Report Confirms: Sex, Drinking, Sleeping At Work By County Employees

By Sean Stillmaker in News on Mar 26, 2011 7:00PM

Cook County Forest Preserve employees were hard at work in 2010 at the Cermak Aquatic Center in Lyons. An investigation by the Cook County inspector general found employees drinking, sleeping, having sex, giving alcohol to minors and skimming money on the job -- the taxpayer funded job.

The investigators secretly recorded about 120 hours of video at the pool complex from Aug.-Sept. 2010. In two months all of the above was recorded. Imagine what was going on before that.

The report found some employees under-reported cash payments and pocketed up to $5,000. At three of the aquatic centers more than 20 workers were paid more than $21,000 for lunch hours between 2008-2010, which were supposed to be unpaid. There was also $166,717 in overtime pay that was “without justification,” the report states.

There were 17 seasonal and full-time employees at the Cermak center caught in the probe. Employees directly involved have been terminated, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle said in a prepared statement.

This isn’t the first abuse by the aquatic center. The Cook County Forest Preserve is currently being sued by a Muslim family alleging they were racially discriminated against by the pool. The parents, who were not going to swim, were denied access because they were not wearing bathing suits.

The Cook County Forest Preserve as a whole has been in hot water lately. The police division have been accused of racial profiling and targeting Latinos. The department has a solid reputation of being a patronage dumping ground. Taxpayers have to shell out $555,772 over a hiring settlement from job seekers who said they were passed over for less-qualified, politically connected candidates.