The Chicago Sun-Times reports:
Taxpayers, get out your checkbooks. President Todd Stroger is heading toward a showdown with the federal court monitor assigned to help root out patronage hiring in county government.
The monitor, former Cook County Judge Julia Nowicki, told commissioners this week that the county isn't doing nearly enough to meet a December deadline, when it needs to convince a federal judge that it is following the law and not injecting politics into hiring.
So far, Nowicki's work has cost taxpayers roughly $1 million. If the county fails to convince the judge that patronage is dead, Nowicki will be directed to continue her work -- and the meter will keep running for county taxpayers.
For his part on this, President Stroger is off to a miserable start.
First, Stroger blasted Nowicki's report on patronage hiring in the county. Then, he admitted he hadn't read it.
Asked this week whether patronage is still alive in the county, Stroger said, "Not that I know of."
And then he said, "If there is, it doesn't flow from me."
Seriously, that's what he said.
Nor did Stroger's allies on the County Board give Nowicki a warm welcome this week when she sat down to discuss her report. She was greeted with a lot of yelling and fist pounding, especially from Cook County Commissioner Joseph Mario Moreno.
But we understand why Moreno might be sensitive. Last year, when his sister lost a high-ranking job in the county's juvenile justice system, she landed another county job at the same pay -- about $88,000 a year -- within weeks.
Moreno also allegedly kept a clout list, tracking which political workers sought which county jobs and promotions -- the sort of thing that violates the law the county is supposed to follow. Moreno has denied doing this.
Here's more on Moreno from the Chicago Sun-Times in
2006A former aide to a high-ranking Cook County commissioner says she kept a secret "clout list" on the commissioner's behalf, detailing job opportunities for those with political ties.
Joseph Mario Moreno is accused of keeping records ranking people with grades -- A+ through F -- on how worthy they were to receive a job or promotion.
Of the 189 people named on the lists, about half have government jobs, or did in the past. Moreno personally delivered some resumes and personally met with elected officials and patronage chiefs about jobs, the records note. They show 31 landed jobs after they were added to the clout list.
and
Moreno is a loyal Machine Democrat who is close to Ald. Ed Burke (14th) and Commissioner John Daley, with whom Moreno shares county office space.
For more on Alderman Burke's Chicago read
this.
