The Broken Promises of the Stroger Administration

By Kevin Robinson in News on Nov 22, 2006 2:50PM

President-select of the Crook County Board Todd Stroger is backing off a campaign promise to fire the county's controversial patronage chief, Gerald Nichols, who was suspended from his $114,000-a-year job in the wake of a federal probe. Stroger had vowed during the campaign to fire Nichols, and many expected him to do it immediately as a sign of commitment to reform. Instead, Stroger said Tuesday that he would lift the suspension on Nichols and bring him back on board to serve as an advisor.

Adding fuel to the growing flames of fraud and deception in Cook County is yesterday's news that County Commissioner Joseph Mario Moreno has been keeping lists of people who should and shouldn't be given jobs and promotions, based on their political work for his organization. Considering the level of corruption and general bad shit that Stroger (and his puppet master William Beavers) will be presiding over, we think these are bad signs, although they don't surprise us.

Chicagoist isn't sure how much sense it makes to bring on someone as a "trusted advisor" when you have publicly insisted that he will be fired in January. Both Tony Peraica and Mike Quigley have publicly denounced the move, to which Stroger arrogantly responded: "Maybe they ought to be president". Somewhere deep inside of us, there was a little idealistic voice that said we should give the Toddler a chance. That maybe he couldn't publicly renounce the policies of his father, but that once he was in charge he would change the course of Cook County and try to make things right. Obviously Stroger is the bald-faced liar that we suspected all along he would turn out to be, and can't be believed.

During the campaign, he released a promise to clean up the Juvenile Detention Center. You can read it here. We suggest that you print up a copy of it and keep it in a safe place, because this link probably won't be good much longer. And we are certain that this is one of the (many) promises that will be broken in short order.