Weekend Diversion: Night Of The Ponies
Pedway, First Store Open At Block 37
Around Town
Around Town
Red-Light Cameras Not So Special?
While Chicagoist was busy stuffing our faces with traditional Thanksgiving fare, another tradition of sorts was taking place here in our fair city. Taking her lead from the recent coronation of Todd Stroger as the the replacement of his father on the Cook County Board, interim President Bobby Steele announced that she wants her son, Robert, to take her place on the Board when she retires in early December. This is more than just a case of nepotism, though.
Having won another term as a County Commisioner in the most recent election, Bobbie Steele was set to step down from her role as placeholder for the Toddler and serve another four years as a County Commisioner. But with this announcement, not only does she have the power to hand her seat over to her son, for the next four years, she also stands to gain nearly $1 million dollars more in pension! Because of the complex way that pensions are calculated for public office holders in the County, her current pension will double to $136,000 per year, because it will be based on the board president's $170,000 salary, rather than her commissioner's pay. Funny stuff considering that she had told the Sun-Times in July that she had no plans to step down after serving as interim Board President.
"I don't want anyone to think that I'm a bandit and I'm taking something and running," said Steele, adding "I didn't make the law and if I become the beneficiary of it, it's by no doing of my own." Of course. It just happened that way. While shennanigans and playing fast and loose with the rules is certainly part of what makes this city what it is, Chicagoist thinks that things have gotten a little out of hand in Cook County. Maybe if the County was operating at a surplus in its budget, and social services for the working poor in the county were something that we could all be proud of, we could look away, and let it go. But with the amount of human suffering going on in places like the Juvenile Detention Center, we don't think it's fair to the taxpayers of Cook County, let along the people that get caught up in the system, to do anything less than try and clean up the utter disaster that county government has become. Perhaps most depressing in this entire situation is knowing that the so-called leadership in county government has made it their life's work to hold on to power by claiming to be working for the best interests of their constituency, (the black community) while doing the very things that are so fundamentally damaging to the most vulnerable part of that community (young black men).
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Kevin, love your Cook County Board posts. If journalists continue the scrutiny, voters will be able to make informed choices next time around, with better candidates -- and perhaps the crooks won't be so brazen about putting their hands in the till.
I hadn't heard about Steele's decision; thanks for posting. Geez. Just when you think it can't get more embarrassing for the county government... (Now, for the next post, can you please just learn how to use the word "its"?)
John: Thanks! I don't hear that enough ....
ce: Yeah, for a writer, my grasp of the English language is woefully inadequate. That's what happens when your copy editor goes on vacation.
if she doesn't want anyone to think she's a crook, then why did she admit to this [didn't even really announce it] on thanksgiving, when no one is paying attention to the news? like mike quigley said, it couldn't have been more quiet if she had announced her intentions at the women's washroom at 3am...
and the whole 'it's a black thing' argument, as her and the strogers' defenders would say, is absurd, since the only black people that black politicians in cook county care about seem to be those in their own families who they can give jobs to. i hope that quigley and claypool and peraica eat toddler and bobbie's baby alive - they deserve it.
That's what happens when your copy editor goes on vacation.
Chicagoist HAS a copyeditor?
james: You have hit on one of the main sources of frustration that I have with this whole gang in Crook County. They circle their wagons and act like they are standing with poor black folk, when they really are just out for themselves.
Shallot: It's true! And he actually does a really good job. I just don't do such a good job of spell checking and proofreading. My copyeditor has made me lazy ....
is there anything private citizens can do about this? a class action lawsuit of sorts? a referendum? call lisa madigan? petitions? protest? ???? you see what i'm getting at? short of using our voting power, is there anything we can do to stop this sort of thing?
Seriously. Who wouldn't soak their pension for all it is worth? ...now on the subject of "appointments" to incomplete terms, I'm totally with you.
No Comment (silently snickers at all the democrat voters)
Boy oh Boy, those Daley's boyz are pretty smart!
We all knew this whole Cook County Mess would happen and it was spelled long before it happened. Nothing like good wholesome honest government, it just does not happen in Chicago. Next, oops, we need to raise taxes!
What I don't understand is that the citizens are outraged about the abuses in Crook county but the corrupt politicians continue to win elections. The fact of the matter is that there are a lot of stupid stupid people in cook county. The stupid people vote early and often. I vote every election but none of the 'reformer' candidates seem to win.
The only hope, and I mean ONLY hope, is that the Feds will start indicting the County board members. They're the only entity with the power to stop this madness.
Today I read in the Sun-Times that they obtained a recorded voicemail of a board member and he was basically giving away county jobs to his cronies. The Sun-times forwarded the message to the FBI! If I were that board member, I'd be scared as hell! It's just a matter of time before heads start rolling at county hall!
Don't forget that it was former Sen. Peter Fitzgerald, a republican, who appointed U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, who has become our only hope in Illinois. If Sen. Fitzgerald hadn't sacrificed his career, nothing would have happened in the past eight years. Ryan would have never been convicted and G Rod would not be investigated as public official A. Instead, the Dems and Reps and their bipartisan combine of corruption are under scrutiny and indictments and convictions are pouring in. These politicians will continue their behavior because it's the only way they know how to operate. Remember that the next time you let wedge issues and "party loyalty" (read: irrelevant at the local, non-legislative level) cause you to vote for an arrogant and inexperienced machine plant who will raise your taxes and continue with the business as usual waste and corruption that has numbed Cook County voters into an idiotic stupor of aw-shucks-dats-da-way-it-goes acceptance.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Fitzgerald