Acknowledging that his relatives probably have a leg up when it comes to getting jobs in state government, Gov. George Ryan on Friday defended the fact that members of his family are on the state payroll and said they got healthy pay raises through no intervention on his part.
One of Ryan’s sons-in-law got a top management job with the Department of Professional Regulation around the time Ryan took office as governor, an advancement Ryan allowed probably had something to do with their relationship.
“I’m the governor, and he is my son-in-law,” Ryan said. “Having my name attached to his probably didn’t hurt.”
When son-in-law John Coghlan got the job, Ryan said, “He got a raise . . . to the level of the fellow who had it before him.”
But the governor said that pay raise and all others for his relatives were authorized by supervisors and not the result of special treatment.
“I don’t call up and say, `Give them a raise,’ ” he said. “It’s no different than anyone else.”
According to the governor’s office, eight of Ryan’s close relatives are on the payroll. They include his brother Tom’s two children as well as two daughters and a daughter-in-law of his sister Kathleen’s.
Ryan spoke to reporters after a Chicago news conference to announce the release of several state grants, including one for $100,000 to help homeless pregnant teens.
But as has been the case increasingly in recent weeks, Ryan found himself peppered with questions about his long tenure in public office. While campaigning with GOP presidential candidate George W. Bush earlier in the week, Ryan fended off questions about a continuing investigation into a bribes-for-licenses scandal in his office when he was secretary of state.
On Friday, reporters questioned him about the members of his family on the state payroll and about generous increases in their pay from year to year. Coghlan, who made $82,050 in 1999, will be paid $97,200 this year, according to state records.
Another Ryan son-in-law, James Schneider, doubled his salary at the secretary of state’s office between 1992 and now, the records show.
“All I know is, some have been there 17, 18 years,” Ryan said of his family members on the payroll. “They thought public service was an honorable thing to be in.”