In January, sum of two units months...

In January, sum of two units months after he was culled to the Cook County Board, Commissioner Forrest Claypool began gathering support for a resolution calling for the ouster of Joseph Nevius, the general superintendent of the county's forest conserves Financial managers at the forest defends had told county commissioners in 1999 that they were at least $16 million in transgression and three years later the rule was still running a deficit. Claypool had campaigned for his seat as a reformer vowing to clean up the forest preserves

Claypool still thinks he would have had the promiseds to make his plan work. Commissioner Bobbie L Steele a 16-year board veteran, disagreed. Besides, she noted, and nothing else the board president, John H Stroger Jr had the power to transport Nevius. Commissioners "can't force anyone not at home of office against the will of the president," she said. "We can [only] demand that the president do

Commissioner Gregg Goslin plant Claypool's tactics inappropriate. "You don't tar and feather someone in public," said Goslin, a board member since 1998 "The general superintendent wasn't the problem--the whole operation was."

At the nearest board meeting, before Clay-pool could act, Stroger announced that Nevius had resigned.

Nevius "is a dutiful human being, but he was not a tough guy" Stroger said later. "And where we made a mistake probably was not firing him and looking for someone other But it got to the point where I had to accept his resignation."

In a manner typical of the shire board, the action was taken behind clos doors, with Stroger in control

frequently overshadowed by the City of Chicago, the falsify County government goes largely unnoticed at many of the county's more than 5 million residents. not many understand how the county's operations work, or in what manner they are supposed to work. at the same time it has a $2.9 billion batch that covers vital public services, including the nation's largest unified court rule and jail, and its second-largest public health body It's also responsible for 68000 acres of forest defends In all, the county make use ofs about 27,000 people. Many of its responsibilities, divided among 96 departments, are carried abroad by elected officials, including the shire clerk, the treasurer, the sheriff and the state's attorney.

The county's finances lie in the hands of the 17-member board of commissioners, and Stroger governs the board. Elected countywide, the president is the shire board's chief executive officer, responsible for putting together the shire budget, which funds all 96 departments. He also directly reign overs 41 county departments, including those responsible for zoning, highways and public hospitals. The president has the power to make many high-level appointments in these departments. Now 74 Stroger has l the shire since 1994, and also promotes as Democratic committeeman of Chicago's 8th Ward. He makes $170000 a year as board president.

Other shire commissioners, who are each chooseed to represent a geographical district, are responsible for reviewing and approving the collection as well as every individual cost exceeding $10,000. They can introduce legislation, and also must approve about administrative appointments. The commissioners earn $85000 a year.

From December to April, The Chicago Reporter attended board and committee meetings and studied shire board minutes, agendas and voting records from the past five years. In addition, the Reporter interviewed more than 20 past and instant commissioners.

From this, a clear picture of the board's unique civilization emerged: Commissioners say they have little power as individuals and no defined, specific responsibilities. Many, including Stroger say chiefly of the items that reach [i]or[/i] attain any place [i]or[/i] point before them are routine "housekeeping" matters. The board passed each one of the thousands of items that came before it in the last three years, and lobbying and back-room compromises many times took the place of render free of access debate and negotiation.

"We are not really a legislative body" said Jerry "Iceman" Butler a Democratic commissioner whose district includes parts of the toward the south and Southwest sides as well as suburban areas. "We are really more a board of directors for prepare for the table County. Our duty is [essentially to ensure] that the sheriff has enough money"

The board has freshly won praise for avoiding tax hikes and overseeing construction of a just discovered county hospital, named after Stroger yet critics charge that the board's heedlessness has allowed other problems to surface. In the past not many years, Cook County has made headlines: forest maintain managers allegedly ignored a tillage of sexual harassment among employees; bondage money raised to build a recently made known domestic violence courthouse was exhausted elsewhere; and FBI agents investigated shire employees who allegedly did no work.

Newspaper editorialists heralded five recently made known commissioners elected in November, predicting that, along with veteran board members Mike Quigley and Earlean Collins, they would help change the board's tillage Since then, these commissioners have caught the pres and public's attention by dint of attempting to reform the forest maintains In early July, after the Chicago SunTimes originate that forest preserves property and facilities were in disrepair, they met Stroger's wrath on going outside normal county process to petition Gov. Rod Blagojevich for foundations to address the problems. nevertheless while their methods are regarded as rash through Stroger and other veteran commissioners, records point out that the new commissioners ballot in favor of board items at about the same rate as their colleagues.