Chicago Tribune Editorial - Who's in charge?
Chicago Tribune Editorial - Who's in charge?
Copyright © 2006, Chicago Tribune
Published May 22, 2006
The word that John Stroger's rehabilitation continues apace is welcome news. Eleven weeks have passed since the Cook County Board president suffered a serious stroke. Unfortunately no one will say much about Stroger's medical condition. But it's such that his many handlers, in moving him Thursday to a high-security Chicago condo building, completed their surreptitious transfer by arranging for a row of men to block news photographers from taking his picture.
This secrecy about a public official who heads a $3 billion government invites the impression that other power brokers are using Stroger as a pawn in their high-stakes chess games. Stroger's chief of staff, James Whigham, and Stroger's son, Ald. Todd Stroger (8th), have sent conflicting and at times nonsensical signals about whether the elder Stroger is playing--or will play--any leadership role in county government. (The still-reigning doozy here is Whigham's comical assertion on May 3 that yes, he could name a county-related decision John Stroger had made since his stroke--but Whigham refused to disclose that mystery decision.)
The clumsiness has only intensified the growing assumption--which could well prove false--that John Stroger, now 77, will have to retire. That, in turn, has stoked the fierce ambitions of pretenders to his throne. The Democratic committeemen who would select John Stroger's successor for the November ballot now privately debate which putative candidate should succeed him.
As the weeks and months pass, though, citizens and their concerns aren't part of the discussion. Example: Those citizens have been funding bloated county budgets for years. And as the county's 2006 financial plight only gets worse, a few County Board members are bleating that they may need to enact what they most certainly don't need to enact: more county tax increases. And that could happen if they keep ignoring the need to streamline the government they were elected to run. Many of them, for lack of anyone to tell them what to do, are clueless.
Cook County's 5 million residents deserve a serious campaign debate about taxes and other county problems--corruption scandals and featherbedding of the county payroll included. That's not happening. The Democratic public officials, power brokers and potential candidates are so busy talking to one another that they've frozen out the taxpayers ... who always wind up paying for Cook County's mistakes.
Dragging out this secretive process helps no one but the Democratic insiders at a time when county government needs a strong leader. Someone needs to show voters that he or she is ready to face grave problems. That would let citizens back into the discussion over their government.
Copyright © 2006, Chicago Tribune
Published May 22, 2006
The word that John Stroger's rehabilitation continues apace is welcome news. Eleven weeks have passed since the Cook County Board president suffered a serious stroke. Unfortunately no one will say much about Stroger's medical condition. But it's such that his many handlers, in moving him Thursday to a high-security Chicago condo building, completed their surreptitious transfer by arranging for a row of men to block news photographers from taking his picture.
This secrecy about a public official who heads a $3 billion government invites the impression that other power brokers are using Stroger as a pawn in their high-stakes chess games. Stroger's chief of staff, James Whigham, and Stroger's son, Ald. Todd Stroger (8th), have sent conflicting and at times nonsensical signals about whether the elder Stroger is playing--or will play--any leadership role in county government. (The still-reigning doozy here is Whigham's comical assertion on May 3 that yes, he could name a county-related decision John Stroger had made since his stroke--but Whigham refused to disclose that mystery decision.)
The clumsiness has only intensified the growing assumption--which could well prove false--that John Stroger, now 77, will have to retire. That, in turn, has stoked the fierce ambitions of pretenders to his throne. The Democratic committeemen who would select John Stroger's successor for the November ballot now privately debate which putative candidate should succeed him.
As the weeks and months pass, though, citizens and their concerns aren't part of the discussion. Example: Those citizens have been funding bloated county budgets for years. And as the county's 2006 financial plight only gets worse, a few County Board members are bleating that they may need to enact what they most certainly don't need to enact: more county tax increases. And that could happen if they keep ignoring the need to streamline the government they were elected to run. Many of them, for lack of anyone to tell them what to do, are clueless.
Cook County's 5 million residents deserve a serious campaign debate about taxes and other county problems--corruption scandals and featherbedding of the county payroll included. That's not happening. The Democratic public officials, power brokers and potential candidates are so busy talking to one another that they've frozen out the taxpayers ... who always wind up paying for Cook County's mistakes.
Dragging out this secretive process helps no one but the Democratic insiders at a time when county government needs a strong leader. Someone needs to show voters that he or she is ready to face grave problems. That would let citizens back into the discussion over their government.
posted by Carlos T Mock at 9:26 AM
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