In a letter to the DHS Inspector General, Representative
Mike Quigley and Senator Mark Steven Kirk expressed concerns
about the vehicle used by the President of the Cook County Board
of Commissioners being equipped with Project Shield equipment.
They were concerned that these funds should be used for
emergency responders, not for executive transport.
According to Cook County personnel, Homeland Security funds
were used to retrofit the vehicle with communication equipment.
The rationale for installing this equipment was that the President of
the Cook County Board of Commissioners needed access to
current information to make real-time decisions during emergency
events in the county. We found no specific grant guidance that
would disallow this cost.

Conclusion
FEMA, the State of Illinois, the Urban Area Working Group, and
Cook County did not ensure the effective implementation of
Project Shield. The lack of planning was evidenced by faulty
equipment, questionable locations for the equipment, and inability
to integrate with existing communication equipment. The mobile
video systems were not adequately tested to ensure that they could
be operated effectively during an emergency. Project Shield
expenditures were not adequately authorized, supported, and
verified. The weaknesses can be attributed to Cook County’s
inadequate management of the project, as well as the ineffective
monitoring by FEMA and the State of Illinois.

Project Shield was previously conceived by Cook County officials and begun in 2004. The objective of the project was to provide situational awareness through audio, video and data communications from police squad cars back to their department headquarters, as well as to the County and to deploy fixed site-cameras at various locations.

Quigley was first elected to the Cook County Board of Commissioners in 1998. During his tenure he has gained a reputation as a reformer as he opposed tax hikes supported by Cook County Board President John Stroger, and later his son and successor Todd Stroger. He contended the county could operate more efficiently and he presented reports to support the position. Quigley also challenged the practice of finding jobs for Democratic officials with the Cook County Forest Preserve District

Kind of a consolation prize I guess, akin to the Goracle getting a Nobel Peace Prize and an Oscar after losing to GW Bush. But I digress.

Stroger gives Turner, currently a state legislator, a SECOND JOB, which will boost his pension bigtime, at a time when Illinois is in JUNK financial straits, due to HUGE UNFUNDED PENSION LIABILITIES. Oh, and the job is to clean up a corrupt program.

All this while the Blago trial is going on.

Oh and lots of murders this weekend. Get this:

The feds emphatically deny they’ve abandones the city. They say those corruption trials make big headlines and give a false impression that everything else is being neglected.

But others believe that perception is reality, that too much money is being spent sending crooked politicians off to Club Fed; too little sending gang-bangers to super-max.

By most accounts, the trial of Rod Blagojevich, is costing taxpayers tens of millions of dollars. So did the prosecution of George Ryan — one former Governor in jail, another who may be on his way. While in the inner city, the street gang violence has reached epidemic proportions.

“Whatever Blagojevich did or didn’t do, it didn’t cause our children being murdered and drugs wreaking havoc in our communities, nd gangs wreaking havoc in our communities,” said Father Michael Pfleger of St. Sabina’s Roman Catholic Church.

Oh shut up Father Pfleger. I’ve never said that to a priest before but I’ll make an exception in your case. Talk to your best buddy Barack the community organizer.

Read more at Backyard Conservative

Andrzejewski & Mullins.

I call my WLS radio show “Political Shootout” for a reason. It’s not a meandering, everybody-agree-with-everyone-else variant of the WTTW’s deadly boring “Chicago Week in Review” but is immediate and spontaneous with two participants who feel strongly about issues and tactics. Last night they were Adam Andrzejewski, once a long-shot but distinctly fast-rising populist conservative Republican contender for his party’s gubernatorial nomination…and Eugene Mullins, spokesman for Todd Stroger, brilliant, equipped with street smarts as a former police sergeant and also intellectually with a handful of graduate degrees. I worked up a sweat keeping them apart during the broadcast and the public learned much about state and Cook county politics from them.

My conclusions: Andrzejewski is definitely not a mere flash-in-the-pan. I tossed a few fast balls at him…asking how he could justify balancing a state budget that is an estimated $10 billion in the red by merely eliminating the old canards of waste, fraud and abuse. He ticked off a number of heavy programs he would eliminate. If he was limited at all, it was because Republicans in the legislature have been shut out of the process where they can verify the myriad of money stashes that Adam maintains can translate his blueprint into reality. We’ll see if he’s right but he’s a major contender: young, exceedingly articulate and endowed with a fighting nature.

