Tuesday, April 29, 2008

County Employees Must Maintain Confidentiality

On April 24, 2008, the Steve Patterson at the Chicago Sun-Times wrote an article entitled, "Stroger Wants Employees to Sign Confidentiality Agreement:"

"Just 18 months ago, Todd Stroger was campaigning for office on a promise to make Cook County government more open and transparent. Now, though, the County Board President is forcing anyone who works under him to sign a confidentiality agreement — promising they won’t disclose anything he deems 'confidential' that they 'learned, disclosed or observed' while on the job. They must also promise never to disclose information after they leave their job."

Please check out the rest of the article and share your thoughts!

http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/912402,toddweb042408.article

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Better Government Association Director Speaks on Cook County Patronage

Executive Director of the Better Government Association wrote a letter to the Daily Herald addressing his concerns of patronage in Cook County:

"Recently, Cook County Board President Todd Stroger and his loyal Democratic commissioners decided the best way to grapple with the county's budget deficit was not to cut wasteful spending and political patronage, but rather raise the county's share of the sales tax rate by well over 100 percent, from .75 percent to 1.75 percent."

Click here to read the rest of the letter:

http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=172802&src

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

7th Circuit Court of Appeals Upholds Sorich Case

The Chicago Tribune reports on the unanimous Seventh Circuit opinion delivered on April 16, 2008 in an article entitled, "Appeals Court Deals City Hall Patronage New Blow,"

"In a sharply worded ruling that struck a new blow at City Hall patronage, a federal appeals court Tuesday upheld the convictions of four men for scheming to rig hiring in Mayor Richard Daley’s administration—even though prosecutors never proved they personally benefited.
Former Daley patronage chief Robert Sorich and two co-defendants were found guilty in 2006 of ensuring that jobs and promotions were reserved for members of pro-Daley political armies that helped the mayor’s endorsed candidates. A fourth defendant was convicted of lying to investigators. A three-judge panel of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals swatted away their key contention that they could not be convicted of criminal fraud because they took no bribes or kickbacks. 'It is hard to take too seriously the contention that the defendants did not know that by creating a false hiring scheme that provided thousands of lucrative city jobs to political cronies, falsifying documents and lying repeatedly about what they were doing, they were perpetrating a fraud,' Judge Ann Williams wrote for the unanimous panel."

Click here to read the article in its entirety:

http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/clout_st/2008/04/appeals-court-d.html

Click here to read the Seventh Circuit opinion:

http://www.ca7.uscourts.gov/tmp/CI1FG7EZ.pdf

Comments?

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Compliance Administrator Meets with Cook County Commissioners to Discuss Second Semi-Annual Report

On April 9, 2008 the Compliance Administrator appeared before the Cook County Board of Commissioners to discuss her Second Semi-Annual Report that was filed on February 29, 2008. Check out the Chicago Sun-Times' and Chicago Tribune's coverage of this meeting:

http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/887585,CST-NWS-County10.article

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-county10apr10,0,5616604.story

To check out the full Second Semi-Annual Report, click here:

http://www.countyshakman.com/downloads/cc_shakman_CAReport02.pdf


What do you think?