Council Disses The Toddler

By Kevin Robinson in News on May 14, 2008 2:50PM

The Cook County Board of Commissioners voted on Todd Stroger's picks to head up the "independent" health services board yesterday. Of his nine picks, they only approved six. Andrea Zopp, Jorge Ramirez, Quin Golden, Benn Greenspan, David Carvalho and Heather O'Donnell were approved by the board. It took two separate votes to approve O'Donnell, a policy director at the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability. Barbara Hillman, a union attorney, and F. Daniel Cantrell, an aide to U.S. Rep. Danny Davis (D-Chicago) were rejected, and Norman Bobins, former chairman of LaSalle Bank, withdrew his name before the vote.

Lester Crown, chairman of the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago said that the candidates that Stroger nominated lacked the experience to manage a large hospital system. “I think Norm Bobins's resignation really proves it dramatically,” Crown told the Tribune. The close vote over O'Donnell left critics wondering of there would be more withdrawals. "Todd Stroger's missed the boat on the type of board we need to attract – independent, professional CEOs who have proven that they can do a massive turnaround job like this," Commissioner Forrest Claypool told CBS2. The vote means that Stroger needs to find three more candidates from a pool of 11 and propose them to the county board. He has two weeks to propose new nominees. "I don't care what group he came up with. I truly believe the people on this board would be opposing them no matter who they are because they're appointed by Todd Stroger," said Commissioner John Daley.