Cook County patronage beast will not die

Southtown Star reports:

You can shoot it, outlaw it and drive a stake through its heart, but political patronage in Cook County will not die.

There may be no better example than the Suburban Cook County Regional Office of Education.

In 1991, after years of lobbying by newspapers and better-government groups, the state Legislature passed a law abolishing the office of Cook County regional school superintendent as of June 1994.

Richard Martwick, the old regional superintendent of schools, had spent millions of tax dollars hiring no-show, do-nothing employees. Martwick himself could never be found at work, either. So he lost his job and his office was eliminated.

But by 1995, Republicans in control of both branches of the General Assembly decided to resurrect the office to serve the suburbs, but not Chicago.

They don't call it Crook County for nothing.