Endorsement: Preckwinkle for Cook County Board president

In watching the operations of the Cook County Board President’s Office over the 16 years Toni Preckwinkle has occupied it, perhaps the strongest impression one gets is in the preparation and professionalism of her management team.

Throughout Preckwinkle’s tenure, the staff she has surrounded herself with has been consistently focused on research, preparation and efficiency, and it could well be said that her greatest legacy will not be any of the political issues that have come and gone over the years but her ability to gather a serious team of experts capable of constructing and managing complex annual budgets now in the range of $10 billion, with no basic tax increase in 15 years.

It is the strength of that team that reassures us in our decision to recommend Preckwinkle for the Democratic nomination that likely would lead to a fifth term for her at the county’s helm. One does not create such an operation without keen leadership skills, and leadership has been a hallmark of Preckwinkle’s administration from the day she took over from the bumbling Todd Stroger in 2010.

Not that there haven’t been hiccups, sometimes serious ones. Her advocacy for the short-lived “soda tax” of 2017 was as unpopular as it was ill-advised, and the inconsistent rollout of new property tax software this year has led to late bills to taxpayers and costly payment delays for local governments and school districts.

Indeed, Preckwinkle’s challenger — Chicago Alderman Brendan Reilly — is most effective and most accurate when he describes the problems created by Tyler Technologies’ failures and the questionable accountability of the company for them. He is absolutely correct that a top priority of the next county board president will be to revisit the county’s contract with the company and rebuild provisions to ensure that such failures don’t happen again.

Even so, it also should not be forgotten that when Preckwinkle took office, late property tax bills were so common — from an office she does not directly control — that they were practically considered routine features of county government incompetence. To a degree, the impact of last year’s delay was all the more unnerving because on-time bills have become so routine in recent years.

Political issues in the president’s race have centered on issues of immigration enforcement, crime and federal government influence. They can tilt in diverse directions between the two candidates. Reilly makes a solid case that the county’s immigration sanctuary policies have been problematic. He is not on such firm ground when criticizing criminal justice reforms at a time when serious crimes have consistently declined — and substantially. Nor is Preckwinkle accurate or fair when she attempts to portray Reilly as a shill for President Donald Trump on either immigration or resistance to federal interference in county affairs.

While there are substantive differences on certain policy statements between the candidates, the truth is that their practical differences are not decisive. Reilly is a strong candidate, and were his opponent someone other than Preckwinkle, he would certainly attract our attention.

But even after four terms, Preckwinkle remains an energetic and results-oriented leader. And she is surrounded by a dedicated team of experts committed to efficiency, transparency and detail. In the end, voters are selecting not just a candidate but a candidate’s team. Reilly may well be capable of building an effective and dedicated operation. Preckwinkle already has one.

She gets our endorsement.