BY WHITNEY WOODWARD Sun-Times Springfield Bureau
\n 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.
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\n “Let’s just say some of the pieces had sustained some battle scars,” Giannoulias spokesman Scott Burnham said.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
The shipment included new office chairs, two couches and a credenza for the treasurer’s second-floor office, Burnham said.<\/p>\n
“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.”<\/p>\n
One Topinka staffer said he wasn’t surprised Giannoulias had to dump some of Topinka’s old wares.<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
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.”<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
“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.”<\/p>\n
Topinka defends dog
\n But Topinka took issue with the claim that her dogs caused any damage.<\/p>\n
“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.”<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
“The bottom line was that the furniture was old, and it was clearly showing its age,” Burnham said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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