{"id":535584,"date":"2010-04-20T14:54:47","date_gmt":"2010-04-20T18:54:47","guid":{"rendered":"tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c60fd53ef0133ecd2078e970b"},"modified":"2010-04-20T14:54:47","modified_gmt":"2010-04-20T18:54:47","slug":"quinn-wants-review-of-state-vehicles-after-dui-flap-with-senate-leaders-son","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/535584","title":{"rendered":"Quinn wants review of state vehicles after DUI flap with Senate leader’s son"},"content":{"rendered":"

Posted by Monique Garcia<\/em> at 1:55 p.m.
<\/br><\/p>\n

Gov. Pat Quinn today called for a review of the use of state-owned vehicles following the weekend drunk driving arrest<\/a> arrest of Senate President John Cullerton\u2019s son while behind the wheel of a taxpayer-funded SUV.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an alarm bell that we need to pay attention to,\u201d Quinn said. \u201cEspecially in these times of austerity, we need to look at where all state vehicles are, how they are used, where they\u2019re assigned, and I intend to pursue that.\u201d
<\/br>
<\/br>Garritt Cullerton, 26, was driving a state-owned Ford Escape SUV when he was pulled over by Chicago police early Sunday. Police said he had a blood-alcohol level of 0.188, more than twice the legal limit.
<\/br>
<\/br>The 2009 SUV was used by John Cullerton and kept primarily at his Chicago home, where Garritt Cullerton lives. The Senate president told the Tribune<\/a> that as a result of his son’s "unauthorized" use of the vehicle, he would now keep it parked at his downtown state office in the Thompson Center.<\/p>\n

<\/br>Cullerton also told the Tribune he would examine \u201climiting the fleet\u201d of taxpayer-funded cars purchased by the General Assembly, a little-known perk the arrest brought to light. The General Assembly currently owns 14 vehicles, including six vehicles assigned to the Senate, and eight assigned to the House.
<\/br>
<\/br>Quinn said it is \u201cabsolutely wrong\u201d for state-owned vehicles to ever be used by family members or anyone not working for the state, but he stopped short of saying top lawmakers should be stripped of the perk saying he planned to meet with legislative leaders and discuss the issue this afternoon.
<\/br>
<\/br>The governor did suggest the legislative branch could face budget cuts that would force the General Assembly to reconsider some purchases.
<\/br>
<\/br>\u201cIt bears inspection, and this is a good time to do the inspecting,\u201d Quinn said. \u201cWe have a tough budget, we have to tighten the budget. Any information that we have that indicates that a vehicle is not necessary, then we will act appropriately.\u201d
<\/br>
<\/br>\u201cAll branches of government have to be united in being thrifty and frugal," Quinn said. "I think it’s important for the governor, whose responsible for the whole state, to make it clear to the legislative leaders in both houses in both parties that this is an area that needs oversight and reform."<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Posted by Monique Garcia at 1:55 p.m. Gov. Pat Quinn today called for a review of the use of state-owned vehicles following the weekend drunk driving arrest arrest of Senate President John Cullerton\u2019s son while behind the wheel of a taxpayer-funded SUV. \u201cThis is an alarm bell that we need to pay attention to,\u201d Quinn […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3992,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-535584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3992"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=535584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535584\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=535584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=535584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=535584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}