SPRINGFIELD - Though the head of the largest state agency denies that she and her aide hired chauffeurs to drive them from place to place, Illinois has a rich history of bureaucrats becoming ensnared in scandal.

From a state school chief transporting his dog from Springfield to Chicago on the taxpayer's dime to a top prison administrator using state workers to haul his prized exotic plants to a prison greenhouse, Illinois is rife with examples of state officials stretching the perks of their jobs to new limits.

One longtime political observer calls it "public relations stupidity."

"You'd have to be pretty dumb not to know this kind of behavior doesn't go over well with the public," said Charles N. Wheeler III, a former Statehouse reporter who now oversees the Public Affairs Reporting Program at the University of Illinois at Springfield.

The situation that has been unfolding at the Illinois Department of Human Services in recent weeks is just the latest in a long line of top bureaucrats getting caught up in what Wheeler calls "a case where ego gets in the way of common sense."

Carlos Estes alleges in a federal lawsuit that he and Eugene Davis were hired to serve as chauffeurs to drive the agency's director, Carol Adams, and her chief of staff, Teyonda Wertz, to appointments. Wertz has since been reassigned to other duties within the department.

Both drivers were paid more than $70,000 for their work. The agency says no rules were broken and that both men had duties besides driving.

The incident, however, isn't the first time a state official has been criticized for using a driver.

In 1997, former state school Superintendent Joseph Spagnolo admitted he had an Illinois State Board of Education mailroom worker drive his pet dog from Springfield to Chicago.

The incident unleashed howls of complaints.

Another state agency chief, Howard Peters, Illinois Department of Corrections director, found himself under investigation when he allegedly had state workers transport his prized tropical plants from Springfield to a greenhouse in Lincoln.

The 1996 probe of Peters was dropped after he repaid the $1,738 cost.

In the late 1990s, former Gov. George Ryan's prison chief flew into turbulence when it was revealed he used a state airplane to travel to his daughter's softball game.

Donald Snyder later repaid the state for the use of the plane. He also repaid the state $7,400 for using a state airplane and state car to attend political events.

Five years after Snyder's air travails, Gov. Rod Blagojevich's hand-picked director of the Department of Natural Resources agreed to repay about $2,000 for use of a state aircraft to fly to charity hunting trips in South Dakota.

Joel Brunsvold's use of the state plane and state helicopter came as the governor was laying off more than 100 workers at the agency.

Wheeler said it is surprising that such activity continues to happen, year in and year out.

"The fact that it might become public knowledge should be enough to make people think twice about doing it," Wheeler said. "It's the little things that people relate to."

State lawmakers, however, say they aren't sure whether they can do anything to put an end to these types of problems because they merely control the purse strings, not the day-to-day management of state government.

"I don't know how you can stop it," said state Sen. Larry Bomke, a Republican who represents the capital city. "It's really up to the governor to manage these things."

Kurt Erickson can be reached at kurt.erickson@lee.net or 789-0865.