From the Chicago Sun-Times:

Ryan aide lands sweet deal
November 4, 2002

BY TIM NOVAK STAFF REPORTER

Gov. Ryan's administration has found a new job for the estranged wife of indicted McPier CEO Scott Fawell so she can remain on the state payroll long after the next governor takes office.

Joan Mitnick Fawell landed a four-year term appointment at the Illinois Financial Institutions Department. She is the department's second-highest paid employee, with an annual salary of $83,904.

Before she got the appointment on Sept. 1, Fawell was sure to be fired by the next governor, losing the $83,904 salary she was paid as deputy lottery director. For the last year, she also worked in Ryan's strategic planning office.

If Fawell survives a four-month probation period that ends Dec. 31--two weeks before the next governor takes office--she could be fired only for poor job performance, something state officials say is difficult. These so-called term appointments have been controversial because they prevent the next governor from filling high-paying jobs.

Ryan spokesman Dennis Culloton said the governor had nothing to do with Fawell's new job. In fact, Culloton said Ryan was unaware Fawell had left the governor's strategic planning office for the financial institutions department.

"It sounds like [the department] hired her,'' Culloton said. "They had a vacancy there. She applied for the job. The director interviewed her and hired her.''

Fawell is doing strategic planning for the agency that regulates credit unions, currency exchanges and other financial institutions, but not banks, Culloton said.

The department director, Sarah Vega, and Joan Fawell did not return calls. Vega and her husband, Leonard Sherman, both worked for Ryan in the secretary of state's office while Scott Fawell was the chief of staff.

The Fawells were married in 1988, the year Joan Fawell began working for the state. They have no children.

She filed for divorce last April, a week after her husband was indicted on corruption charges, including the alleged illegal use of state employees, equipment and other resources to help elect Ryan governor. The divorce is pending.

Scott Fawell has been on a paid leave of absence from his $195,000-a-year job as executive director of the agency that runs Navy Pier and McCormick Place. His trial is set for January.

Culloton said Scott Fawell had nothing to do with helping his estranged wife land a new job.

"Just because she's had the misfortune of having her personal life go through a public airing doesn't mean she can't continue on with her career,'' Culloton said.

Term appointments, like the one given to Fawell, have long been a part of state government. They became controversial a few months ago when Ryan got the probationary period reduced from six months to 30 days, a move that was blasted by gubernatorial candidates Rod Blagojevich and Jim Ryan. They feared the governor would dole out vacant high-paying, policy-making jobs to his cronies in the waning days of his administration.

Joan Fawell's term appointment was made under the old rules, Culloton said. But Fawell is only subject to a four-month probationary period, rather than six months, because she was already on the state payroll, he said.