Gene Mullins has the tougher job since the media are all over his boss but with 55 years in this business I have not seen his forensic equal since I watched a young, bristling Hubert Humphrey make an electric bid for mayor of Minneapolis…which started him down the path to U. S. Senate, vice president and presidential candidate.

It is intriguing to note that the flurry of Democratic challengers to Todd Stroger…three of them-Alderman Toni Preckwinkle, Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown and Congressman Danny Davis-may combine to return the powerful Cook county board presidency to the Irish Daley-ites by splitting the black vote and allowing Terrence O’Brien, president of the Water Reclamation Board, to get in. That’s no great concern of mine as a Republican but methinks I see a strategy in the Dem slating committee under the thumb…as everything else is…of Mayor Daley tossing the prize to the winds where-guess what?-another Irishman can triumph. And don’t think that isn’t the plan. With his ever-higher taxes and the outlook for a sharply higher property tax to pay for the Olympics, blacks and the poor will have to move out to blue-collar suburbs…leaving the Daleys and the Irish in control as fifty years ago.

Which means we’ll have a reprise of…what? Devil in the White City.

Of course the black challengers to Stroger are far from Class A themselves. Preckwinkle has Rezko ties…Brown? When she ran against Daley for mayor she had everything-superb credentials: an MBA and law degree-but was unable to master the issues which she’d get from merely reading the paper. Result: you figured she was a “ringer.”

And of course Danny Davis whose specialty is a Hammond organ voice with which he can read the Chicago telephone directory…running his tones up and down (me-me-me-me) from whisper to stentorian blast. His basso profundo is so resonant that you forget that no substance comes out. The other day he said we must have universal health insurance regardless of the cost-no matter if it’s even double what Obama’s people have based their price tag. “Damn the Cost Davis” is what he goes by. Nothing would so improve Ways and Means as his leaving it but if people are worried about taxes now, with “Damn the Cost Davis” as board president it’d be full steam ahead.

His rich baritone commands attention but when you hear it for a time you understand it is an instrument unconnected to thought…Davis occasionally giving the impression that he would like to shut it off but he just can’t. It just rolls on…and on…and on like Old Man River (which he would do a great job on)…either that or playing the role of De Lawd in a revival of Mark Connelly’s 1937 “Green Pastures.”

**
Tom Roeser is the Chairman of the Editorial Board of the Chicago Daily Observer

Oh well, when you have a basso profundo voice that makes audiences think they’re going to hear something memorable even though it never strays from ultra-liberal boilerplate maybe you can get away with it…especially if you’re in a solid black bloc district where you don’t have to try to exert yourself except to go chuckle-chuckle and roll a few Wurlitzer-style organ-sounding phrases of meaninglessness. And easy-going…v-e-r-y easy-going Danny (meandering while he goes chuckle-chuckle) doesn’t exert himself doing anything, believe you me.

Bowman’s story hit me first hand because some years ago I was host for the Congressman at a City Club function. Earlier, knowing his reputation we checked and double-checked but notwithstanding our diligence he never arrived. No excuses, no sorry-he-couldn’t-make-it. Nothing. Just Danny, that’s all (chuckle-chuckle). He reportedly has filed for president of the Cook county board and also for reelection to Congress-where this chronically under-prepared individual serves as member of…God help us and the United States of America…the Ways and Means committee.

Which leads us to some other noble Dem challengers for the board presidency such as Alderwoman Toni Preckwinkle who once had Tony Rezko as fund-raiser. This Democratic party really has a full bench of effective challengers. My bet is that Todd will mow them all down…and well he might since they’re all nonentities. The liberal media can’t understand but the only change that can come is from the Republicans.

**
Tom Roeser is the Chairman of the editorial board of the Chicago Daily Observer

Listen Live Here

Join the fray.  Call in to 312-591-8900

Todd Stroger more than adequately represented himself to the listeners and callers of the Worlds Largest Radio Station to prove that he has the political heft to run Cook County.   One may disagree with Todd  Stroger’s actions as Cook County Board President, but he certainly has shown a willingness to participate in the democratic process that has eluded the rest of the Chicago Political Establishment.

We’ll reserve the third cheer (Hooray!) till the day that President Stroger drops his painful sales tax hike, but until then 2 out of 3 is real accomplishment for a Chicago Politician.

Audio to follow

Why bother speculating, just talk to him yourself.  Call in’s are welcome at 1-312-591-8900

“Why do an exercise in fertility?” he asked Don and Roma. “If they don’t really care about what happens? If they don’t think they need the money, then say nothing and we’ll just let it happen. But somebody’s gotta do something.”

