Some readers have good memories.

“A while back you had an article,” said the caller, “about a woman who had scammed one of the universities in Illinois, in the south, out of money. I believe she was a bursar. And then she went on to get a job at the Secretary of State’s Office. She did the same thing there, she scammed them out of money. I would like to know if Jesse White had anything to do with hiring her and how did she get that job? I don’t like the idea that he’s allowed to appoint his successor. That shouldn’t happen.”

In May 2021 a federal judge sentenced Candace Wanzo to 18 months in prison and $72,500 in restitution for a nine-year scheme to pocket hundreds of thousands of dollars from her job and the Illinois Department of Revenue.

Federal prosecutors said Wanzo ended a department policy against accepting cash payments, then had her staff submit daily revenue to her in an unmarked envelope. She also devised a complaint form employees supplied to people who didn’t get the license plates or titles they paid for and collected those directly as well.

When an inspector general investigators searched Wanzo’s Springfield office in 2017, they found hundreds of license plates, at least 100 already bought but never sent. They also uncovered money orders and uncashed checks totaling more than $155,000.

Wanzo served a 15-month prison term on a 1993 conviction for embezzling $233,500 while working in the Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville bursar’s office. Yet the state hired her in 1999, and by 2016 she was earning more than $87,000 a year and racking up healthy pension benefits, now forfeited as a result of the conviction.

Bruce Rushton, of the Springfield-based The Illinois Times, did excellent reporting on the criminal proceedings and then continued to dog the state through Freedom of Information Act requests trying to access Wanzo’s personnel files in hopes of learning how she got hired. Although the actual details are scant, it’s safe to say White’s office didn’t perform even the basic due diligence that would’ve kept Wanzo from another spin on the public employment carousel.

Whether White hired Wanzo directly, he bears responsibility for approving her promotions, policy changes and continued employment, including a year of paid leave during the investigation and a timely resignation.

The reader erred in one key aspect: White won’t appoint his successor, voters will elect someone. But White recently endorsed Chicago City Clerk Anna Valencia over two Democratic primary opponents, which means she also deserves to answer for this scandal, since White has skirted public accountability.

This egregious lack of judgment stains White’s legacy and devalues his endorsement.

• Scott T. Holland writes about state government issues for Shaw Media. Follow him on Twitter @sth749. He can be reached at sholland@shawmedia.com.