White Sox being cheap? Or is it just petty people looking for something else baseball-related to gripe about?

The Chicago White Sox this past winter tried to portray themselves as major players to attract the big-star ballplayers who were available on the open market; yet the end result was failure.

Was there ever a chance that Manny Machado or … 

Neither infielder Manny Machado nor outfielder Bryce Harper wound up regarding White Sox offers seriously – which has a certain segment of baseball fans now going out of their way to lambaste the Sox as cheap or amateurish.

… Bryce Harper would have played in Chicago?

SOME EVEN MANAGE to come up with language much more blunt and vulgar – to the point where I wouldn’t feel compelled repeating it here.

Yet I can’t help but think those people are being ridiculous. In part because I suspect many of the same individuals are the same people who spent the winter months when ballplayer negotiations took place lambasting the very idea that these two men were somehow worthy of the big-money, long-term deals they were demanding.

As it turned out, Machado went with the San Diego Padres – which offered him a 10-year, $300 million deal. Harper this week got an even bigger contract; some $330 million over 13 years with the Philadelphia Phillies.

Who, of course, were the baseball franchise whose ownership said they were prepared to spend “stupid” money in order to give themselves an injection of talent that could make them a sudden championship contender.

THE WHITE SOX never made a definitive offer to Harper, while the Machado deal was for some $250 million – with other clauses that could have boosted the overall cost to $350 million.

From journeyman outfielder to nondescript VP?

In theory, Machado could have made more money coming to Chicago, but chose San Diego because he wanted the guaranteed payoff rather than the possibility of more money.

Which has some baseball fans determined to badmouth the South Side ball club by saying the Sox were too amateurish to negotiate firmly – instead acting as though they hoped to get some sort of discount to get Machado in the black-and-white pinstripes of the Sox; rather than wearing the occasional brown-and-yellow throwback uniforms that lead fans to joke about Taco Bell.

I think such criticism is ridiculous – and not just because some of the same fans seem like they’d criticize the Sox for doing a deal AND for not doing a deal.

IT ACTUALLY MAKES me think that White Sox executive vice president Ken Williams had a point when he told the Chicago Sun-Times that, “it’s a shame if it’s being portrayed that we were on the cheap on this thing. That’s really interesting because, holy shit, that’s a quarter of a billion dollars we offered with a chance to be higher than what he’s getting.”

Then again, there probably is an element of a baseball executive trying to downplay the fact that he got beaten out for a ballplayer he wanted to acquire – not only for his on-field talents but also for the large amount of publicity his acquisition would have brought to Chicago.

Which, I suspect, is what has many people eager to bad-mouth them. Or at least those people whose baseball leanings make them delusional enough to root, root, root for the Cubbies.

Perhaps they didn’t like the idea of the White Sox flirting with baseball relevance – and reminding people that Chicago IS a two-team town. No matter how much some Cubs fans are insecure at the thought of anyone paying attention to any team other than themselves.

NOT THAT I’M intending to write an anti-Cubs diatribe here. It’s just that I’m not bothered much by the fact that Machado turned down a White Sox offer and didn’t get serious in trying to win over Harper.

Wasn't good enough to bring championship to Chgo

I still think that if all the rhetoric about the White Sox rebuilding themselves into a serious championship contender has any truth to it, it’s going to be because a significant share of those young minor leaguers already in the Sox system actually turn out to be as good as speculated.

Acquiring either of them would not, by itself, have turned the White Sox into a championship team.

All it would have done was created a deal that would have financially strapped the White Sox for years to come – possibly thwarting any serious efforts to improve the team in the future. As though what the Sox really need is to come up with their own version of Ernie Banks – a star ballplayer whose career was wasted away playing for Cubs teams that never won a thing.

  -30-

Chutzpah; even by local standards for government corruption in Cook

Carla Oglesby is a former staffer for Cook County government who received a prison sentence this week for allegedly figuring out how to divert county government contracts to a company she owned.

THOMAS: In charge of a TIF

Her behavior during the few months she was former county board President Todd

Stroger’s deputy chief of staff was so brazen that prosecutors called it the “rape of Cook County.”

YET IN THE ongoing saga that is government corruption in Cook County, she might not even be the most outrageous official this week.

A part of me thinks that honor goes to John Thomas, a real estate developer who now faces charges in U.S. District Court for allegedly using funds from a tax increment finance district connected to the marina in suburban Riverdale – which is just across the Cal-Sag canal from Chicago.

He had a court appearance Wednesday, and used his time following the hearing to complain that he’s the one who is being prosecuted.

Thomas also says he wants nothing more to do with the marina in Riverdale – as though if he can’t use its money to cover his own living expenses (the Chicago Sun-Times reported that he was covering the payments on his downtown condominium), then he no longer wants to be bothered with the facility.

THAT’S SOME ATTITUDE for a real estate developer to take. The real hard-core developers are the ones who think they can make money out of any property, in legitimate ways.

