Exposing Todd Stroger: A County In Crisis

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CBS News
By Mike Flannery
May 12, 2008

Huge Tax Hike, Health Care Mess, Patronage Hiring Charges Plague Board President

Financial troubles at Cook County's Stroger Hospital and health clinics are worse than previously reported. Officials tell CBS 2 that income fell short by $21.6 million in the first four months of the fiscal year, about 24 percent less than projected.

They blame a worsening economy, adding that the number of patients without any health insurance of any kind increased about 4 percent.

It's one more headache for embattled County Board President Todd Stroger.

Some of the mess Stroger faces he inherited from his father, who long ran county government. But as CBS 2's look at Todd Stroger shows, he's done plenty to anger voters: tax increases, pay raises for top deputies, and job layoffs followed now by a big round of new hiring.

Some write him off as a one-termer, but he's planning a comeback.

CBS 2 Political Editor Mike Flannery reports Stroger won warm applause at a political fundraiser, hosted by a law firm with a Cook County contract paying $110,000 a year.

Not nearly as happy are the people who foot all the bills. The 5.5 million residents of Cook County now pay the highest sales tax in America, even as officials like Cook County Public Defender Edwin Burnette complain that Stroger is putting unqualified workers on the payroll. He denies it.

"They write 'Todd is hiring friends and family.' The people I hired worked for the county long before I got here," Stroger said.

But family and friends are vital to Stroger's administration – and to his power.

Stroger critics, who asked not to be identified, gave CBS 2 a printed list of more than 1,300 top county jobs, all of them exempt from laws against patronage. Many are filled by workers with ties to key Stroger allies including House Speaker Michael Madigan; Mayor Richard M. Daley and his brother, County Board Finance Chairman John Daley; County commissioners Jerry Butler, Bill Beavers and Robert Steele; and former 19th Ward Committeeman Thomas Hynes, a longtime Stroger family friend.

And there are also those on the list who are close to Stroger himself.

Board Secretary Matt DeLeon makes $150,000 a year. He is one of more than a dozen key aides in Stroger's six-figure club.

Powerful budget boss Donna Dunnings is Stroger's first cousin. E-mail flooded cbs2chicago.com when Dunnings got a 12 percent raise.

"If her qualifications are just being related to Pres. Stroger, I don't think that's good enough," said Cook County resident Edie Hanzel.

Dunnings now makes $161,000, and defends her salary by saying she works 12- to 17-hour days.

County Commissioner Tony Peraica, a Republican, said of Dunnings: "She's the power behind the throne."

Carmen Triche-Colvin is the wife of Stroger's best friend, State Rep. Marlowe Colvin. She gets a $112,000 annual salary as a purchasing agent.

"In private sector purchasing agents earn between $35,000 and $55,000 a year," said John Challenger of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, an executive outplacement firm.

Laura Lechowicz Felicione, the daughter of a former commissioner is a "special counsel" at $160,000.

Bruce Washington ran Stroger's father, John Stroger's, campaign. He's a capital planner at a $133,000.

Gene Mullins is a Stroger pal from elementary school. He's a new media liaison at a $120,000.

"You want people working for their performance. Not because of a prior relationship," Challenger said.

Last year, Stroger asked the Cook County Board to raise taxes. But a majority refused. So, Stroger eliminated hundreds of county workers, including many at the hospital named for his father, and at community clinics. Later, he did win a sales tax increase and it absolutely infuriated consumers.

Business leaders complain that the new sales tax will generate at least $200 million more than Stroger originally claimed he needed to balance his budget. They're angry that Stroger's now putting 1,100 workers back on his public payroll.

"We've whittled the work force...but...you can't just fire everyone," Stroger said.

County Building insiders claim that 17 months of bitter battling over these and other issues have changed Stroger.

"It's taken a significant toll on Stroger," said Commissioner Mike Quigley, a Democrat. "He acts differently, a little more confrontational, far more angry."

"It's a tough environment," Stroger said.

Stroger now avoids the fifth floor office from which his father long presided in the County Building.

CBS 2 was not allowed to take pictures of the office Stroger now uses at 69 W. Washington. Visitors report it is a penthouse with a commanding view of Lake Michigan.

"Cavernous. Open. Not a lot of activity from what I can see," Quigley said.

Counting on powerful politicians from the Daleys to Barack Obama to support him, Stroger and his hard-nosed management team are already planning a re-election campaign.

"We'll find in 2010 that this government was run efficiently," Stroger said. "We did what we did for the right reasons."