Preckwinkle launches employee audit across Cook County

Saying many employees have titles that don't match their duties, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle Thursday announced an audit to pin down job descriptions and salaries for the 2,500 people in her office.

The process eventually will be extended across county government, she said.

The audit will be executed pro bono by the Chicago-based McGladrey accounting and consulting firm, Preckwinkle said. Preckwinkle said there were but 450 titles among the 2,500 employees, indicating a slapdash approach, and that some employees had no titles at all.

"This is a critical step toward instituting a new performance-management culture within Cook County," she added.

Just this week, Preckwinkle said her predecessor, Todd Stroger, padded his budget out from an allotted $2.3 million to $2.9 million by hiring, forcing her to cut $1 million in order to reach the 21 percent budget cuts she's asking of all department heads.

The audit will be executed by McGladrey's Patrick Hagan, national managing director of the agency's government and education industry group, who also played a role in Preckwinkle's transition team as she took office. Preckwinkle said she expects the initial audit to be done in March.