Friends Remember Longtime Auditor General Bill Holland
Former Auditor General Bill Holland speaks at a legislative hearing in 2014. Holland died this weekend at 72. (Photo: State Journal-Register)
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When Bill Holland retired as Auditor General in 2015, he received one of the rarest send-offs in politics: bipartisan acclaim.
Holland served as the state’s second Auditor General from 1992 until 2015, causing headaches for politicians in both parties, but was nearly universally praised for his professionalism and fairness.
Holland died Saturday in Seattle, Washington following a bout with cancer. He was 73.
He had moved to Seattle in recent years to be closer to his children and grandchildren.
Holland worked on House Democratic staff and later became Chief of Staff to Senate President Phil Rock before being appointed by the General Assembly as Auditor General. He was re-elected by the legislature to two additional ten year terms.
Jim Morphew, a longtime Springfield lobbyist and former staffer says he first met Rock in 1975 on House Democratic staff and the two became fast friends.
“When I walked in the door, he was guy I gravitated to,” Morphew said, recounting hours spent outside of the statehouse playing golf and racquetball and driving to Champaign for University of Illinois basketball games. “I think about all of those early times and appreciate how we were able to sustain it for all those years.”
Morphew says there was skepticism about Holland when he was appointed Auditor General, but Holland’s approach to the job proved skeptics wrong time and time again.
“I think there was a lot of skepticism about his ability to operate in a non-partisan way coming from a partisan office, and, quite honestly, one couldn’t be blamed for having that point of view,” Morphew said. “But, he proved everybody wrong time and time again. He called balls and strikes as he saw them, was very dedicated to the job, and treated his staff with respect and dignity.”
Dave Menchetti, a former staff counsel to Rock, now an attorney in Chicago, was hired by Holland in 1984 straight out of the Illinois Legislative Staff Internship Program.
Menchetti said Holland came from a different era of politics, earning respect from both sides of the aisle.
“He did it by being friendly and not being pedantic and appealing to people’s reason as opposed to their emotions,” Menchetti said. “He was about making coalitions and convincing people to do the right thing.”
Menchetti said Holland left a “fantastic” legacy in the legislature even before becoming Auditor General.
“Some of the bills passed into law during the time he was Rock’s Chief of Staff [includes] some amazing stuff,” Menchetti said. “They were bills Bill did. He would shepherd them across the finish line.”
Holland famously tussled with multiple gubernatorial administrations, ranging from Jim Edgar to Pat Quinn. He notably began to peel back the onion on some of former Governor Rod Blagojevich’s misdeeds in office, one of the first leaders in Springfield to raise alarms about Blagojevich’s gross mismanagement in the job.
“Even if it wasn’t Rod Blagojevich, regardless of who it was, that would be the way he would approach the job,” Morphew said. “He would be even-handed and would report his observations in the audit based on the facts. That’s the way he felt about the job.”
When he left the Auditor General’s office in 2015, it was to bipartisan praise, a nearly unimaginable feat in Illinois politics just ten years later.
“It was certainly a different era,” Menchetti said. “I would see him on the other side of the aisle talking to Republican senators quite often. It was an era of cooperation.”
Holland had three children and seven grandchildren, who, Morphew said, were more important than any job he had.
“They were all the apples of his eye,” said Morphew. “They’re all well accomplished kids and was very proud of them. As he should be.”
Menchetti recalled Holland had yearly end of session party for staff at his Springfield home near Washington Park, which, he said, observing Holland’s family and professional success, left him in great admiration of his then-boss.
“I was in awe of the guy, I really was,” Menchetti said. “It was really great to learn from a guy like Bill Holland.”