KLEPT, Stroger patronage boss directed employment exams rigged

Gerald Nichols, patronage chief for former Cook County Board President John Stroger, directed a county employee to recommend an unqualified candidate who worked in Stroger's political organization. See Sun-Times (Abdon M. Pallasch); h/t Capitol Fax Blog.

Here's what I'd like to see.

The county should publish a list of county employees, but department, salary and home ward or township.

There should be affirmative action for the parts of Cook County with especially low incomes, high incarceration rates and low graduation rates, but otherwise the county should strive for fairness.

Wards that have vastly more than their share of county jobs couldn't get new people on county payroll.

This would be fair and it would diminish the power of the patronage system.

BTW, what's Commissioner Tony Peraica proposing if he gets elected county board president?

[UPDATE: Rich Miller (Capitol Fax Blog) leads a discussion on Bobbi Steele kicking Nichols to the curb.

HANKSTER wrote in the commments: Kinda funny since he was probably the one that hired her four family members on the county payroll.]

[UPDATE2: Rich Miller (Capitol Fax Blog) has a further discussion on Nichols vague or non-existant job description.]