Tollway chief follows the game plan

The executive director of the Illinois Tollway has resigned to take a job with--oh no, not again--a big tollway contractor.

No one here, of course, should be surprised, because that's how things are done in Chicago: Hand out some huge government contracts and find yourself in demand later for a high-paying job.

The executive director, Brian McPartlin, who came to head the tollway under the auspices of Gov. Rod Blagojevich, is joining Chicago-based McDonough Associates, an engineering and architectural firm, as vice president. There he will work for James McDonough who rose to the head of the firm after serving--no surprise here either--as chairman of the CTA. Then, the firm was known as Murphy Engineering, which was--guess what?--a big, politically connected contractor.

That was more than 30 years ago. Some things never change.