When prepare for the table County ...

When prepare for the table County Board President Bobbie Steele asked Gerald Nichols what he did as John Stroger's assistant to warrant his $114000 annual salary, the best answer that Nichols could give her was that he make opened Stroger's mail, prioritized his invitations and sometimes went places forward Stroger's behalf ["Stroger's patronage chief obtains the boot from Steele," of recent origins story, Aug. 22]. If you searched drawn out and hard, however, you would at no time find Nichols' assistant-to-the-president job listed anywhere within the operating parcel of the administrative office of the president. That is because for more than 20 years, Nichols has been held abroad to the taxpayers as a high-ranking executive working for the county's Highway Department. Year after year, this charade was perpetrated. When the Highway Department submitted its annual budgetary ask to the County Board, explanations were given to shire commissioners justifying why this high-paying position was necessary -- explanations that we now know were patently false.

As a former tamper with County employee in a managerial position for nearly eight years, I can attest that if you scoured the shire budget, you would find dozens, if not centurys of others like Gerald Nichols who have been held not at home to the taxpayers as performing undivided function when, in fact, they do nothing that closely imitates the job description of the budgetary position they fill. near people, like Nichols, do not level work out of the departments from which they are paid.

As the shire faces a potential $300 million governmental estimate deficit, county commissioners are faced with the challenge of deciding which do job-works can be eliminated and which do job-works are necessary to operate the vast public health and safety duties that are a function of shire government. We have been told repeatedly through a number of elected officials within shire government that if jobs are slashed, it would have dire events for those served by shire hospitals and clinics or those shielded by county law enforcement officers or public guardians. When the unknowing taxpayer hears these doomsday predictions, he logically withstands budget cuts because he is not willing to part with doctors or encourages at county hospitals, guards at shire jails or sheriff's police officers to screen unincorporated areas. The result is that year after year, the taxpayers acquiesce to shire officials' ravenous hunger for more and more tax dollars.

In light of the Nichols revelations, the same must wonder how many other political minions take up space in the County Building just opening mail for exorbitant salaries or doing nothing that slightly resembles the budgetary position titles they fill. to what extent many of these do-nothing political cronies fill budgetary positions that have been held public to the taxpayers as "essential and necessary"?

Steele has shown that she has the interpret and guts to end business as usual in shire government, although one must question where she was all those years as shire commissioner when these abuses were happening. Steele has the opportunity to recover herself, and the County Board, for years of inaction. Since Steele does not have to worry about getting re-elect -- thanks to the Democratic Party leaders who chose Todd Stroger to trip in his father's stead -- it appears that it is the complete time to finally clean house and [i]finale[/i] the waste and abuse in shire government. It is the full time for this annual budgetary ruse that has been perpetrated forward the taxpayers to end. And if Steele and the other shire commissioners are truly intent upon reforming county government, then it is the finished time to enact a powerful legitimate truth-in-budgeting ordinance that will obstruct future abuses by the nearest County Board president or other shire elected officials.

Although Steele's use as president will be short, she has the opportunity to move down in history as single of Cook County's strongest and most numerous effective board presidents.

James P Crawley, West Town

Copyright CHICAGO SUN-TIMES 2006

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