Suspended Stroger Aide Returns to Work

By Kevin Robinson in News on May 12, 2010 2:20PM

(Soon to be former) Cook County Board President Todd Stroger is heading deeper into the "Screw It Zone." In the wake of Stroger's veto of an ordinance designed to limit his ability to spend taxpayer dollars and hand out raises at will to workers on the county payroll, deputy chief of staff Carla Oglesby, whom Stroger suspended earlier this month, returned to work Tuesday. Oglesby was placed on unpaid administrative leave after an investigation into charges that she commandeered a county contract worth nearly $25,000 for her publicity firm from Stroger. At the time, Stroger said he'd make a decision about Oglesy's future with the county after Inspector General Patrick Blanchard had finished his investigation. Oglesby is back, but Blanchard told the Tribune that the investigation "is active and it is ongoing."

County Commissioner John Daley said that bringing Oglesby back this soon is unusual. "Without an inspector General's report, how do you know it's resolved? Usually people wait, and after that you would make a determination of your course of action," Daley told the Sun-Times. Stroger spokesman Eugene Mullins says that Oglesby has served her suspension. "The president had initiated disciplinary action against Carla, she served that time, and now he wants her back to do the job she was doing before," Mulins told the Tribune. "I believe that she should not be back at work," Commissioner Timothy Schneider of Streamwood said. "Until we hear from the inspector general, she should not be here."