Shortly before the outcry over a contract paid to an aide’s PR firm and a number of raises given to people in his department and others, Stroger spoke with the Chicago Current about his goals for the next six months.
He says he'll focus on implementing the county's new OPTIMA efficiency program, improving compliance with the Shakman accord and keeping calm at the County Board.
“The biggest thing we’re working on right now that will affect the government for years to come is OPTIMA,” he says. “It’s all about efficiency, and how do we bring more efficiency to the government.”
Unveiled in December, the program seeks to streamline the county’s operations by improving technology, identifying areas – like human resources – where efforts can be centralized or shared, and where revenue can be generated. The program has been years in the making, and officials predict it will save $300 million over the next three years.
“That’s a large chunk of money, but we know it can be done,” Stroger says.
Cleaning up hiring
Stroger has taken his lumps when it comes to adherence to the Shakman accord, which prohibits politically-motivated hiring and firing.
His administration has seen a steady drumbeat of violations and settlements, and a seemingly endless line of questionable hires.
The latest involves criticism of raises doled out to staffers, which may violate a pay-raise freeze enacted by commissioners in December.
But Stroger says his administration has done all it can to adhere to Shakman. He adds that the amount of money the county pays in settlements -- $3 million between 2007 and 2009 -- is absurd.
“We’ve been doing a good job. I’m not going to complain about our side," he says. "I just think it’s ridiculous to be paying that kind of money."
The payouts grate, Stroger says, because evidence of violations is scant.
“There (doesn't) have to be any proof,” in order for a Shakman case to proceed, he says.
Some see Stroger's lack of an ambitious agenda as an indication that the president, who resigned his 8th Ward committeeman spot in March, is bowing to party leaders and keeping a low profile.
“They want Todd Stroger not to be a factor in the election, and not have (Democratic nominee for County Board president Toni Preckwinkle) have to apologize for anything,” says longtime political observer Russ Stewart. “Right now he’s beyond a lame duck.”
Politics in the future
And while Stroger’s reign atop the County Board is winding up, he says he still has a future in politics.
“No, I’m not done with politics,” he says. “I still believe in the system and if people don’t participate and aren’t active in the sense of what’s going on out there, whose running, what they issues are, you lose out. I’m going to be active, just not on the same level.”
One thing he is looking forward to is more family time.
“It was three years of being in election mode. That kind of pressure is gone. I get to take my kids to swimming and things of that nature,” he says. “I was always home late … but it’s changed. I get to do more with them. Those three years were more like three years of an election.”
"Goo goo" gets in the way
As commissioners have clamped down on what they see as profligate spending and hiring, Stroger has been a lightning rod for criticism from good government types. But Stroger says their complaints hold no water.
"It's all that goo goo, we are looking from the outside trying to tell you what’s going on, but we don’t care what’s going on in the inside type of thing," Stroger said.
Stroger said efforts by good government advocates like the Better Government Association and the University of Illinois at Chicago's corruption research team, headed by Professor Dick Simpson, are missing the picture.
Simpson and BGA executive director Andy Shaw released a report in February detailing a history of corruption in Cook County, describing what Simpson called "a pervasive pattern of corruption."
The report noted 151 convictions stemming from corruption since 1958. Most of those were netted in Operation Greylord, a three-and-a-half year long sting in the 1980s that exposed vast corruption in the judicial system.
"The smaller number is just the regular day-to-day people. Every once in a while someone will try to steal some money and we catch them and they get convicted," he says. "There is not a widespread amount of corruption."
In April, Republican nominee for County Board president Roger Keats said he wanted some of the reforms suggested in the report made into county law. Simpson said he was disappointed Stroger had yet to commit to adopting the suggestions.
But Stroger says some of those reforms have already been put in place, including strengthening the independent inspector general, and others aren't the responsibility of the county.
"If you look at most of these reformers who stand up and pretend they know what they’re talking about, 80 to 90 percent of what they want to do happens in Springfield," he says.