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Cronyism is the star of Stroger's hiring show
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Chicago Tribune Editorial
May 20, 2008
The front page news Monday was Cook County Board President
Todd Stroger's hiring of two men with criminal records.
We have no quarrel with Stroger on that.
Both men paid their dues more than a decade ago, and neither
was convicted of a hanging offense -- one admitted to involvement
in a club fight, the other to making threatening phone calls.
America is about second chances, and Cook County government
should be no different.
More practically, if you impose a ban on hiring people who made
dumb mistakes when they were young, you eliminate a lot of good
possible hires.
But this is not a story about redemption, a tale to give you
a warm, fuzzy feeling.
This is a story about clout.
Both men -- James D'Amico and Myron Colvin -- are the brothers
of state lawmakers. One of them, state Rep. Marlow Colvin, is
also Stroger's best friend.
Yes, taxpayers, what we have is yet another episode in the "Todd
Stroger Friends and Family Show."
Regular readers of this page may be growing tired of the show,
as are we, but just try to move on. The "Todd Stroger Friends
and Family Show" is like one of those cable TV shows that
always pops up. No matter what channel you turn to, there it
is. Sort of like "Law and Order," except the good
guys don't always win.
When Chicago Sun-Times reporter Steve Patterson asked for the
resumes of the two men last week, the Stroger administration
wouldn't cough them up. That was just the latest instance of
the administration's refusing to provide resumes.
In effect, the Stroger administration is telling taxpayers:
Really, these are good, qualified hires. Just trust us.
If only we could.
Stroger spokesman Eugene Mullins gave the usual response that
his boss could hire whomever he wanted to fill the two vacancies,
because the jobs don't fall under a court decree banning patronage
hiring.
True enough, but doing what's technically legal is not the same
as doing what's right.
Stroger supporters can point to as many other politicians as
they like who hire friends and family and question why the Stroger
administration takes so many knocks.
Stroger, though, gets the attention because he has seemingly
perfected cronyism in such a short time in office.
We would love nothing more than to never write about this again.
But this looks like one show destined to go on forever.
