In a lively, sometimes testy face-off between candidates for Cook County Board president, incumbent Todd Stroger defended his record, saying the county was in good shape and jabbing at opponents who suggested otherwise.
Stroger said he had kept promises made on the 2006 campaign trail, including giving responsibility of the juvenile detention center to the office of the chief judge, strengthening the county inspector general’s office, and maintain the county health system.
“There are a lot of things that have happened in the last three years that you’ll never know about,” he told a crowd of 300 at the Union League Club, taking aim at his foes and the media. “They never tell you about the great things that happen in the county. The county works very well.”
But the other candidates vying for Stroger’s office, not surprisingly, offered a different opinion.
On the Democratic side, they included Clerk of Court Dorothy Brown, Metropolitan Water Reclamation District President Terrence O’Brien and Alderman Toni Preckwinkle. Republican former state Sen. Roger Keats; and Green Party candidate Tom Tresser also attended the forum.
“I think we can all agree Cook County has some pretty serious problems,” Keats said. “If we’re going to get solutions to these problems, we can’t improve anything unless we attack the root cause, which is a pervasive culture of corruption in Cook County.”
But Stroger took exception to a number of criticisms of his leadership and events that have transpired under it. He said the county has become more transparent by putting the budget, among other things, on the Internet. He took issue with the idea that the county is a patronage bin.
Keats said the first thing he would do was fire 150 of Stroger’s family and friends, and replace them with 25 inspector general assistants. Stroger interrupted him
“Well you can’t do that. I don’t have 150 friends and relatives that work the county,” Stroger said.
Referencing his cousin, former county chief financial officer Donna Dunnings, who was fired following a hiring scandal, Stroger said, “She was a good employee who worked her way up the ranks. And if there’s something wrong with that, there’s something wrong with America.”
Moderator Andy Shaw, executive director of the Better Government Association, asked each candidate to recount a decision they most regret.
Brown said a program designed to process arrest warrants electronically was a mistake, and she ended the contract.
Preckwinkle said allowing a developer to build townhouses in her ward was a mistake, because it was not the best project for the ward.
“I let myself get beat up by my friends and neighbors and constituents,” she said.
Keats apologized for supporting the 1980 legislative cutback amendment, sponsored by then Illinois Sen. Pat Quinn.
“It dramatically increased the power of the legislative leadership,” he said, calling that the opposite intended effect. “That legislative amendment is one of the major reasons you don’t have any legilstors with guts down there.”
O’Brien said he goofed when awarding a low-bid contract for sludge drying to a company that has not lived up to expectations.
Stroger said he wished some county hires had come under more scrutiny.
“There were a few people I wished I’d learned more about before I hired them,” he said.
Tresser garnered some laughs when he recalled his biggest political snafu.
“It’s been my decision until recently been a lifelong Democrat,” he said, referencing the two wars and the city’s involvement in selling parking meters and its pursuit of the Olympics. “I realized I’ve been deluding myself.”