Posted by Hal Dardick at 12:45 p.m.
Chicago city government is infamous for corruption, but Cook County’s no slouch when it comes to graft and other malfeasance, concludes a report issued today by university researchers and government watchdogs.
Nearly 150 county politicians, employees and contractors have been convicted on corruption charges since 1957, according to the report released this morning by the University of Illinois at Chicago political science department and the Better Government Association. You can read the report here.
“This is Cook County’s corruption catalog,” said Andy Shaw, the BGA’s executive director and a former TV political reporter. “This is a perfect storm moment for reform in Illinois.”
The groups recommendations include limiting individual campaign contributions to county candidates to $1,500 per election.
In her recent victory for the Democratic Cook County Board president nomination, Ald. Toni Preckwinkle, 4th, received scores of contributions greater than that amount, including $150,000 from the local branch of the Service Employees International Union.
Also recommended is a ban on the “solicitation of gifts from any government employee for their supervisors or superiors” — a response to a Tribune report on Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown’s practice of accepting thousands of dollars of cash gifts from her employees, said Professor Dick Simpson, a former alderman and one of the report’s authors.
Brown pledged to stop accepting birthday and Christmas gifts from employees after the Tribune asked her about it.
Another recommendation is to prohibit elected officials, supervisors or employees from collecting or holding cash from county employees — a response to several media reports on Brown requiring $2 or $3 contributions to wear jeans on specified days.