Payoffs and Patronage Cook County Style

"I'll tell you, we don't use clout in our [hiring] system," Former Cook County Board President Todd Stroger told federal hiring monitor Mary Robinson in September 2009. Robinson appeared before the Board in order to present her report on patronage in the county.29

Hearing Stroger say that his administration does not use clout in the hiring process is difficult to take seriously. His comments came a few months after he fired Tony Cole, a former college basketball star with a felony record and no college diploma, from a $61,000 human resources job. That was only a few months after Cole was elevated from his busboy job at a restaurant to a $58,000 position as assistant to Stroger's Chief Financial Officer and first cousin Donna Dunnings, who reportedly had a romantic relationship with Cole and had bailed him out of jail four times. 30

Robinson presented her report 6 months after her predecessor, Julia Nowicki, quit the job, having received little cooperation from the Cook County Board. A former Cook County judge, Nowicki had tried and failed to get Stroger to provide a job description for each of the 500 "Shakman exempt" political employees the county can hire. 31 The 1983 Shakman Degree prohibits politically motivated firings and hirings of city, county, and state employees.

The county, Robinson said, actually had been "diligent" about instituting certain reforms to prevent illegal patronage hiring. Nevertheless: There are those who are not convinced that the days of patronage hiring for non-exempt positions are over, or that there will be any consequences for evading proscriptions of such practices. While some county policy makers and their agents are busy drafting and adopting and implementing appropriate policies, others are busy evading and frustrating and defying policies. 32

Some of the administration's tactics in this regard include providing test answers to applicants, waiving interview requirements, and ignoring criminal backgrounds.

In the wake of the Tony Cole case, Cook County prosecutors subpoenaed county financial records in a widening criminal investigation.33 Two other investigations uncovered unsavory patronage practices by the Stroger administration. A joint report by the Chicago Sun-Times and the Better Government Association revealed that even during the financial crisis, the 28 exempt forest preserve patronage workers who had been on the payroll since 2006 got sizeable raises in the following two years. Nine workers had their pay increase 19 percent or more. The average salary in 2008: $98,071. Most of the exempt employees were contributors to the campaign funds of Todd Stroger, his late father, former board President John Stroger, or the 8th Ward Regular Democratic Organization that John Stroger controlled.34

Furthermore, a joint investigation in 2008 by the Daily Herald and the Better Government Association determined that although Cook County officials insisted that professional service contracts were awarded based on who was best suited for the job, all 11 contracts "were in some way, large or small, tied to political donors." The companies that received the 11 contracts, worth $11.8 million, "accounted for $208,178 in campaign contributions to county officials, their relatives or funds they control." 35 In only 3 of the 11 projects - which ranged from expanding the parking lot at Stroger Hospital to modernizing county elevators - did the lowest bidder win the contract. This is the only group of county contracts that the law does not require to go to the lowest bidder.

Stroger, who supervises the Capital Planning and Development Department, took $47,920 in campaign donations from companies or employees that won business through personal service contracts. Commissioner Bill Beavers received $10,000 from a parking lot designer after he voted to approve its bid - the highest of three. Commissioner Deborah Sims, who received $9,028 from the 11 firms, voted to approve a $3.2 million garage contract to companies that had given her $4,265 over the years. This bid was nearly $700,000 more than the second-lowest one.36

"Cook County government and its hiring process lack both transparency and accountability," said Alderman Toni Preckwinkle (4th), the newly-elected Cook County Board President. "Too often, county positions are not filled by the most qualified candidates, but by the most politically connected ones. Political influence in the hiring process has obstructed the efficiency of County government and strained the morale of County employees."37