Open Illinois.org

by Rob Ross

Despite Cook County Board President Todd Stroger’s insistence he is taking measures to eliminate patronage hiring practices in the county government, hiring abuses continue in plain sight of federally appointed Compliance Administrator Mary Robinson. In a report summarizing the first six months of her tenure, Robinson details ongoing shenanigans ranging from biased employment tests to systematic harassment of politically “undesirable” employees. In a summary paragraph on page 7, Robinson writes:

“The difficulty is that while some County policy makers and their agents are busy drafting and adopting and implementing appropriate policies, others are busy evading and frustrating and defying the policies. Between monitors’ observations and reports from County employees, the CA’s office entertains a running series of alleged violations. ”

The CA is currently investigating 98 suspected cases of biased employment practices.  For example, in one case, Robinson reports a department wanted to hire four or five entry-level employees for mechanical duties. So they set up an interview panel to ask five scripted technical questions and nothing else. More than a few candidates failed to answer even one of the unusually difficult questions. Yet some candidates were aces, answering each question verbatim to the script given to the panel, while others responded with the right script, but for the wrong question. It appears someone chose difficult questions and then slipped the answers to candidates they wanted to hire.

In her report, Robinson expresses concern about the county offices falling right back into old patterns once her commission is dissolved. She phrases this very politely in her report, but the point cannot be stressed enough. Cook County needs a Board President that will follow through with this anti-corruption agenda without a federal watchdog looking over his shoulder. This requires a level of commitment Stroger has yet to demonstrate. As Robinson writes on page 11:

“The CA reiterates the invitation to the County to undertake its own review of the information already available, look for what needs to be changed, and change it. There is no doubt that this process would move along more efficiently if that were to occur.”