Stroger touts Cook efficiency, picks up endorsement

Cook County Board President Todd Stroger on Tuesday unveiled an expanded program to improve government efficiency.

He also picked up the endorsement of Chicago Democratic U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush.

Yet first Stroger and his Chief Financial Officer Jaye Morgan Williams trumpeted the Optima program to encourage efficiency, improve the quality of county services and generate new nontax revenue.

"We are targeting transformation, not just improvement," Williams said. "We're making Cook County fundamentally more productive."

Borrowing techniques common in business, Optima will centralize many decisions to generate economies of scale, work to make technology consistent from department to department and institute a system to gauge productivity and assess accountability.

Currently, government departments tend to remain their own fiefdoms, with redundant procurement divisions and human-relations agencies. Stroger said he expected the department heads to go along with the centralization. "They're not going to tell us no," he said. "They're not going to say we don't want to be more efficient."

The county will be paying Electronic Knowledge Interchange more than $1 million a year in consulting fees as part of the plan, but it's expected to generate $300 million in cuts and new revenue over three years.

"This has actually been on the table since I first came in," Stroger said, adding he didn't have the resources to implement it. That became a top priority for Williams when she joined the administration last August. In fact, the name "Optima" comes from her Office of Performance Transformation and Management.

Stroger dismissed those who questioned the timing given his tough re-election campaign, with three weeks to go to the Feb. 2 primary. "There's always cynics. Isn't that the way of the world?" Stroger said. "We've been doing a good job. People just haven't seen it."

He later acknowledged that Rush's endorsement has everything to do with the campaign. "I am extremely grateful to have the support of Congressman Rush," Stroger said. "He has a powerful voice in the community. I know with his help we can win this election and keep Cook County government moving in the right direction."

Meanwhile, Stroger campaign spokeswoman Carla Oglesby disavowed any connection with an incendiary leaflet being circulated by a group calling itself Soldiers for Stroger. It takes racist potshots at challengers Chicago Hyde Park Alderman Toni Preckwinkle, Clerk of the Circuit Court Dorothy Brown and Metropolitan Water Reclamation District President Terrence O'Brien, as well as Chicago Mayor Daley, Gov. Quinn, House Speaker Michael Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton. "The Stroger for President campaign did not produce or distribute the fliers in question," Oglesby said. "The Stroger campaign does not endorse or condone this type of behavior or activity."

Former Chicago gang enforcer Wallace "Gator" Bradley stepped forward as spokesman for Soldiers for Stroger, saying, "The (black) community feels the same way we do." He said it was meant to unite the black vote and avoid a defeat like Chicago Mayor Eugene Sawyer's loss to Daley in 1989. "What is happening is wrong and it has to stop," Bradley said.

Bradley has gone legitimate and gotten involved in politics over the years, including a run for Chicago alderman. He said he has done consulting work for Stroger in the past, while Soldiers for Stroger is independent, having attracted about 700 people to a recent meeting.

Oglesby denied there being any formal role for Bradley, saying, "He is a campaign supporter, but he is not on the payroll of the campaign, and he has no official role with the campaign." She repeated that Stroger distanced himself from the leaflet.