Top Transportation official ousted after drunken driving arrest

By RYAN KEITH
The Associated Press
Published March 9, 2006, 4:34 PM CST

SPRINGFIELD -- A top-ranking official in the state Department of Transportation and childhood friend of Gov. Rod Blagojevich is out of a job less than a month after he was arrested for drunken driving, officials said Thursday.

Dan Stefanski was ``informed his services were no longer needed'' in his role as a special assistant to Transportation Secretary Tim Martin last week, department spokesman Matt Vanover said.

In November Stefanski, 48, went on disability leave that was not related to his job, Vanover said.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported Thursday that Stefanski was fired after IDOT officials found out he was arrested Feb. 11 for drunken driving.

An IDOT official, who would only speak on condition of anonymity because of the department's policy on such information, confirmed to The Associated Press Thursday that the February arrest prompted agency officials to force Stefanski out of his job last week.

A public telephone listing for Stefanski's home in Mundelein could not be found. Stefanski's lawyer did not immediately return a call Thursday seeking comment.

Mundelein Deputy Police Chief Mike O'Brien said an officer pulled Stefanski over about 5 p.m. on Feb. 11 after seeing him pull into an oncoming traffic lane to make a left turn on a busy four-lane highway in suburban Chicago.

The officer found Stefanski driving with an open container of vodka and with two 14-year-olds and a 7-year-old, two of them were his children, O'Brien said. Stefanski was charged with endangering the life or health of a child, felony DUI and driving on a suspended or revoked license among other offenses.

Stefanski also was charged in McHenry County with drunken driving, resisting arrest and other offenses stemming from an arrest there last April, McHenry County court officials said.

Stefanski started working with the state in April 2003, four months after Blagojevich took office.

He earned $105,000 a year in his special assistant role, which Vanover said involved overseeing highway maintenance workers. Vanover said Stefanski was uniquely qualified for the job given his lengthy career as a top official with the Teamsters union.

Stefanski's name surfaced in a Sun-Times report last April that he allegedly had ties to organized crime. According to the newspaper, a Teamsters Union anti-corruption investigators report contained allegations that Stefanski had ties to reputed organized crime figures and once was a bookie. Stefanski has denied the mob allegations.

The transportation department referred the allegations to the executive inspector general.

Blagojevich said last April that he had only seen Stefanski once or twice since taking office and would abide by the inspector general's findings. A governor spokeswoman did not immediately return a call for comment Thursday.

An official with the inspector general's office said Thursday he could not confirm or deny the existence of an investigation or discuss any possible findings on Stefanski.

Stefanski's brother is head of the City of Chicago Teamster Pension Fund.