Results tagged “cookcounty”

Cook County Board President and local punchline Todd "The Toddler" Stroger is taking a page out of Mayor Daley's political playbook: holding the line on taxes. In a speech to county commissioners this week, Stroger touted his proposed $3 billion budget as maintaining the same level of service without raising taxes. "The executive budget I place before you is balanced, no delays of payment cycles, no long term borrowing to fund operations, no use of reserve funds to pay our bills. Likewise my budget plan for 2010 includes no new taxes, none," Stroger said. "Today, as our national and state governments face terrible deficits, and as many local governments in Illinois find themselves in dire financial shape, Cook County is relatively strong," he said. The proposed budget will actually increase spending by about $80 million, nearly four percent. Those costs include covering previously unmet obligations to employee pension funds, an increase of $35 million to the county sheriff's office, and $22 million in employ pay increases.

The Cook County Board of Commissioners has tried, and failed, several times to roll back the 10.25 percent county-wide sales tax. Yesterday, the Illinois General Assembly took a swing at it, as well. The legislation, which would have cut the sales tax from 1.75 percent to .75 percent, fell six votes short of passage. "This is going to really devastate all aspects of our government," Todd Stroger, who personally went to Springfield to lobby for the tax hike told the Tribune . "I'm trying to make the case for the county."

• Cook County Democrats decided to not endorse any candidate in the race for Cook County Board President.
• The Sun-Times investigates swelling pensions for some state leaders.
• Today in disturbing statistics: "1 in 10 Chicago girls reports date abuse."

One thing about Daley and his pals that you can count on is that they tend to know what they're doing when they say they will or won't do something. So it came as a bit of a surprise that 33rd Ward Alderman Dick Mell told the Tribune he would call the selection meeting to replace former Commissioner Roberto Maldonado sooner than Tuesday's meeting. The Cook County Board of Commissioners voted to roll back the sales tax increase in July, before Maldanado left the board to become 26th Ward Alderman. Stroger vetoed that bill, but it looked like the board might have the 14 votes it takes to override that veto.

In yet another shocking expose, it turns out that patronage workers (specifically those that are exempt from Shakman oversight) were given large pay raises between 2006 and 2009. Those workers, 28 forest preserve employees, had all contributed financially to the campaign funds of Cook County Board President Todd Stroger; his late father, former board President John Stroger; or the 8th Ward Regular Democratic Organization.

The state put the brakes on county spending for the Presidents Office of Employment and Training (POET) Tuesday, citing corruption and mismanagement of the funds. “POET has been a mismanaged agency for a long time,” said Republican County Commissioner Timothy Schneider of Streamwood. “This department has seen rampant waste, corruption and mismanagement for many years.” Earlier this year Shirley Glover, who oversaw the program, pleaded guilty to charges of stealing $100,000 and was sentenced to four years in prison. And in January of last year, three former POET employees were charged along with two ministers of conspiracy to funnel more than $2 million from banks and taxpayers for bogus training.

Conventional wisdom around Cook County is that Todd Stroger is toast in the next election. But voter sentiment might not be the only thing at play in the primaries. That's because, according to an investigation by the Daily Herald and the Better Government Association, county contractors have not only benefited from contracts that weren't the best price, they've also been making contributions to Todd Stroger's campaign. Of 11 contracts for professional services, only three went to the low-bidder, and all 11 went to politically connected businesses. Two contracts in particular stand out, according to the Herald, because they will be paid substantially more than the original price quoted:

Cook County Board President Todd Stroger made good on his promise to veto a second attempt by the county board to rollback the 1.75 percent sales tax by half a percentage point. Back in May the county board voted to cut the sales tax by the same amount, which Stroger also vetoed. Then, county commissioners couldn't muster the 14 votes needed to override the veto, leaving the sales tax hike, enacted amid much controversy and hand wringing last fall, intact. The sales tax increase has been so unpopular, county-wide, that a group of suburbs in the northwest have even voted to secede from the county.

It appears as if Cook County will sue the owners of Burr Oak cemetery in an effort to overtime costs in connection with the ongoing investigation at the graveyard. The county is seeking $326,000. The Sun-Times has more.

WBEZ's Rob Wildeboer brings us an interesting and all-too-familiar story of funding for court services - like drug court, mental health court and youth services court - being stuck in limbo. For three years, the county has allegedly been collecting $5 from court fees, which cost $135, to distribute to these court services. But a legislative hang-up is preventing that money from actually going anywhere, particularly to these court services, such as a mediation service provided by juvenile court Judge Michael Stuttley which allows a victim to meet face-to-face with an offender to settle differences. Stuttley tells Wildeboor, "If we had $80, 85,000, we could run the program and we have mediators who have been trained at no cost, no cost to us whatsoever, it's just the clerical expense of setting everything up that we're looking for." After doing a little math, Wildeboer discovers there should be roughly half a million dollars going to programs like Stuttley's. but the money's not getting there thanks to a legislative oversight. Check out the full story here.

