County scolded for not moving fast enough on hiring reform

The court-appointed official in charge of rooting out patronage hiring at Cook County scolded President Todd Stroger by letter Tuesday, chastising him for not having appointed a permanent human resources director for the past seven months.

"I want to remind you that the county has been aware of a vacancy in the HR chief position since at least September 2007 … ," wrote Julia Nowicki, the compliance administrator appointed by a federal court. " As of today, it still has not announced the membership of the selection committee. This is a confounding dilemma."

Nowicki recently filed a report with the court criticizing the county for not doing enough to bring reform. She intimated that if the county did not act quickly, she would seek to do so on her own with the judge.

Cook County Board President Todd Stroger has criticized the report as being inaccurate.

Tuesday, county spokeswoman Ibis Antongiorgi said the county has a committee working on hiring an HR chief.