Rezko's wife: $38,000 Cook County Job to Do Hardly Nothing

ABC TV Chicago reports:

The corruption trial of Tony Resko is giving us new insight into how political appointments are made to many obscure boards and commissions in the state.

Those positions exist in nearly every level of government. In Cook County, some part-time jobs pay as much as full-time work.

Now the wife of indicted fundraiser Rezko is facing scrutiny for her attendance record on one such board.

Federal prosecutors portray Tony Rezko as the money man behind several prominent politicians. Chief among them is Governor Rod Blagojevich. But while the current governor was still a congressman, Rezko was raising big money for former Cook County Board President John Stroger. And that's when the late Stroger appointed his fundraiser's wife to a little known board that has now become a reliable source of income for the Rezko family.


During Tony Rezko's high-flying days as an international businessman, political confidant and fundraiser, the $38,000 a year salary his wife drew from Cook County wouldn't even cover the property taxes on the couple's Wilmette mansion. But these days, Mr. Rezko is in jail and on trial. He told a judge earlier this year he was teetering on bankruptcy.

His wife continues her work on the Cook County Employee Appeals Board. It decides on the fairness of firings for the roughly 6,000 non-union workers on the county's payroll. Last year, they handled 18 cases.

Now you know why Cook County has the highest sales tax in the country: it's expensive to hire connected people to do virtually nothing.