Illinois (ECWd) –
We recently urged our readers to start reading the Illinois Auditor General Reports that are publicly available at this link. We urged the reading because the public needs to know how bad things really are and see that those in charge are not being held accountable, as covered in the past two articles here and here.
As if the information found in Auditor Generals Repors are not bad enough, take a look through the Office of Inspector General reports at this link.
Did you know that the initial hiring wage under the Illinois State Central Management rules is partially based on past employment wage and IDOC generally gives new employees their recent or current salary plus 5%.
How did a Human Resource Representative for the Illinois Department of Corrections get to a point where she would email a coworker and say: “I feel like I have hit the LOTTO!!!”
- Fabricate prior employment in your application.
- Years later, claim her wages need to be adjusted/corrected because they were based on a prior wage as monthly instead of weekly.
- DOC official adjusts they pay and implements the correction without verifying the information.
- Back pay of over $40K, a monthly pay spike, which increases pension benefits.
What is so ironic in this case, this person was highlighted in a DuPage Policy Journal report in 2019, found at this link. According to GovSalaries.com, “In 2018 Stacey Kidd’s salary was 61 percent higher than the average Human Resources Representative salary in the state of Illinois. According to the public records employee’s salary increased by $59,400 from 2017 to 2018, which is a 113.6 percent rise. Since 2015, the salary has increased by $73,979, a total rise of 196.1 percent.”
How does an Illinois State Worker get a 113.6% increase in pay?
According to the 2019 OEIG report at this link, published in Fiscal Year 2026, a person can defraud IDOC, falsify employment applications, increase her pay significantly, and not one referral for criminal prosecution nor any attempt to recover the funds. Why was a 2019 investigation not published until 2026?
- IDOC Human Resources Representative Stacey Kidd defrauded IDOC in order to obtain an improper salary adjustment and back wages.
- IDOC Human Resources Representative Stacey Kidd falsified her IDOC employment applications by providing false income and employment information.
- IDOC Human Resources Representative Stacey Kidd falsified her IDOC employment applications by providing false information regarding a prior employment
- Public Safety Shared Services Center Transaction Manager [IDOCEmployee 1] mismanaged Ms. Kidd’s salary adjustment by failing to take reasonable stepsto ensure that the information she relied upon was accurate and supported a salary adjustment.
OEIG confirms the fraud.
“The State has suffered a loss to date of more than $75,927 – This figure was arrived at by adding Ms. Kidd’s $40,038.27 gross back wage claim, the $24,688.81 in additional contribution made by the State to her retirement, Medicare, and Social Security, and the additional $11,200 in salary that Ms. Kidd has received at the time this report was issued since her adjustment occurred in April 2018. This figure does not account for the additional $800 per month in salary that Ms. Kidd continues to collect moving forward as a result of her salary adjustment.”
OEIG Recommendation for Stacey Kidd:
“the OEIG recommends that IDOC terminate Ms. Kidd and that she not be rehired into State employment.”
As found in the official report, malfeasance was the root problem from day one because no one even verified the prior employment claims. Had that been done, the person would not have ever been hired because it would have shown she was not being truthful in her application, or so we would like to believe she would not have been hired. Couple that initial failure with the failure of those in charge of correcting pay to take reasonable steps to ensure the information she relied upon was accurate, and we now understand why this state has so many problems. We note that this is just 1 report of many found on the OEIG page.
Again, we urge people to read the entire report, which can be downloaded at this link or viewed below.
19-00042-kidd-and-idoc-employee-1-released-redacted-summary-report-1