Be sure to check Part 1 of the interview here if you haven't.

The hunt is on for Dr. Charles Flowers, the county's Regional Superintendent of Suburban Cook County Schools after a state audit showed that he may have misused county funds for personal gains. The office, which issues teaching certificates, approves school calendars and reviews school districts' finances in suburban Cook County, was deemed so useless that it was eliminated in 1994. A political deal in Springfield later resurrected it. Flowers, who's is the head of the office, is suspected of using tens of thousands of dollars in state money to hire relatives and pay for personal expenses. Included in the spending is a vehicle, furniture and personal cash advances.

The Chi-Town Daily News continues to be the best source we've seen covering the county's current mental and health care crisis. Establishing an oversight committee and having a pre-approved hospital vendor lists are just a few of the goals the new Cook County Health and Hospital Systems CEO wants to tackle. In his first public board meeting, CEO William Foley gave his three-, six- and 12-month goals for the health system Friday morning. Giving a time line for each plan, Foley said by Sept. 1 the health system will have reached an agreement "with a group purchasing organization, which provides pre-approved vendors from which the hospital can buy supplies," Chi-Town Daily News reports.

Just a refresher, the county commissioners responsible for the extra stream of sales tax dollars into a bottomless pit of waste are William Beavers (D-Chicago), Jerry Butler (D-Chicago), Joseph Mario Moreno (D-Cicero), Deborah Sims (D-Chicago), Earlean Collins (D-Chicago) and Robert Steele (D-Chicago). [Fox, via Beachwood Reporter]

Cook County Board President Todd Stroger has quit his waffling on whether or not he's going to veto a recent board decision to repeal a 1% sales tax increase, and has answered in the affirmative. Appearing moments ago on the Cliff Kelley show on WVON-1690, the Toddler told Kelley getting rid of the tax would harm funding of all public safety, treasurer, transportation, and health departments, and made the case for the vast amount of responsibility Stroger has running the county government, as well as talking about his general level of awesomeness. Stroger says he has determined that rolling back the tax now would create a deficit next year of $245 million, and "probably a half billion the year after that." He also claimed that the move to repeal was purely political and a way to embarrass him, and he "can't play politics when it affects people's lives, it's too important."

Paul Vallas, former Chicago Public Schools Chief, and current head of the New Orleans Recovery School District, said Sunday that he'll announce his intentions to run for Cook County Board President "very likely in the next two weeks." Vallas, who would run as a Republican, outlined his vision for county government in remarks on WGN-AM 720 over the weekend. "Clearly, county government is broken, and you just can't do a patchwork approach. I really think that you've got to dismantle and reinvent county government. You've got to deconstruct it before you can reconstruct it," he said. "In the absence of a viable two-party system, the only accountability you have rests in the U.S. attorney's office. That's accountability at the back end," Vallas said. "No one is ever held politically accountable." He then asked the rhetorical question "Preckwinkle who?" (Well, not really on that last one. It was satire.)

There are a variety of reasons one goes to Chicago’s Sexpo: pretty mostly naked people, the women’s lingerie show, adult entertainment networking or, oddly enough, legal counseling.

Is the Toddler feeling the heat from the recent (albeit symbolic) suburban vote to leave Cook County? Is he afraid that he's going to get his ass handed to him in the Democratic primary for jacking up county taxes and not delivering competent county services? That may be the impetus for his proposal to roll back county taxes by a whopping quarter of a percent.

Barrington, Hanover and Palatine townships voted to secede from Cook County Tuesday night in a non-binding advisory vote. There's been some debate as to whether this is actually feasible, and what the true motives behind the vote actually are. It's been pointed out that leaving Cook and founding a new county would be costly and burdensome to taxpayers, while supporters of the exodus argue that Cook County politicians are levying substantial taxes without delivering quality public services.

By a vote of 14-3 the Cook County Board of Commissioners approved a compromise budget of $2.9 billion that includes no new taxes and no borrowing for operations. The budget tha commissioners approved also denies about $37 million in spending that Stroger requested, and cuts health care spending by about two percent. Commissioners also agreed to spend an additional $294 million by the end of 2010 to fund construction projects and technology upgrades. That spending will require additional borrowing. Left unresolved is $104 million in employee pension costs. Those costs are a left over lump sum payment from a 2007 special employee buyout. Because the budget compromise rejects Stroger's plan to borrow $260 million to finance insurance and court costs, as well as the pension payments, future interest payments of $214 million were averted.

