Granberg: I had plans to turn DNR around
The State Journal-Register
Kurt Granberg, the former state representative fired Wednesday as director of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources said Thursday he doesn’t know if his pension will increase as a result of the two-week stint.
“I didn’t do this for the pension,” he said. “I wanted to work. I wanted to turn DNR around.”
Then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich appointed Granberg to the post Jan. 16, which is after Blagojevich was arrested on federal corruption charges in December.
The appointment was criticized because Granberg resigned his House seat before the Jan. 9 House vote to impeach Blagojevich.
Granberg, 55, was a state representative for 22 years, making him eligible for a pension of $73,000 a year.
According to state law, if Granberg — whose appointment had not yet been approved by the Senate — was on the DNR payroll, he is eligible for a pension of up to 85 percent of his yearly salary that would have totaled $133,273.
That means his annual pension would have grown by about $40,000.
Questions remain, however, because Gov. Pat Quinn withdrew Granberg’s appointment prior to Senate confirmation.
“I don’t’ know what (the pension) is,” Granberg said Thursday. “I haven’t heard a legal opinion on it, and I don’t know.
“I didn’t even know the salary for the position until I read it in the paper.”
Granberg said the circumstances are frustrating because he was supposed to have been appointed to the DNR job more than a year ago.
“We’ve been working on plans for DNR for over a year,” he said. “We had a whole package of things we were going to do, but now we can’t implement it.”
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Did he actually say that he did not know what his salary was until he read it in the paper? But he had been planning on this appointment for over a year? Yea right, good riddance
So he was planning on big changes for the DNR over the last year… while he was signing bills to sweep $9 million out of dedicated DNR funds that were put back yesterday?????? Where were all these plans the day he got appointed, instead of more talk about the golf trail?
Granberg says: ““We’ve been working on plans for DNR for over a year. We had a whole package of things we were going to do, but now we can’t implement it.”
I think it’s time for Granberg to come clean and tell us exactly who “we” is. Then the concerned outdoorsmen of Illinois need to support new Director Miller when he roots the “we’s” out of the IDNR and send them back to wherever they came from.
I find it hard to believe that Granberg never caught on to the fact that hunters and fishermen (the folks paying the bills) see a HUGE disconnect between a golfcourse trail and the mission of the IDNR. Might be something appropriate for a tourisim development board or something like that, but not for the agency tasked with preserving and protecting our natural resources.
He also never caught on to the depth of the resentment hunters and fishermen have for Blagojevich, and that any last minute appointment from a corrupt, federally-indicted, impeached, fund sweeping, soon to be found guilty in the Senate, Governor, would be viewed with great suspician - too put it mildly.
...as he wipes a tear from his eye.
Boy, they said Marc Miller quicker than you could say Brent Manning, Too bad Manning was from the “opposite” party. He built the outdoors up in this state to what it was until Blago got his hands on it.
Good Post Henry, glad to see you posting again!
Grandberg was going “turn the IDNR around” alright…from bad to worse.
We’ll see what happens but at least the new guy looks like a hunter and a fisher and may be a real Director in lieu for the rich retirees of the past. With pensions like that, no wonder the state (and us) is bankrupt.
Good to be gone!! I kick him inthe arse if I could!!
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