CHICAGO (AP) - The hand-picked successor to former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan who abruptly resigned this week under pressure has decided not to accept a paycheck for taking the job for three days, the state Comptroller’s Office revealed Friday.
Former state Rep. Edward Guerra Kodatt in an email declined to take the salary he was entitled to under state law, according to Comptroller Susana Mendoza, who had called on Kodatt to not take the full month’s pay of $5,788.66
Kodatt, 26, quit Wednesday, days after he was chosen to fill the seat Madigan held for more than 50 years. Kodatt was accused by his sponsors of “questionable conduct,” which they didn’t explain.
Mendoza has also called on newly appointed state Rep. Angelica Guerrero-Cuellar to refuse the full month’s salary she’s entitled to under state law. Guerrero-Cuellar was appointed Thursday, with just two business days left in the month. She didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mendoza pointed out Madigan received his final paycheck for representing the 22nd District for most of the month of February.
“Taxpayers should not have to pay three different representatives three full months’ salary for the same seat for the same month,” the comptroller said in a statement.
Madigan was head of the House for all but two years since 1983, the longest-serving legislative leader in U.S. history. But utility company Commonwealth Edison admitted in a deferred prosecution agreement with federal prosecutors last summer that it engaged in a years-long bribery scheme to influence Madigan for favorable legislation.
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