Calling a new Arizona law that targets illegal immigrants – or anyone who could be an illegal immigrant – Cook County Commissioners are set to discuss an ordinance that would cancel all contracts with Arizona-based companies.
The ordinance, introduced by Commissioners Joseph Mario Moreno and Edwin Reyes, was referred to the finance committee.On Friday, as leaders of the Cook County Health and Hospitals System approved a three-year $6.4 million contract for laundry and linen services, small businesses renewed claims that they're being pushed away. And this time county commissioners are joining them in complaining about the health system's use of a group purchasing organization.
The contract, with Cincinnati-based Standard Textile Co., Inc., is expected to save the health system 38 percent of its current contract with Lorain, Ohio-based Angelica Corporation. And health system leaders say a rebate program will net an additional $2 million.
But a growing clamor from county commissioners and small business owners illustrates that not everyone is comfortable with the health system’s use of a centralized group purchasing program, which health system leaders expect to save up to $20 million a year. So far, however, the health system has been unable to prove those savings. Read more...Cook commissioners declined to give the county's Health and Hospitals system the ability to tax residents, voting down a proposal that would have made the board more powerful.
Commissioner Earlean Collins, who introduced the measure, said empowering the health system to levy taxes would have helped it become truly independent.
“That way, it takes away all of the problems that people have in their perceptions of Cook County,” Collins said. Giving the health board taxing powers would be “the best way to do this, without all the shackles that come with Cook County, real or imaginary.” Read more...It’s unlikely we’ve heard the last of the sales tax debate. But for now, the sales tax is staying right where it is.
Commissioner Tony Peraica’s bid to axe the remaining half-percent of the 2008 sales tax hike was defeated by county commissioners at Tuesday’s board meeting. Commissioners in the finance committee voted 11-6 against the measure.
Voting nay were Commissioners William Beavers, Jerry Butler, John Daley, Bridget Gainer, Joseph Mario Moreno, Joan Patricia Murphy, Edwin Reyes, Deborah Sims, Robert Steele and Larry Suffredin. Read more...
Our January print edition featured an article about a bloc of candidates championing reform, transparency, term limits and pretty much everything else voters might hope for in Cook County government.
They included candidates for County Board, the MWRD and assessor. While voters may have waved goodbye to Todd Stroger, they weren’t quite ready to welcome in this crop of lesser-known contenders.
Not one of the upstarts we profiled in January came out victorious, despite their unified push and that the candidates, who published their bloc on their Web site, www.changecookcounty.com, garnered endorsements from the area’s major media outlets. Read more...
