Cook County Board takes up reforms

Reform figures to be high on the agenda of today's Cook County Board meeting, thanks to a couple of newly proposed ordinances and two other high-profile events surrounding the county government this week.

Chicago Democratic Commissioner Bridget Gainer will present the Lobbyist Sunshine Initiative she came up with along with County Clerk David Orr. It would ban county employees from acting as lobbyists for at least a year after leaving their government jobs, and would call on all lobbyists to report their activities online in a timely fashion.

And Republican Commissioner Liz Gorman of Orland Park will introduce an ordinance calling for full disclosure of any family connections in county business and banning anyone with a family relationship from making a hiring or contractual decision involving that person.

This comes in the wake of a new report issued by the county's Shakman Compliance Administrator Mary Robinson this week saying that progress has been made in limiting patronage, but the county still has a long way to go to fully comply with the Shakman Decrees.

The report details, in vague terms, an incident in which one contested job went to a person related to the department supervisor.

"Transparency makes all the difference, and that's true of every level of government," Robinson said Tuesday. She said it destroyed the public trust "if the system can be manipulated for political or family reasons."

Robinson said she backed Gorman's family-disclosure ordinance, and while she deals with city hiring, not lobbying, she added that the Sunshine Initiative sounds like good policy as well.

She echoed the report's findings that the county generally has dedicated, conscientious employees, but there are still traces of patronage hirings and politically inspired job harassment.

"They deserve to do their jobs without getting brought down," Robinson said. "The citizens of Cook County and the taxpayers of Cook County deserve that sort of a work force."

Gainer said she expects the Sunshine Initiative to pass, at which point it would be politically dangerous for County Board President Todd Stroger to veto it, especially after he got generally good marks on reform in the Shakman report.

"He has authorized his lawyer to put a great deal of effort into it," Robinson said.

Yet the meeting could be contentious after Stroger apparently fired the brother of downtown Chicago Commissioner Robert Steele this week in what's perceived as a bit of muscle-flexing payback after Steele bucked Stroger on his veto of a cut in the county sales tax.

Byron Steele was fired from a six-figure position in county corrections, but the job was exempt from the Shakman Decrees.

"When someone is in an exempt position, they work at the discretion of the president," Robinson said, and thus she had no jurisdiction over the firing.

"The president has the ability to make that decision," Commissioner Steele acknowledged Tuesday. He called the firing "unfortunate," but said he has spoken with Stroger, who may yet give Byron Steele his job back. Steele said he hoped for the matter to be settled before today's board meeting. Stroger denied the decision was political.

In the short term, however, it served as yet another example of why reform-minded commissioners are pushing for disclosures in both political hiring and nepotism.