Former U.S. Attorney General Patrick Fitzgerald has some concerns about the training offered to those working for Northeastern Illinois' four transit agencies: the Regional Transportation Agency, Pace, the Chicago Transit Authority and Metra.

Fitzgerald asked all four agencies to fill out a 25-question survey of their training practices. Upon reading their answers, he noted that although there is "lots of training" on how to prevent discrimination in hiring when it comes to race, gender, religious affiliation, nationality, disability and sexual orientation, there appears to be much less when it comes to "removing politics from hiring." 

“There’s not a lot of training on whether people can be hired based on political affiliation,’’ Fitzgerald noted during a Northeastern Illinois Public Transit Task Force meeting. “I have concerns about that.”

Fitzgerald also went to muse about whether there should be a "firewall" between elected politicians and the hiring process for the agencies. 

These talks come as a result of the patronage scandal surrounding former Metra CEO Alex Clifford and allegations that House Speaker Michael Madigan was trying to pressure him into hiring an acquaintance and former employee.

The independent task force was formed by Gov. Pat Quinn last month as a means to "analyze and revamp the mass transit system in Northeastern Illinois" following intense media scrutiny of the patronage scandal.