More at Huffington Post

First, the sun will rise tomorrow morning.

Second, Todd Stroger will not be Cook county board president after December 2010, when his term expires.

Stroger, a black Democrat, personifies the “Peter Principle,” which avers that people rise to their level of incompetence, and no further. Adjectives like clueless, hopeless, abysmal and horrendous usually describe Stroger’s two-year reign of error. “He’s an embarrassment,” said county Commissioner Tony Peraica. “He doesn’t tell the truth. He hires political hacks and family. He has no credibility, and no moral authority to govern.”
Stroger, who occupies his post due to his DNA, deserves credit for establishing the “Todd Principle,” which avers that incompetent people precipitate massive dysfunction, infecting all aspects of their domain. Without question, Cook County government is dysfunctional.

“He’s (Stroger) a nice man,” said Toni Preckwinkle, a black alderman from Chicago’s Hyde Park 5th Ward, who has announced her 2010 candidacy for board president. “But it’s not the job for him. He’s damaged and crippled the reputation of (county) government. It’s time to professionalize it.”

Preckwinkle said she will build a “coalition of progressives, Latinos and women,” and will stress “reform in health care, criminal justice and forest preserves.” She added: “We need more alternative sentencing, more diversion. It costs $40,000 per year to keep somebody in jail.”

Also running is white County commissioner Forrest Claypool, who got 46.5 percent in the 2006 Democratic primary against John Stroger, who suffered a stroke  ten days before the primary – evoking a sympathy vote, particularly among blacks. Claypool had raised $2.4 million, and was poised to unleash a nasty TV campaign. Had John Stroger not been incapacitated, he would have lost. The vote was 318,634-276,682, a Stroger margin of 41,952 in a turnout of 595,316.

In August 2006, the ailing Stroger resigned his nomination, and Democratic committeemen, at the behest of Mayor Daley, named young Todd, the 8th Ward alderman, as his dad’s replacement. Media outrage was considerable. In the ensuing election, Stroger beat Republican Peraica with just 52.9 percent. It’s been downhill since.

A March poll by Bennett Petts Normington, paid for by the Service Employees International Union, had Claypool ahead with 27 percent, to Stroger’s 21 percent and Preckwinkle’s 16 percent, with 36 percent undecided. That’s a horrendous showing for Stroger. Among blacks, Stroger led Preckwinkle 26-24 percent.

With the Democratic primary set for Feb. 2, 2010, this much is clear:

First, it’s all about Todd — a referendum on him. If the SEIU poll is accurate, 79 percent of the respondents are either anti- or non-Stroger voters. In 2006, John Stroger got 53.5 percent, buoyed by a huge black turnout, but hardly a resounding ratification of his 12-year tenure.

Second, blacks comprise slightly more than 40 percent of the countywide Democratic primary vote. In 2006, John Stroger got 154,352 votes (84.3 percent) in Chicago’s 20 black wards, to Claypool’s 28,801. In 2010, half or more of the black vote may gravitate to Preckwinkle.

Third, in 2006, John Stroger, with support from white ward committeemen loyal to Mayor Daley, got 39.7 percent the outlying white vote.  In the ten white Northwest Side wards, Claypool won 48,803-19,566 (71.4 percent); in the five white Southwest Side wards, Claypool lost 23,429-28,054 (45.5 percent). That won’t happen in 2010. Todd is damaged goods, Preckwinkle has no appeal, and Claypool will win the white ethnic wards with 70 percent.

Fourth, in the six wards along the north Lakefront, where Claypool beat Stroger by 26,352-11,293 (70 percent), Preckwinkle’s liberal record and gender will have considerable appeal.

Fifth, Stroger won the nine Hispanic-majority wards by 18,802-15,752 (54.4 percent), but Todd won’t replicate that feat.

And sixth, the real contest in 2010 will be between Claypool and Preckwinkle to apportion the anti-Stroger vote. The target is 40 percent.

In 2006, Claypool won the suburbs by 133,545-86,567 (60.7 percent), in a turnout of 220,112. Preckwinkle will cut into Claypool’s margin in such liberal enclaves as Evanston and Oak Park. Black committeemen in Maywood and the south suburbs will back Todd. At worst, Claypool will get half the suburban primary vote, or 115,000 votes. Stroger and Preckwinkle will get about 60,000 apiece.

