BY WHITNEY WOODWARD Sun-Times Springfield Bureau
SPRINGFIELD — Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias has removed from his office some of the last remaining signs of his predecessor, Judy Baar Topinka: her cigarette-stained chairs and smelly couches.
“Let’s just say some of the pieces had sustained some battle scars,” Giannoulias spokesman Scott Burnham said.
Giannoulias — now eight months into his first term — had $6,000 in “long-overdue” office furniture delivered to his Capitol office in August, Burnham said.
The shipment included new office chairs, two couches and a credenza for the treasurer’s second-floor office, Burnham said.
“There were desk chairs with cigarette burns,” Burnham said. “It smelled like smoke and dogs. Some of the stuff was pretty bad. … It needed to go.”
One Topinka staffer said he wasn’t surprised Giannoulias had to dump some of Topinka’s old wares.
“Judy’s office was the refuge for smokers. It was like a pool hall,” her former employee said, noting the ex-treasurer’s dogs also were frequent office guests.
Her pooches often lounged on the office couches, but the “menagerie of wild animals” didn’t “seem to have bladder control,” the former staffer said. “She had a staff who had to walk them [the dogs]. If not, they would find little surprises on the ground. They would leave their calling cards high and low in that office.”
Topinka said the furniture in her office was used but not abused. She said she tried to save money by not buying new pieces, if possible.
“We figured we could ride through, and if pieces went down, we’d replace them,” Topinka said. “To me, it would have just been a horrible expense. If a piece of furniture popped its stuffing, we’d reupholster it. We really played on the cheap.”
Topinka defends dog
But Topinka took issue with the claim that her dogs caused any damage.
“The Scottie does not shed, and it was not a problem,” Topinka said, in reference to Mollie McDoo, her Scottish terrier. “Other people had brought in dogs as well. Gov. Jim Edgar had brought in his, too.”
But for Giannoulias, the office face-lift was overdue, Burnham said. A couch in the treasurer’s office lobby was more than 20 years old.
“The bottom line was that the furniture was old, and it was clearly showing its age,” Burnham said.
