SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – A case involving two workers accused of breaking rules to help favored applicants get state jobs could end up as an examination of Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s much-investigated employment procedures.

Blagojevich fired Dawn DeFraties and Michael Casey last spring, saying they manipulated the system to help politically connected job-seekers.

The pair is asking the Civil Service Commission to give them their jobs back, claiming they broke no rules, but responded to special requests from the Democratic governor’s office.

At a hearing on the charges, set to begin Monday before an administrative law judge, DeFraties and Casey want to introduce evidence that the governor’s staff interfered to help certain favored applicants. The administration argues any such evidence is irrelevant to the case against.

DeFraties, former personnel director for the Department of Central Management Services, and Casey, her one-time assistant, received thousands of applications in their Springfield office after joining the Blagojevich administration in early 2003.

They had no authority to give anyone jobs but could give some applicants an edge.

The administration charges they violated procedures by accepting faxed applications, not recording applicants whose evaluations scored less than “A,” putting some applications ahead of others in the decision process, and allowing inadequate applications to be resubmitted without waiting the required time.

The administration has held up the case as an example of its efforts to root out corruption, beginning with a May news conference, at which top Blagojevich aides announced the dismissals; Blagojevich decried a few “bad apples” in his administration.

But DeFraties and Casey are trying to turn the tables on the administration and have made the actions of the governor’s office a key part of their defense.

Last week, they filed dozens of e-mails from the governor’s personnel office suggesting its close involvement in hiring – even for jobs that are protected by law from political considerations and for which military veterans are supposed to get first chance.

“If your supervisor sends you a special application and says, ‘Do it this way,’ it certainly is relevant as to whether you violated any rule at the workplace,” said Carl Draper, attorney for DeFraties and Casey.

The state executive inspector general’s office, which conducted a yearlong investigation, concluded that many job applications were submitted through the governor’s office or state lawmakers. The inspector’s confidential report, obtained by The Associated Press last summer, also indicated that the allegedly improper practices continued for months after DeFraties and Casey left CMS.

The administration has stopped talking publicly about the case, and testimony is likely to be a highly technical discussion of rules about faxing applications or when a rejected application can be resubmitted.

The case centers on 28 so-called “special applications.” The administration claims that for all but one of those applications, DeFraties and Casey did not officially record a grade if it was below an “A.”

An analysis of the 28 cases in November showed weaknesses in each one. Investigators relied on the wrong dates for key events, some applicants who investigators said got “A” grades never got any grade, and some candidates were never hired.

Case Breakdown

• THE CASE:

The Blagojevich administration fired two mid-level personnel managers last spring for allegedly violating hiring rules by giving special treatment to some applicants.

• THE DEFENSE:

The two workers, Dawn DeFraties and Michael Casey, argue they should be able to testify about the involvement of Gov. Blagojevich’s office in requesting the special treatment. The government wants such evidence barred.

• WHAT’S NEXT:

A hearing on whether their dismissals should be upheld begins before a Civil Service Commission administrative law judge Monday.

Source: The Associated Press