Red flags fly on Flider appointment

The following editorial appeared in the (Decatur) Herald & Review on Feb. 19:

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(MCT) — Bob Flider’s appointment as chief of the Illinois Department of Agriculture should leave most folks in Central Illinois with mixed feelings.

Flider was named Wednesday to the post, which pays $133,273 per year, by Gov. Pat Quinn. Although Flider starts his job immediately, he still has to be confirmed by the Illinois Senate. Flider replaces former Director Tom Jennings, who left in October.

Many will feel proud, and rightfully so, of Flider for his accomplishment and confident that his work ethic and skills will make him a capable administrator.

There are those, also with justification, who will figure it can’t hurt to have a Central Illinois resident in such a high-powered position. During his term as a state representative, Flider was probably best-known for working hard and being visible in the area he represented.

But the appointment also has its troubling side, which boils down to the question of whether the appointment was a payoff for a crucial vote on the lame-duck tax increase approved a little more than a year ago.

Flider, a Democrat, lost the 2010 election to Adam Brown and was serving out the final hours of his term when he voted to approve the 67 percent income tax increase that was intended to be a solution for the state’s budget woes. Flider made that vote after bragging for months on the campaign trail that he had never voted for a tax increase. He is the third Democratic lawmaker who voted for the tax hike to now have a high-paying state job.

A spokesman for Quinn and Flider deny the tax hike vote and last week’s appointment are related. “That’s silly,” Brooke Anderson said.

But it’s not silly, especially given the state’s well-deserved reputation for such activities.

The other questionable part of the appointment is Flider’s background in agriculture, which is scant, at best. Flider has cited his work ethic and experience representing farming communities and large agricultural businesses such as Archer Daniels Midland Co. and Tate and Lyle. He graduated from Eastern Illinois University with a degree in journalism and worked as a newspaper reporter. He later worked at Illinois Power Co., now Ameren, as director of regulatory affairs. He was mayor of Mount Zion during the mid-1990s, before moving to the state legislature.