For a farmer’s son from the
tiny southern Illinois town of Cobden, Charles Joseph
Wilkins’ success in academics, business, and politics is
phenomenal. He has built a prestigious and lucrative career
comprising all three fields.
At Sangamon State University, which became
the University of Illinois at Springfield, Wilkins divided his time
between teaching business-management courses and assisting the most
powerful people at the university — first as faculty
associate to the vice president for academic affairs and later as
executive assistant to the school president, a post he held through
1988. University administrators waived the school’s policy
requiring a doctorate for tenure and full professorship, granting
Wilkins both despite the fact that his highest degree was a master
of government.
Outside the university, Wilkins has long been
active in politics, albeit mostly behind the scenes. The grandest
office he ever bid for was chairmanship of the Sangamon County
Democratic Party, a race he lost narrowly in 1986. Instead, he
helped run the campaigns of U.S. Sen. Alan Dixon; Illinois Attorney
General Neil Hartigan; Fred Lebed, in his bid for state
comptroller; and Jerry Cosentino, in his campaign for secretary of
state.
At Springfield City Hall, mayors of both
political parties have given Wilkins, who lives in Pleasant Plains,
influential positions in their administrations. In 1982, under
Republican Mayor Mike Houston, Wilkins served as comptroller. In
1987, under Democratic Mayor Ossie Langfelder, Wilkins helped shape
Springfield’s aldermanic form of government by training newly
elected members. Both Republican Karen Hasara, elected mayor in
1995, and Democrat Tim Davlin, elected mayor in 2003, appointed
Wilkins chairman of their transition committees. Both mayors also
put Wilkins in charge of committees to select chiefs for the
city’s police, fire, and utilities departments.
Although Wilkins retired from his university
post, he remains active in the community. In the past few months,
Davlin has appointed Wilkins to a new seven-member Veterans
Advisory Council and to the Economic Development Council.
Although most of his City Hall work had been
unpaid, he seemed poised to take on a key post at City Hall —
director of hometown security — in 2003. The transition
team he chaired created this directorship, and Wilkins drew up a
résumé emphasizing his “extensive experience with
Chemical, Biological and Nuclear weapons of mass destruction” and
his “training and experience in demolition with C-4, Semtex and
other specialized explosives.” When asked whether he was applying
for the position he had created, he responded, “Hey, if you want
to try to get me a job, go ahead!” Wilkins was considered by City
Hall insiders to be the frontrunner for this job, but the City Council,
facing a severe budget crunch, failed to fund it last year. This year,
though, the council voted to fund a homeland security director at a
salary of $80,600.
Wilkins’ state connections have been
more lucrative. For four years, 1999-2003, he had a
$40,000-per-year contract to advise the Secretary of State Police
Department, in addition to $35,621 from White’s office in
specific grants and contracts on which Wilkins served as project
director. Since 1999, he has served as one of three paid members of
the state comptroller’s Merit Commission, a panel that
decides employment issues for the agency’s nonunion
employees.
Fundraisers for the scholarship UIS
established in Wilkins’ name bring out representatives from
all of his power bases. The booklet promoting the scholarship
contains glowing letters from U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, former U.S.
Sens. Gary Hart of Colorado and Alan Dixon, Gov. Rod Blagojevich,
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, Senate President Emil
Jones, Speaker of the House Michael Madigan, and Comptroller Dan
Hynes.
In August, Davlin and former Springfield
Mayors Hasara, Langfelder, and Houston, along with the mayors of
Jerome, Southern View, Chatham, and Sherman, co-chaired a reception
at Pasfield House to raise funds for the Wilkins scholarship.
This article appears in Mar 31 – Apr 6, 2005.
