Cook County court clerk hopefuls talk modernization, integrity
Modernization, integrity and experience were among the issues on the minds of candidates running for Cook County's clerk of the circuit court.
The circuit court clerk is responsible for maintaining court records in the nation's second largest unified court system.
Republican challenger Diane Shapiro said Democratic incumbent Dorothy Brown has failed to effectively modernize the office during her tenure. Shapiro, who retired in 2009 after 30 years as a Cook County probation officer, calls the computer systems and machinery outdated.
Brown, who's running for her fifth term in the Nov. 8 election, said she has made steady improvements since being elected 16 years ago. Citing evolving technology and dwindling finances, Brown said she tried to "strategically fix pieces within the system" she inherited. She said a recently approved new case management system will improve operations.
Calling Brown's efforts "cosmetic," Shapiro also criticized her opponent's failure to shift from a paper-based to an all-electronic system for maintaining court records.
Brown, however, points to electronic filing she introduced to the law and civil divisions, imaging and documenting systems which allow the public to view documents not restricted by the court and a mobile application that allows individuals to look up their civil and traffic cases on cellphones.
As for eliminating the paper-based system, Brown says that's impossible because "the Illinois Supreme Court requires us to maintain paper." The state's high court has ordered mandatory e-filing of documents in circuit court civil cases by Jan. 1, 2018.
Shapiro also blasted what she called a "patronage-based" hiring system in the clerk's office, which she said resulted in incompetent employees. She proposes a civil service approach to hiring and new training to ensure clerks keep accurate records.
"I want to implement things that should have been implemented years ago, work toward cleansing the pay-to-play that the clerk's office is famous for," she said. "I want the circuit court clerk's office to be the most ethical, the most respected, the most efficient in the country."
Shapiro also criticized Brown for accepting campaign donations from employees.
Brown said her office complies with federal court orders prohibiting the hiring, promoting or firing of employees based on political connections or affiliation. "Pay-to-play" became an issue for Brown last year when the FBI investigated a former employee for the purchase of jobs and promotions within the office.
Federal prosecutors say Sivasubramani Rajaram was hired by the clerk's office in September 2014, a month after loaning $15,000 to Goat Masters Corp. Brown's husband, Benton Cook III, is that company's president. Rajaram pleaded guilty in April to lying to a federal grand jury. Brown, who was not charged with any crime, said her husband repaid the loan with interest.
If elected, Shapiro promises she'll lead by example, serving as a "co-employee" alongside the office's approximately 1,800 workers.
"I will be working with the employees on the floor … training everyone how to do data entry which is not easy because it's a cumbersome older system," said Shapiro, who described the clerk's role as CEO of a corporation.
Brown cited her law, business and accounting degrees as evidence of her qualifications for the job.
"This is a ... corporation," Brown said of her office. "I'm the CEO. I'm not data entering."
She said the office's management information system handles 18 million electronic records a year, while the finance department collects $300 million annually. "It's important you have someone who is qualified to run the office and can manage a multimillion dollar corporation," she said.