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Todd Stroger and his band of Merry Makers made a lot of promises during the last campaign, and now they are trying to carry through with at least some of them. Early last week Gerald Nichols had his publicly funded paid vacation (19 weeks of paid leave) end, when he was officially removed from the county payroll. But just because some of the highest-paid officials in the county have resigned, don't think that Stroger is passing the savings on to you. Even though he's made all that hullabaloo about slashing the county budget, he's still doing things the old-fashioned way: hiring his friends as well as his in-laws.
Meanwhile, while the county's elected officials scramble to cut their budget by 17% (including, in some cases, asking people to take as many as 10 unpaid days off each year), people that use county services are being asked to pitch into the effort — if indirectly. He's also released his plan to reform the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center, although he publicly announced that he is demanding the resignation of all exempt employees there (one of his key campaign promises). No word yet on the savings (if any) this will generate, but it's hard to imagine how improving mental health services, repairing aging infrastructure, and deeper oversight will be cheaper.
Considering that most of the sacrifice appears to come from regular front-line service providers and at the expense of the very people that use county services, we have to wonder if Stroger and his cronies are sticking it to the people that carried them into power in the first place.
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You're an idiot. There is no substance to anything you've said here. You just want to give Forrest Claypool some hot, sweet man-love. Hey, that's your thing. Have a great day.
wasn't it stroger's campaign people who said that if peraica were elected he'd shut down hospitals, clinics, etc.?
The Toddler has taken the easiest possible way out - instead of actually setting priorities and cutting out patronage and administrative fat, he's posturing behind an across-the-board cut.
I guess the demands of leadership are too great for him and his private elevator, relative-hiring, and no-balls-having style of presidency.
I hope Piccolo gets screwed by this as bad as the people who depend on the county for health care!
ARRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!! I hate Todd Stroger with the burning heat of a thousand suns!!!!! Must... contain... rage...
Yes, some of the budget cuts will be made by asking/forcing employees to take unpaid time off. But many regular, ordinary, non-patronage employees of Cook County are on the verge of losing their jobs altogether through layoffs.
These across-the-board cuts are lunacy. The new administration is avoiding the hard work needed to cut the budget in a rational manner. Or perhaps no one in the new administration is capable of doing that hard work.
Beware the deep cuts coming to Cook County health care and criminal justice.
If anyone thinks you can spare cutting the healthcare when it is 30% of the overall budget you're kidding yourself. It is just as foolish to think that you can "trim the fat" of the "paper pushers" and come up with well over $100 million from health. What makes everyone think having RN or MD makes you non-fat? Have you ever looked at the budget to see all the Chairman and Associate Chairman and Nurse Managers? It is easy to say there is fat. Where are the "fat chasers" plans? Its easy to run for President in 2010 on todays problems.