Why voters need to monitor leaders

It is one thing - and a sorry one at that - for Cook County to be the poster child for irresponsible taxation in election campaigns well beyond the county's borders. It is even more foreboding when an agency set up to presumably refute that reputation and protect the public's interest thinks it can shut out the public it aims to serve. And, it all adds up as a reminder of what happens when voters don't hold government accountable.

It's a matter of accepted fact that Cook County long ago established a virtually one-party government in which so-called regional representatives act in near lock-step with the dictates of the county board president. Less often discussed is the reason for this: suburban voters.

Shortly after Todd Stroger won his father's seat as Cook County Board president, Daily Herald staff writer Rob Olmstead did the math and showed how, despite a near-equal number of registered voters between the city and suburbs, city turnout at the polls is so overwhelming that the candidates supported by the suburbs are almost never elected.

So, the problems begin at the ballot box. And where can they lead? Consider the Cook County Hospitals and Health Systems, an agency set up by the Cook County Board to monitor public health spending. At a public meeting Sept. 26, the board discussed a budget but refused to say how much spending it called for, calling the document a "draft." Last Friday, the full board approved sending the budget to the county board president - noting only that spending was in the range of $1 billion (yes, that's one billion dollars) - but still refusing to indicate how many jobs this supported, what purchasing it called for and what specific health operations it funded.

Even were we inclined to make the patently gullible leap of faith that the board needed to keep the public in the dark for the public's own protection, we need only consider the Sept. 26 budget discussion to see the document's architect all but saying he had to work out the details with the county board president and the county finance chief (who happens to be the board president's cousin).

So, we find ourselves with a board established to independently monitor county spending not just refusing to disclose the spending it proposes, but also acknowledging that it has to clear the spending with the very people it is supposed to monitor. This, folks, is the kind of government we get when we stay home on Election Day and let others make leadership decisions for us.

Daily Herald Projects and Politics Editor Joseph Ryan described Monday how various legislative and local-government candidates outside of Cook County are attempting to make points by tying their opponents to Stroger and the policies of Cook County. Such tactics may not always be fair - as Illinois state politics amply demonstrates, a particular Democrat may not support a leader simply because they share a party.

But one lesson is patently clear. If we, the voters, won't insist our interests be preserved, the people who ascend to government won't do it on their own.