CTA broke law by hiring legislator’s housemate, who rarely showed up: inspector

In 2014, Mayor Rahm Emanuel convinced a federal judge to let City Hall out from under the decades-old Shakman court decree and a costly federal hiring monitor whose job was to prevent the political hiring and firing of city workers.

But a state report Friday said that improper hiring remained under one of the government agencies that reports to Emanuel: the Chicago Transit Authority.

The Office of the Executive Inspector General — a state-government agency that serves as the official watchdog for the CTA and numerous other public bodies — found that the transit agency violated state law by hiring a man with close ties to an influential state legislator, state Sen. Kimberly Lightford, D-Maywood.

The state inspector general said the CTA created the job just for him, paid him at a rate of more than $80,000 a year and kept him around for several months even though he rarely showed up for work.

The new job — called “project consultant, diversity” and awarded to Eric McKennie in late 2016 — was created even though there was already another open position at the transit agency with “essentially the same duties.”

The new job came “without the required hiring procedures and with a significantly higher salary,” according to the inspector general.

“At all times relevant to the complaint, Mr. McKennie resided in the same household” as Lightford, according to the inspector general.

McKennie’s hiring “was initiated by the VP of Legislative Affairs at CTA,” who was then Gerald Nichols, “who forwarded” McKennie’s resume to “senior management.”

“The VP of Legislative Affairs was aware of Mr. McKennie’s relationship with a state legislator; Mr. McKennie also held himself out as being married to that state legislator during the hiring process,” the inspector general said.

The inspector general’s office “found that CTA unfairly discriminated against qualified individuals who did not have such political connections in violation of the principles set forth in the Metropolitan Transit Authority Act.”

That law says no “discrimination shall be made in any appointment or promotion . . . because of . . . political affiliations.”

The inspector general “found that Mr. McKennie — who was employed by CTA for only four months — failed to report for a full day of work for 51 out of the 57 days he was supposed to be working, along with other numerous timekeeping violations.”

Neither Lightford, McKennie nor Nichols could be reached for comment.

Nichols still works for the CTA but in a different role, making about $170,000 a year.

Brian Steele, a spokesman for CTA President Dorval Carter, said the agency responded in writing to the inspector general earlier this month, and that “response speaks for itself.”

That written response says that while McKennie “violated CTA attendance and timekeeping policies,” which the agency was addressing, the CTA “vehemently disagrees” that he was “hired for his political affiliation,” that the job was created just for him and that the CTA violated state law.

McKennie was hired “solely on his qualifications,” according to the CTA.

McKennie once ran unsuccessfully for Chicago alderman and was hired into a state-government position in possible violation of other anti-patronage rules.

In 2014, the inspector general “issued a summary report in which it found that the Illinois Department of Transportation circumvented state hiring rules by hiring people with political affiliations into policymaking positions when, in fact, they were not conducting such work,” according to the inspector general.

McKennie “held one of the ‘Staff Assistant’ positions discussed in that report until he was laid off in September 2016 when the Illinois Governor abolished the Staff Assistant position. Shortly thereafter, CTA hired Mr. McKennie.”

He started Nov. 28, 2016, and resigned March 20, 2017, more than a month after the inspector general got an anonymous complaint about McKennie. In leaving, he cited “personal and family issues,” according to the inspector general.