Indicted former Stroger aide collecting unemployment

Former Cook County Board President Todd Stroger wants to be treated the same way he treated employees in his administration — at least where unemployment benefits are concerned.

According to the office of President Toni Preckwinkle, who succeeded Stroger in December, the county is contributing to pay unemployment to Carla Oglesby, the Stroger campaign spokeswoman and deputy chief of staff who was indicted in October on criminal corruption charges.

Oglesby is accused of illegally steering no-bid county contracts to associates and to her own public relations firm. She denies the charges.

Stroger's office accepted Oglesby's resignation as deputy chief of staff after she was arrested and charged. Yet, Stroger and his spokesmen never formally commented on whether they contested her subsequent claim for unemployment benefits.

Preckwinkle spokeswoman Jessey Neves confirmed Wednesday that Oglesby is collecting unemployment “because she was not terminated with cause by the previous administration,” adding that Stroger's office “approved her unemployment application.”

“I didn't contest anybody's unemployment with the county,” Stroger responded, “because they paid into the system.”

Unemployment actually is funded by taxes on employers, rather than by employees, according to the Illinois Department of Employment Security.

After losing the Democratic Primary a year ago in his re-election bid, Stroger was unseated by Preckwinkle in December, and went on to file for unemployment in January.

The county, however, contested that filing in a case still pending with the Illinois Department of Employment Security. Preckwinkle repeated her opposition to Stroger's request this week, saying, “I don't think it's appropriate for elected officials who lose elections to apply for unemployment compensation.”

Stroger said he only recently discovered in the appeals process that, unlike county employees, he was not covered under the unemployment system.

“That's what the rules are, that elected officials don't pay into the system.”

Stroger said that was probably because the vast majority of elected officials are considered part-time workers. He said full-time public servants, however, like mayors and county presidents, probably should be allowed to receive benefits when voted out of office.

He added, however, that he was not dropping his application for benefits, but simply waiting for it to play out, even as he expected the decision to come down against him. “I don't expect them to give me something that I didn't pay any money into,” Stroger said, but “if you're asking if I'm trying to rob the system, no.”

Oglesby's case is still pending in the courts. No other Stroger officials have been charged in that corruption investigation.