Of course, the degree to which Thomas was trying to skirt the rules of our society seem to extend beyond this one scam. He previously faced criminal charges, but managed to avoid prison that time because of the information he was able to provide about politically-connected developer Antonin Rezko (remember him?).

There’s also the fact that U.S. District Judge James Zagel had put restrictions on Thomas’ being able to use a telephone or the Internet (so as to reduce his contact with the outside world).

OGLESBY: In charge of Cook?

But the judge learned that Thomas is using his wife’s cell phone, and the Internet connection through Google TV to send out e-mail messages.

THIS IS A defendant who is going to have to be watched like a hawk while the criminal charges are pending. This is NOT a routine case, by any means.

Some $370,000 that he is alleged to have gained from the Riverdale Marina TIF was likely just the starting point. And while I’ll be the first to admit that Riverdale Marina has become decrepit, consider its potential if the money had wound up going to fix the place up.

Although the fact that Thomas was crass this week shouldn’t excuse Oglesby – who got the 6 1/2-year prison sentence for allegedly using her government office to divert $325,000 worth of county contracts to the public relations firm she previously operated, and also to some close friends.

What makes her case interesting is that all the activity occurred in a two-month time period.

OGLESBY HAD BEEN a spokeswoman for Stroger’s unsuccessful re-election bid in 2010, but she got the political consolation prize, of sorts, of being put on the county payroll during that time period between the primary election and the time late in the year when Toni Preckwinkle took over the post.

She wasn’t in government for long. But she appears to have not wasted any time in getting a benefit for herself.

Now I realize as much as anyone that the reason people work is for some personal gain. Very few people work for purely altruistic reasons.

But this is taking personal gain to an extreme. Even the idea that corruption is vague and hard to define doesn’t come close to justifying the attitudes expressed this week by either Oglesby or Thomas.

  -30-

Being tough on crime? Or just overzealous with desire to punish?

BEAVERS: Wants to be free

Former Cook County Commissioner William Beavers will be in court on Wednesday to learn just how long a time he will have to serve in prison as punishment for his income tax evasion offenses, and we’re going to see just how hard-core the prosecution will be in getting its way.

For what it’s worth, Beavers’ attorneys have filed documents in court saying they really believe the one-time cop turned alderman turned county board member ought not to do any prison time.

THEY HAVE SAID he ought to get probation. It also seems, if reports from WLS-TV newscasts are accurate, that Beavers is still persisting with his train of thought that he is being persecuted (as well as prosecuted) by the federal government.

He claims he was only prosecuted on the income tax evasion charges (connected to how he used money from his campaign funds for personal use) because he would not provide federal investigators with information about former county board President Todd Stroger and Commissioner John Daley, D-Chicago.

Perhaps the self-described “hog” thinks he’s about to become a political prisoner along the lines of Martin Luther King, Jr., or Gandhi? A bit self-righteous, we all must admit. I doubt Beavers is capable of writing anything as eloquent as King's letter from the Birmingham jail.

Yet the U.S. Attorney’s office for Chicago has suggested that Beavers serve just under two years (which they will persist in describing as 21 months because it sounds more imposing that way) in a prison facility.

NO MATTER HOW much one thinks that Beavers is full of himself and trying to spin his story to make himself the hero, we must also remember that the federal government is just as capable of doing the same.

They’re going to present the most onerous account possible to ensure the longest prison term possible. Because that will allow for a prosecutor to put another notch on his record (and yes, I have known prosecutors at the federal and state level who think in such terms – like they’re fighter pilots counting down the number of enemy planes shot down).

It is why I’m always willing to give a criminal defendant a bit of a break when hearing the rhetoric being spun against him by prosecutors at any level.

MEDRANO: Headed back, but for how long?

That’s certainly the case involving former Alderman Ambrosio Medrano, who on Tuesday entered a “guilty” plea to a wire fraud charge related to his involvement in negotiations on a contract for bandages used at Stroger Hospital.

THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE reported that when Medrano comes up for sentencing in January, prosecutors may ask for something resembling a 20-year prison term for the 59-year-old man.

Medrano’s attorneys, however, told the newspaper that something along the line of two years (about what Beavers could receive on Wednesday) is more appropriate.

U.S. District Judge Gary Feinerman told Medrano he needed to consider the great difference in opinion before deciding whether he should enter a “guilty” plea, saying, “You understand there is a dramatically different view of what the guidelines will be?”

Somehow, I suspect Medrano is going to get slammed in a way worse than anything that befalls Beavers. For Medrano is also the one who holds a unique niche in the world of government corruption – the repeat offender.

HE DID A prison term following his conviction in the “Operation Silver Shovel” federal investigation of City Hall in the 1990s. Now, he’s likely to go back to prison for this and for another conviction earlier this year for allegedly being involved in paying off an official for a mail-order pharmaceutical contract with the Cook County hospital system.

