On Thursday, November 5, HACIA (
Hispanic American Construction Industry Association) hosted a forum for candidates for the President of the Cook County Board at
Instuto Cervantes. The following candidates attended (in order they were seated on the stage, from left to right):
Todd Stroger (D),
Toni Preckwinkle (D), Terry O'Brien (D), Tom Tresser (G) and John Garrido (R). According to the moderator
Danny K. Davis (D) had to be in Washington, DC for a health care vote and Dorothy Brown (D) sent her regrets.
According to the moderator
WLS,
WSNS and
CBS-2 all had TV crews there to film the forum.
HACIA prides itself on improving the number of construction contracts awarded to MBE (
minority business enterprise) and WBE (women business enterprise).
Biographically this is what the candidates said about themselves.
Stroger, who is the incumbent, hammered that he has improved diversity in Cook County government. He also said he'd lived in the same house for 40 of his 43 years, minus one three year period when he moved ten blocks away. In his opening Stroger said he'd served in three levels of government: state, city and county.
Preckwinkle mentioned the development that has happened in her ward since she'd been alderman. She also included examples things the City of Chicago has done while she's been in the city council.
O'Brien explained he's been a commissioner at the
Metropolitan Water Reclamation District for 21 years and has been president of that board for the last thirteen years. He contrasted the relatively smooth functioning of the MWRD with Cook County government.
Tresser founded the organization “No Games Chicago”, which opposed bringing the
Olympics to Chicago in 2016. Tresser said that he started on led thirteen non-profit organizations in his life. He mentioned opposing Chicago's bid for the 2016 Olympics, but only once. Tresser teaches at
IIT and
DePaul. When Tresser referred to himself, he usually described himself as a “community organizer”.
Garrido is a lieutenant in the
Chicago Police Department and a lawyer with a small practice. He serves in the
25th District (Northwest Side, Grand Central). Garrido characterized the district as 1/3 Black, 1/3 Hispanic and 1/3 “White”. Garrido's grandparents were from Mexico and Ireland. His wife is Polish.
MBE/WBEApparently, there was a 1990 court ruling (
Richmond vs. J.A. Croson Co.) that changed how municipal government handled preferences for MBE and WBE. The City of Chicago, Cook County and the MWRD all responded differently. If I understood
O'Brien correctly, the MWRD policies did not get challenged in court.
The city and county were challenged in court by the same plaintff.
Preckwinkle explained that the city's post-Croson affirmative action withstood scrutiny because it was based on better documentation of inequities in city contracting in the absence of affirmative action. While noting that the problem predated Todd Stroger being in county government, she explained the county lost in court because it failed to assemble the documentation to justify a robust affirmative action program. Preckwinkle praised that the county is finally doing what is required by the courts to implement a strong affirmative action program.
When discussing her personal involvement in MBE and WBE programs, Preckwinkle indicated that she had consistently taken a leadership role in city council to ensure that MBE and WBE were included in city contracting.
Stroger said two things to burnish his credentials as a supporter of MBE and WBE. He told a story about an unnamed county official who wanted to avoid looking for a MBE or WBE vendor because there was an emergent need for services. Stroger refused to approve the vendor and told the county official s/he needed to look harder. Stroger said that since this incident he he hasn't had an official push to avoid looking for a MBE or WBE vendor.
Also, Stroger said Cook County had increased to 25% MBE and 10% WBE which exceeds the goals set.
Tresser expressed desire to increase MBE and WBE contracting levels to the percentages of minorities and women in Cook County. He said Cook County is 41% minorities and over 50% women.
Garrido drew attention to his Mexican heritage, but I didn't note that he ever said he supported affirmative action programs to diversify either the government workforce or vendors.
Sales taxPreckwinkle reiterated her commitment to repeal the 1% sales tax increase over four years. She reasoned the incremental repeal would allow her administration to learn where waste existed in county government. She also expects that the county can secure more federal and philanthropic resources for health care expenses, which are approximately 1/3 of county spending.
O'Brien expressed a preference for cutting the sales tax completely from the beginning. He reasoned that if the sales tax continued the county would become dependent on the money. O'Brien emphasized the regressiveness of sales taxes. O'Brien said, “Difficult decisions will have to be made.... I'm not afraid to do it.” While he delivered the line with conviction, he did avoid naming specific cuts.
Tresser said, “We can't trust that we know the true financial picture [of Cook County government].” He said he's, “inclined to roll sales tax back as soon as possible.” He repeatedly emphasized that current accounting practices make it impossible to say if Cook County does or doesn't have enough revenue to fulfill its missions. Tresser said he'd do “forensic accounting... maybe a firm that goes after mob money.”
Garrido started with, “Collar counties have a great stimulus; it's called Cook County.” He claimed that 76% of residents don't shop in Cook County because of the higher taxes. Garrido called for roll back of the entire amount, immediately.
