County commissioners expressed disappointment today that the county continues to pay expensive settlements related to violations of the hiring protocols.
In the board’s regular meeting today - and exactly three weeks until the Feb. 2 primaries - it approved more than $416,000 in settlements for violating the Shakman decree. To date in the current fiscal year, Cook County has paid more than $1.1 million, and more than $3.3 million since the county signed on to the Shakman decree.
“When is this going to end?” asked Commissioner Tony Peraica.
Commissioner Earlean Collins railed against hiring violations and volunteered lead a team to turn the county’s hiring practices around in just six weeks.
“You want to talk about waste, that’s waste. We can come into compliance with the Shakman decree very simply,” she said. “That’s what I consider pinstripe patronage and corporate welfare. That’s what’s draining this budget, and you know it.”
Commissioner Joan Patricia Murphy urged an external audit of county employees.
Collins and others complained that the very employees hired to oversee hiring of county workers are themselves exempt from the Shakman decrees, since they are federal employees, albeit paid by the county.
Assistant State’s Attorney Patrick Driscoll said he thought the county could satisfy the court’s mandate of compliant hiring by the end of the year.