Todd's new PR guy has a PR problem
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Chicago Sun-Times
By Steve Patterson, Staff Reporter
February 29, 2008
Mullins was a childhood friend to board president
Cook County Board President Todd Stroger's latest choice
for public relations chief has a tough job.
Before he can begin to try to clean up his boss' image, Gene
Mullins has a PR problem of his own.
He'll have to answer criticisms that Stroger's hiring practices
resemble a "friends and family plan."
The rub for Mullins?
He's a childhood friend of Stroger.
"This is why taxpayers don't trust Todd Stroger,"
said Commissioner Forrest Claypool. "They see a government
full of friends and family and know they are paying for it."
Stroger declined to discuss long-range PR options, but said
it is "important to move our public relations operation
in a new direction," calling Mullins "eminently
qualified."
Mullins will take over next week as Stroger's fourth PR chief
in just 14 months.
Mullins has spent more than 20 years with the Chicago Police
Department, most recently working in its News Affairs bureau.
Sources say Stroger is waiting to officially announce Mullins'
hiring until after the county budget is passed. It's not clear
what Mullins would be paid, but the budget calls for the job
to pay $105,059.
Stroger's not dumping his old $100,000 PR director -- Andre
Garner. He's shuffling Garner into a vacant job in the county
planning department and cutting his pay 10 percent.
Mullins would supervise another former Stroger PR chief, Chinta
Strausberg -- who is now paid $99,807 a year as Stroger's
liaison to churches -- as well as $85,000-a-year hospital
spokesman Sean Howard, who was fired from Stroger's political
campaign after he was arrested on charges of stalking a woman.
Mullins has a solid reputation at the police department, but
his hiring comes on the heels of Stroger hiring another childhood
friend, his cousin, his best friend's wife and even his floor
leader's girlfriend for high-level county jobs.
The new spokesman, who is taking a one-year leave of absence
from the city, had little to say.
"Not just yet," Mullins said, "But I'll be
in touch with you."
