Chicago Tribune Editorial - Todd? Bobbie? Danny?
Chicago Tribune Editorial - Todd? Bobbie? Danny?
Copyright © 2006, Chicago Tribune
Published July 5, 2006
Todd Stroger, who says he's qualified to be president of the Cook County Board, displays a knack for proving that he's not.
Last week, as reporters asked him how he'd deal with a 2006 revenue shortfall that could reach $80 million, Stroger answered, "You know what, I think they will have to handle that deficit this year." Not his problem. He wants the job next year. This year? This year is everybody else's problem.
Sorry, but that fleeting profile in cowardice didn't win you any admirers on the County Board. The widespread sentiment there is that if you want to preside over the 2007 budget, then you need to speak right now on how it should be structured. Because now is when the budget begins to come together for a fiscal year that starts Dec. 1. Do you want service cuts? Or layoffs of do-nothing employees? Or more tax increases?
The same goes for County Board member Bobbie Steele and U.S. Rep. Danny Davis, two other contenders for the throne: If you want to be the Democratic candidate for County Board president, you owe voters an explanation of your finance platform before your party's committeemen pick a ballot replacement for John Stroger.
As is, voters have no voice whatsoever in choosing John Stroger's replacement. Nor are those voters hearing competing visions for county government. The yammer from rival insiders now is all about politics--why each of the wannabes is the one who deserves to be anointed.
Todd? Bobbie? Danny? Sorry to disturb you, but this job is about more than politics and patronage. It's about running a $3 billion government. So tell us right now, where do you stand on these five crucial issues?
- As you watch federal prosecutors pursue hiring scandals at Chicago's City Hall and in state government, how will you reform a blatant patronage process that has burdened Cook County with thousands of political hacks?
- Do you support a broad package of ethics reforms, with a truly independent inspector general? Or should Cook County leave its slipshod ethics as they are until the federal courts parlay county corruption cases into strict reforms?
- Year after year, County Board members nod in belief like bobblehead dolls at phony reassurances from Bureau of Health officials that they've almost solved their revenue problems. (Pssst: Their financial operation is a complete disaster; better you should wait for the Great Pumpkin to fix it than fall for even one more of their bogus promises.) So: Will you overhaul a county health operation constructed to provide sweetheart jobs and contracts, but not to provide the best possible patient care?
- How will you streamline an obsolete and often redundant government that employs way too many people? What offices will you consolidate or wholly eliminate?
- Will you overhaul the county's juvenile detention center, a shameful warehouse for children that has been studied ad nauseam by grown-ups lucky enough to sleep in safe homes?
Todd, Bobbie, Danny, we realize it may strike you as inappropriate to interrupt Cook County's 2006 political festival with questions about the patronage honeypot you want to run. You may have ideas for reforming it. Let's hear them.
Copyright © 2006, Chicago Tribune
Published July 5, 2006
Todd Stroger, who says he's qualified to be president of the Cook County Board, displays a knack for proving that he's not.
Last week, as reporters asked him how he'd deal with a 2006 revenue shortfall that could reach $80 million, Stroger answered, "You know what, I think they will have to handle that deficit this year." Not his problem. He wants the job next year. This year? This year is everybody else's problem.
Sorry, but that fleeting profile in cowardice didn't win you any admirers on the County Board. The widespread sentiment there is that if you want to preside over the 2007 budget, then you need to speak right now on how it should be structured. Because now is when the budget begins to come together for a fiscal year that starts Dec. 1. Do you want service cuts? Or layoffs of do-nothing employees? Or more tax increases?
The same goes for County Board member Bobbie Steele and U.S. Rep. Danny Davis, two other contenders for the throne: If you want to be the Democratic candidate for County Board president, you owe voters an explanation of your finance platform before your party's committeemen pick a ballot replacement for John Stroger.
As is, voters have no voice whatsoever in choosing John Stroger's replacement. Nor are those voters hearing competing visions for county government. The yammer from rival insiders now is all about politics--why each of the wannabes is the one who deserves to be anointed.
Todd? Bobbie? Danny? Sorry to disturb you, but this job is about more than politics and patronage. It's about running a $3 billion government. So tell us right now, where do you stand on these five crucial issues?
- As you watch federal prosecutors pursue hiring scandals at Chicago's City Hall and in state government, how will you reform a blatant patronage process that has burdened Cook County with thousands of political hacks?
- Do you support a broad package of ethics reforms, with a truly independent inspector general? Or should Cook County leave its slipshod ethics as they are until the federal courts parlay county corruption cases into strict reforms?
- Year after year, County Board members nod in belief like bobblehead dolls at phony reassurances from Bureau of Health officials that they've almost solved their revenue problems. (Pssst: Their financial operation is a complete disaster; better you should wait for the Great Pumpkin to fix it than fall for even one more of their bogus promises.) So: Will you overhaul a county health operation constructed to provide sweetheart jobs and contracts, but not to provide the best possible patient care?
- How will you streamline an obsolete and often redundant government that employs way too many people? What offices will you consolidate or wholly eliminate?
- Will you overhaul the county's juvenile detention center, a shameful warehouse for children that has been studied ad nauseam by grown-ups lucky enough to sleep in safe homes?
Todd, Bobbie, Danny, we realize it may strike you as inappropriate to interrupt Cook County's 2006 political festival with questions about the patronage honeypot you want to run. You may have ideas for reforming it. Let's hear them.
posted by Carlos T Mock at 1:55 PM
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