters is now officially a deadbeat.

The northwest suburban political operative whose clout once reached all the way to the White House is refusing to repay the state $9,033.92--the amount she mistakenly was overpaid after her cushy job observing Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago board meetings was abolished.

As a result, state Comptroller Dan Hynes this week added her name to a list of deadbeats his office compiles and will dock any future state tax refunds or other state payments until her debt to taxpayers is repaid.

Gov. George Ryan dissolved Peters' $26,600 a year post last April by executive order.

But the former governor neglected to notify Hynes of his action, so she kept receiving and cashing monthly paychecks from the state until the Sun-Times learned of the situation in December.

Despite not settling her debt, Peters has applied for an $8,832 a year state pension and free health insurance--perks she will obtain so long as she buys $5,112 in credits through the state's early retirement program.

"This just seems perverse," said Cindi Canary, director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, a government watchdog group.

After learning Peters was receiving a state paycheck for a job that no longer existed, Hynes said he ordered her to repay the state by last Saturday--but she ignored the directive.

"Of course, we're disappointed she hasn't gotten in touch with us to repay this money," Hynes spokesman Karen Craven said. "But it's a debt owed to the state, and we'll have to move forward in recouping that."

Hynes' office also has turned the matter over to Attorney General Lisa Madigan.

Peters did not return a message from the Sun-Times left at her Arlington Heights home.

When reached in early December and asked why she continued cashing state paychecks, Peters said she kept attending water reclamation board meetings and summarizing the board's business for the governor's perusal because she never was notified by Ryan to quit. Ryan's staff said they never saw any meeting summaries.

Peters is a former Wheeling Township Republican committeeman. In 1991, she was appointed by President George H.W. Bush to the commission on presidential scholars.

More recently, Peters also was mentioned repeatedly on a "favors list" compiled by former Ryan chief of staff Scott Fawell, which surfaced in his ongoing federal corruption trial.

Peters' position with the state was created in 1967 to report to the governor on the Water Reclamation District.

Peters has held the post since 1985, except for a 14-month gap in the early 1990s.

In 2000, when the Sun-Times first reported on Peters' job, taxpayers had paid her $186,000 in the last 15 years to observe two Water Reclamation District meetings a month and summarize business that is mostly available on the district's Web site.