Chief Judge Evans to appoint Berrios replacement

When Joseph Berrios moves up to the Cook County assessor's office next month, his replacement on the three-person Board of Review will be named not by new County Board President-elect Toni Preckwinkle or the board at large, but by Circuit Court Chief Judge Timothy Evans.

The Board of Review renders judgment on assessment appeals. The issue is complicated in that Evans and Preckwinkle are former political rivals who engaged in a series of aldermanic election battles until Preckwinkle beat Mayor Harold Washington's former floor leader in their Hyde Park ward in 1991.

Yet Evans laughed off any lasting rancor. “We get along fine. We had our differences early on,” he said. “She and I over the years have become good friends.”

Evans said Preckwinkle figures to be preoccupied with her own transition. “She will have her hands full handling the presidency of the county board,” he said, “so I wouldn't expect any suggestions to come from her.”

Berrios' Deputy Commissioner Thomas Jaconetty said Berrios too is preparing for the transition and that he was not sure if he would be endorsing a successor, adding, “That is something for the chief judge to think about with any qualified candidates.”

Evans, who said he is just starting the process, added that he did not view the post as a political appointment, but that it is required by law to be a Democrat from Berrios' district on the northern half of Chicago.

“I would be interested in someone who is prepared to be fair and impartial,” he said, “someone who would lower or raise an assessment as justice requires.”

Incoming suburban Commissioner-elect Dan Patlak, Republican Wheeling assessor, said he had worked with Berrios and Commissioner Larry Rogers Jr. as an assistant to earlier Commissioner Maureen Murphy, and that he trusted Evans to make a fair appointment of someone he can likewise work with.

“It seems to me he'll be pretty independent (on) who he chooses,” Patlak said. “In this particular office, you can have differences of opinion, but it shouldn't be a real partisan office in terms of how you adjudicate the appeals. So I'm hoping that will be true.”