After an eight-hour marathon session, the Cook County Board of Commissioners reached a tentative budget deal. County commissioners closed a multi-million dollar budget hole in board president Todd Storger's proposal, banking on federal revenue that hasn't come through yet and doesn't deal with the county's pension obligations or a means to finance millions of dollars in construction projects. Nevertheless, last night's compromise sets the stage for approval. The budget plan was reached by making a series of cuts in Stroger's initial proposal and rejecting his plan to issue a bond worth nearly $400 million.

You remember Paul Vallas, right? He was Daley's CEO of the Chicago Public Schools from 1995 through 2001, until he left CPS amid criticism from the mayor and a new teacher's union leader who ran on an anti-Vallas platform. After coming in second to Blagojevich in the Democratic primary, Vallas left town to become CEO of the Philadelphia public schools. He's been running the New Orleans since 2007.

It's the end of the year which means we're all compiling our lists of best films, books, and Lil Wayne guest appearances. The American Tort Reform Association is no different as they have released their list of "judicial hellholes" where plaintiff awards by juries are considered much too generous.

The group says the hostility of civil juries to defendants drives away doctors and businesses and leads to what it calls tort deform.

Continue reading "Cook County Still A "Judicial Hellhole""

Anita Alvarez was sworn in as Cook County State’s Attorney this afternoon at a reception at the G.A.R. Memorial Hall at the Chicago Cultural Center. She is the first female and first Hispanic to hold the position. Alvarez has worked in the state’s attorney’s office for 22 years, and she most recently held the No. 3 job as Chief Deputy State's Attorney. She is also a native of Pilsen and graduate of Loyola and the Chicago-Kent College of Law. In February she beat five other candidates for the Democratic nomination, and in November she beat Republican candidate Cook County Commissioner Tony Peraica for the position.

 

The Cook County budget showdown is gearing up as county President Todd Stroger is expected to unveil his 2009 budget proposal today. Stroger has already put pressure on Cook County commissioners to approve a plan to borrow $720 million. The Stroger administration argues that the money is needed in order to keep the county afloat. Donna Dunnings, the county’s chief financial officer and Stroger’s cousin, told the Trib yesterday that massive layoffs are in store if the plan is rejected.

If you plan to make time with a hooker in unincorporated Cook County, there are a few things you should consider first. (If you're capable of thinking about anything besides the bulge in your pants?) The Cook County Board is currently considering a proposal that would impose stricter penalties on anyone attempting to pick up a prostitute. Currently those caught soliciting hookers are given a $100 fine and made to take a two-hour class in order to expunge charges from their record. Apparently this slap on the wrist doesn't deter repeat a offenders, so the new ordinance proposes a $1,000 fine, a vehicle impound and 100 hours of community service. Per Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart:

While the big party was in Grant Park, another historic win went down in Cook County last night as Pilsen native Anita Alvarez became not only the first female state's attorney in the county's history, but is also the first Hispanic state's attorney. With 93 percent of the results in, Alvarez garnered 69 percent of the vote to Republican challenger Tony Peraica's 26 percent; Green Party candidate Tom O'Brien had five percent.

Now that Early Voting Season has come to a close in Illinois, they've counted up the ballots, and a metric shitload of people turned out to make their mark. (Just the ballots have been counted - the actual votes won't be counted 'til election day.) ABC-7 reports that nearly half a million in Indiana, another half-million voters in Cook County, and about 285,000 in the collar counties all voted early, resulting in lines that had wait times of two hours in some cases. And we thought our ten minute wait was surprising a few weeks ago.

The Forest Preserve District of Cook County is offering wooden picnic tables for sale that have been used District-wide. These picnic tables have been treated with Copper Chromate Arsenate better known as (CCA) a chemical preservative. This chemical was pressure injected into wooden pieces to protect it from rot, fungi, molds, termites and other pests that can threaten the integrity of wood products. As of January 1, 2004 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) advised that CCA should no longer be used to treat wood.

The Cook County Sheriff's Department arrested 66 fugitives this weekend by setting up a phony stimulus-check-recovery store and tricking greedy, gullible criminals into turning themselves in. Around 5,000 fugitives were sent a letter saying the government owed them money, and that they should show up to "Tax Recovery Experts, Inc." to get their moolah. But that was just a front set up by the sheriff's department, and when the fugitives checked in, they were promptly arrested. The best part of this whole story? This was dubbed "Operation Rebate and Switch." [WBBM]