In 2006, John Stroger won Chicago by 232,067-143,137 (61.8 percent), in a turnout of 375,204. The Lakefront votes Claypool loses to Preckwinkle will be offset by 2006 Stroger white votes that he recovers. Claypool’s base Chicago vote will be in the realm of 130,000-140,000, with Stroger and Preckwinkle dividing the remaining 235,000.

The bottom line: If it’s Claypool-versus-two-blacks in a 600,000 turnout, Claypool’s 250,000-plus votes (42 percent) are enough. But if another white, like County Commissioner Larry Suffredin, runs, or if Stroger retires, the dynamics change. In a one-on-one against Claypool, Preckwinkle, with her base among blacks, white liberals and females, would be formidable. Suffredin would drain suburban votes from Claypool. If Stroger quits, black Clerk of Circuit Court Dorothy Brown could run. As of now, Claypool looks like the winner.

A Claypool win would have an impact on Chicago’s 2011 mayoral race. Claypool was a former Daley chief-of-staff, and is no Daley critic. But blacks would be incensed. The Strogers, both Daley allies, comprised a firewall. Daley could point to a black face in charge of county government. If both Stroger and appointed U.S. Senator Roland Burris lose, then Preckwinkle, alderman since 1991, would likely run for mayor, as might Brown, who got 20 percent in a 2007 mayoral bid.

The “dysfunctional” rap on Todd Stroger has definite racial overtones. Some whites view Stroger’s regime as symptomatic of the black family. Busboy Tony Cole was hired last October as a secretary for Donna Dunnings, Stroger’s cousin and the county’s $175,000-a-year chief financial officer. He had a criminal background.  He was arrested twice since October, and bailed out by Dunnings both times. After his second arrest, he was promoted to a $61,000 highway department job. While in jail, Cole got paid. When revealed by the media in April, Stroger fired both Dunnings and Cole, denying he knew of Cole’s history. The Illinois State Police’s background check on Cole was submitted in December. Stroger said Dunning wasn’t really fired, but was planning to resign, a charge she denies.
Many voters have now concluded that Stroger is not only dumb, but deceitful. There’s other baggage:

* The county budget is $3 billion, and hasn’t changed much in three years. Yet Stroger in 2008 insisted on a one-cent hike in the county sales tax, so as to raise $380 million in revenue. Now the Toddler wants to reduce the sales tax by 25 percent, saving consumers a quarter on every purchase of $100. “We didn’t have to raise” the sales tax, said Peraica. “We could have cut spending.”

For fiscal 2009, Stroger sparked outrage when he proposed to borrow $220 million to cover ordinary expenses, and $104 million for pensions. The Board voted to cut spending, not hike bonding.

* The Friends and Family Plan. “It’s nepotism at its worst,” said Claypool. Stroger’s cousin, sister, two brothers-in-law, campaign manager, father’s doctor (who gets $310,000 to run County Hospital), and a slew of boyhood friends all have high-paying county jobs. According to Peraica, Stroger “spends $2 million on public relations,” including $100,000 for an aide to craft “message,” $96,000 for a liaison to churches and community groups, and $75,000 to his press “spokesman.” In 2008, Stroger hired another chum, police officer Gene Mullins, as his new $105,059 “press chief.” Stroger promoted Comptroller Joe Fratto to chief-of-staff, at a salary of $181,866; the new comptroller is John Morales, earning $165,000.

* In 2006, Stroger was diagnosed with cancer, which he concealed. In 2008, Stroger made all county employees sign a confidentiality agreement, barring disclosure to the media of any “inside information.” That’s not transparency.

“He’s (Stroger) kept his promises,” said Chris Geovanis, of the county’s Department of Communications and Public Affairs. “He cut the number of employees by 1,102 in three years. He held the line on the county’s property tax rate. He consolidated services, decreased spending, increased transparency, gave the Inspector General subpoena powers, and passed reforms regarding purchasing.”

She added that there’s been a “structural funding deficit for many years,” with $200 million each year in federal money “slashed by the Bush Administration.” Stroger, she said, has been “fiscally prudent.”
County government is tasked with three functions: Health services, operating Cook County Hospital and outlying clinics. Court services, providing security in the various courthouses and courtrooms, and policing the unincorporated areas. And staffing the Cook County Jail, and transporting prisoners. Most county residents have no need of, nor exposure to, these county “services.”

But all literate county residents have had considerable media exposure to Stroger’s antics since 2006. The majority deem him a dimwit, and county government as dysfunctional. He’s history.
____________________________________________________
Russ Stewart is a regular political columnist for The Chicago Daily Observer.