Stroger stymied in appointing former campaign manager to post

With lame-duck President Todd Stroger absent, the Cook County Board successfully blocked the appointment of one of his top campaign aides to a government post Tuesday.

Facing a lack of support at the county board meeting, the Stroger administration first deferred a vote on naming Vincent Williams to the zoning board of appeals, then withdrew his name entirely.

Williams managed Stroger's unsuccessful re-election campaign in February's Democratic primary.

"I don't think he had the votes," said Bartlett Republican Commissioner Timothy Schneider. "Or he deemed it not a good move in light of all the other things that have been going on with this administration."

Since losing in the primary, Stroger has appointed campaign spokeswoman Carla Oglesby deputy chief of staff and handed out a series of so-called 24-nine contracts, valued at just under the $25,000 figure requiring board approval.

But the board flexed its muscle on a small item it did have power over.

Stroger spokeswoman Chris Geovanis said it was "nakedly idle speculation" to posit that the board was exacting a little vengeance for those earlier moves done behind its back - and now under investigation by the county's inspector general.

Yet Schneider said, "I certainly think it did" affect the board's attitude toward the appointment, adding, "It goes to the credibility of our chief executive officer."

The Stroger administration withdrew Williams' name for the $38,000-a-year post and replaced him with Jeannie Nicole Romas. But she faces no better prospects at the next meeting in two weeks, as Elmwood Park Republican Commissioner Peter Silvestri and Chicago Democratic Commissioner John Daley said the appointment should be left to the next president elected in November, a position echoed by Schneider.

"These appointments to the zoning board of appeals are four- or five-year appointments, and that goes on," he said.

"I would like to see the chief executive come to the suburban commissioners and lobby us for support, give us a resume," Schneider added. "Zoning affects mostly if not entirely the suburban commissioners. We're the ones who are most affected by the zoning board of appeals. I'd certainly think they'd like to consider giving us a head's up, and perhaps even asking - as crazy as it might seem - for us to make a recommendation."

The board also sent a series of measures to committee, including the Health & Hospital System's new five-year strategic and financial plan, and an ordinance to make its independent board permanent and stagger its individual terms of office.

And the board passed a resolution calling for the state and municipalities to follow its lead in trimming its share of the sales tax, but Crestwood Democratic Commissioner Joan Patricia Murphy expressed a lack of faith in the measure, saying, "This is going to fall on deaf ears."

Chicago Democratic Commissioner Joseph Mario Moreno, chairing the meeting in Stroger's absence, and Riverside Republican Commissioner Tony Peraica continued a sparring session begun at Monday's closed-door session on the Shakman decree.

After Peraica counted wrong on a vote tally, Moreno said, "You need to go back to school."

"Relax," Peraica responded. "Take a pill."

"Not the ones you've been taking," Moreno snapped.

Peraica commented on Moreno's lame-duck status, as like Stroger he lost his primary race, adding, "I'll be happy when you're not here."

"That'll be both of us," Moreno replied.