Todd Stroger's Cousin Gets a Raise

By Kevin Robinson in News on Mar 25, 2008 3:00PM

Yesterday's Sun Times headline was all about the 12 percent pay hike Donna Dunnings - Todd Stroger's cousin and just one of many beneficiaries of Cook County's Friends and Family Plan - got out of the new 2008 county budget. When Stroger hired Dunnings, they both bragged that her salary would be far less than the previous CFO.

Yesterday afternoon, however, Dunnings and aides from Stroger's office weren't talking about saving money for taxpayers. Instead, they were reacting to the Sun-Times's article, complaining about how unfairly her pay hike was being reported. "This is not just about truth in journalism, this is about a larger effort by the Sun-Times to distort public opinion against this administration," Eugene Mullins, a Stroger spokesman told ABC7. "All we do is ask for fairness in reporting. That's all we ever ask for." Dunnings pointed out that the pay increase was listed as part of the proposed budget, and that commissioners could have submitted an amendment to block that increase, "if they were so concerned about the salary of the first African-American female CFO."

"This underscores Todd Stroger's arrogance," Commissioner Forrest Claypool told the Tribune. "Everybody seems to be doing poorly except for Todd Stroger's family."