Cook County's 'Coffee Czar'? and the Alderman Ed Burke Connection

Prairie Stater reports:

Illinois Governor Pat Quinn may have taken some heat for hiring a longtime aide to be the state's $85,000-per-year "canoe czar" (before quickly backing off the plan) — but Cook County residents may be interested to know that their government has a "czar" of it's own.

A "Coffee Czar", that is.

Thanks to the county's new "Open County Initiative", which allows the public to search and view the county check register online, we identified $76,291 in checks that were paid to Elgin-based ACE Coffee Holdings, Inc. since December 2009. According to the company's Web site, in addition to coffee, ACE sells additional products, such as cups, lids, sports drinks, water, tea and snacks. Additional government entities with which the company has had contracts include the Illinois Tollway Authority, Community Consolidated School District 54 (Schaumburg), the Oak Park Township Senior Services Nutrition Program, the University of Illinois and the Illinois State Board of Education.

According to Illinois State Board of Elections Web site, ACE also has been an active political contributor over the past decade, contributing almost $30,000 to local politicians and political committees since 2000. The great majority of those contributions ($20,250, to be exact) have gone to political committees affiliated with longtime 14th Ward Alderman and Democratic Committeeman Edward M. Burke

For more on Alderman Burke, and this, and this. Who could forget this?