Stroger immediately jumped on the claim that 76% of residents don't shop in Cook County. He called it, “bunk”.
Stroger explained that Cook County only gets 17% of the sales tax revenue in Chicago. The State of Illinois gets 61% and the city gets 12%.
Stroger noted that Cook County hasn't raised property taxes in sixteen years. “We're not a business. We provide services.” Stroger broke down spending as 51% for public safety and 41% for public health. “The county is run well.”
There were some other moments when I thought
candidates were effective.
Stroger gave an organized answer to the question about priorities. He said the most important thing is for county government to give services. Second is to make sure there's diversity. He wants, “Everybody gets their fair shake.” And he finished by saying that, “You can't believe everything you read in the newspaper.”
Stroger also made a valid point about the format which didn't allow rebuttals. He noted that almost all barbs and attacks were directed at him, so it was somewhat a four on one with the one guy not allowed to fight back.
Preckwinkle explained the legal aspect of MBE and WBE issues well. She also connected the need to diversify contracting to the need to get beyond giving jobs and contracts to people and companies connected to certain ward organizations.
Preckwinkle also handled the question about getting a fair treatment by the media gracefully. “I agree with Todd, he hasn't always gotten a fair shake.” She continued, “Part of the job is to manage the media.” Preckwinkle explained that being a leader in politics requires “not only doing the right thing but persuading people it is the right thing to do.”
O'Brien's most effective points were that MWRD has refunded $56 million to taxpayers it didn't need under his leadership and that MWRD maintains a AAA bond rating with all three bond-rating agencies. O'Brien was the only candidate to discuss measuring the percentage of vendors who were small businesses.
Tresser did something I liked in the first round of questions. The moderator had deviated from the format briefed. Tresser spoke after the three Democrats and asked about when the opening statements would be allowed. The moderator had forgotten and apologized. Opening statements went next.
Tresser had an effective close too. He read headlines about problems in city and county government, including mentioning Dorothy Brown and the headline gigging O'Brien for owning a business that did business with MWRD.
Garrido seems to have a knack for the one-liner. He said, he was “fed up” and “tired of being treated as an ATM” by politicians. He finished his opening statement by saying, “Unlike some this is not a birthright. I'm going to have to work for it.”
Generally Garrido wants to expand the inspector general's office and shrink the rest of Cook County government. He wants to reduce the workforce to 20,000. Garrido says the current workforce is 25,000. Stroger says it was 25,000, but has already been reduced to 23,000. Garrido also promised to reduce the
Shakman exempt positions.
WeaknessesStroger raised the issue of his cousin in his opening statement, although he didn't mention Donna Dunnings (see
Chicagoist (Chuck Sudo)) by name. Stroger defended himself by saying she was qualified. Stroger's defense seemed to be that as long as he wasn't violating regulations by hiring unqualified people he shouldn't be held accountable for making bad hiring decisions. He saved his opponents from having to use Dunnings to attack him because he used Dunnings to attack himself.
When asked what to do to minimize corruption and increase transparency Stroger responded that he's “done it already.” He stated the inspector general has the power to go into any office and investigate allegations of fraud, waste and abuse. The problem with Stroger saying the county is doing everything it should be doing both in delivering services and investigating corruption is that it's easy to infer that Stroger has done all the good he can imagine doing.
Stroger gave the number three as the number of Latinos he's put in leadership positions, but the number 29 for women in leadership positions. Unless his administration has significantly more women than men in leadership, it seems like there should be more Latinos in leadership. HACIA claimed that 24% of Cook County residents are Latino. If you assume women are slightly over half of Cook County then there should be almost half as many Latinos in leadership as women.
Preckwinkle squinted while on stage. Apparently she has real problems with the stage lights pointing in her face. She also had this problem at the
Malcolm X College forum.
O'Brien delivered the line about not being afraid of difficult decisions just the way an actor or politician is supposed to deliver the line. I felt like he meant it. However, it would be more credible if it was packaged with something specific he was going to cut or do that was unpopular with some constituency.
I'm not sure how
Tresser's claims about the Cook County budget will wear. Saying it's too
FUBAR to evaluate allows Tresser to avoid answering questions specifically. However, Tresser might be right. When I discussed the budget with Commissioner
Forrest Claypool's then chief of staff, he characterized the budget as being a tool to hide the truth more than a tool to manage what happens.
When answering the question about getting treated fairly by the media both Tresser and Garrido complained about being ignored.
After the forum some of Tresser's supporters were hassling the Stroger entourage about Stroger and company leaving in a huge SUV with municipal plates on it.
Candidate websites:
Labels: candidate forum, HACIA, John Garrido, Terry O'Brien, Todd Stroger, Tom Tresser, Toni Preckwinkle