Because even though he couldn’t get himself re-elected to office after his first conviction and prison term, he was still involved in the inner-workings of government at the county level.

If anything, it perhaps is evidence that the people in politics we ought most being paying attention to are those whose names don’t appear on the ballot and rely on their relative anonymity to have people ignore their actions.

Although, still, a 20-year to 2-year difference in opinion isn’t all that different from the notion of Beavers thinking he should still be free, while the feds thinking he’s entitled to an “Oxford education” – as in a prison term served at the federal facility in Oxford, Wis.

  -30-

EXTRA: Legalese vs. English

PRECKWINKLE: Legalese translator?

The Cook County Board gave its approval Wednesday to a measure that will have county government spend just over $3 million to have access to Lexis/Nexis for the next three years – with options to renew for two more years.

Lexis/Nexis, of course, is the computer database that provides so much detailed information. For those of you wiseacres who are going to claim the county could use the Internet for free, keep in mind that Lexis/Nexis provides access to credible information – rather than the babble that pollutes too many websites.

IN DESCRIBING THE need for the access by the court system, the state’s attorney, the public defender’s office and the county sheriff, county Commissioner John Daley, D-Chicago, described the need for “legal research” by those entities.

To which county board President Toni Preckwinkle retorted, “You mean a substitution for law books?!?”

  -30-

Pay me to live in city, Police say

I realize that living in the city of Chicago proper can be more costly than living in one of the suburban communities that surround it.

Personally, I’d argue that the sense of isolation one can feel living in a suburb makes the additional cost of city life worthwhile. But I also realize that is a viewpoint not shared by all.

IN PARTICULAR, IT does not seem to be shared by the people who are supposed to be patrolling the city streets and keeping them safe for us – the Police Department.

For it seems that those police officers (who by city ordinance are required to live within the Chicago municipal limits) seem to think they’re entitled to more money, on account of the fact that they’re being forced to live in the City of Chicago.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported Thursday about the negotiations now taking  place between the city and the Fraternal Order of Police on behalf of police officers.

It seems that the police union not only wants a significant pay increase and a reduction in the amount of money they have to contribute toward their health insurance benefit package, they also want a $3,000 annual stipend to compensate them for the residency issue.

IN SHORT, THEY seem to think they are being burdened by the city that gives them employment. Talk about an attitude that is bothersome.

It really makes me want to respond by telling them if they despise urban life so much, perhaps they ought not to be working for the city in any form.

Now I realize that “residency” is an issue that all governmental units have to confront when it comes to hiring people to actually do the work that allows government to function and provide services for us all.

I also realize that this is likely an early offer in contract negotiations. This is the point where one asks for “the moon” (and the city does its best impersonation of Ebenezer Scrooge), and then the two sides try to work toward a middle ground that will become the eventual contract.

SO PERHAPS I shouldn’t take it too seriously that the police are saying they want more money if they have to live in the city.

But it’s just the kind of attitude that makes me wonder, at times, if we need to be protected from our police – rather than view them as an entity that will protect us from those elements of our society that want to strong-arm us into submission.

When it comes to our city’s cops, we all have heard the jokes about those “cop enclaves” on the city’s far Southwest and Northwest sides – people living as close as they possibly can to the city limits without actually being residents of Alsip or Norridge or some other community.

And yes, in the interest of disclosure, I should admit that I have two uncles who were with the Chicago police (one is now retired, while the other is deceased) who when they were working lived near Midway Airport and in the Mount Greenwood neighborhood – both on the city’s fringes).

IT’S JUST THAT this is one issue where I don’t have a problem accepting the view that a city employee ought to live in the city he (or she) works in.

I know some suburbs don’t have strict residency requirements (and in an odd quirk, I know of at least two suburban cops who live in Chicago) because they think they need to reach out to a larger pool of employees than their residents could ever provide.

But that is different in Chicago, which is capable of attracting people who view the place as offering so much in opportunities that cannot be matched elsewhere.

So as for those cops who think they ought to be paid more to live in Chicago, personally I’d rather see us pay them off to get lost. We’d be better off without them if they can't appreciate the perks of living in the Second City!

  -30-

It might be, it could be …

JACKSON: Losing his chance to mediate?

As I write this commentary Thursday afternoon, it appeared that the strike by the Chicago Teachers Union will only shutter the public schools for a week.

The teachers’ union’s House of Delegates is scheduled to meet Friday afternoon, giving some 700-plus delegates a chance to take a vote in support of a deal that would bring the strike to an end.

CLASSES COULD BE back in session come Monday. This strike could be the unofficial last week of summer break – one that came one week after classes officially began for the bulk of students in the Chicago Public Schools.

All of which strikes me as a “victory,” of sorts, for the union. They made their point that they could shutter the schools if they so wished. And classes will resume before public opinion can shift so drastically against the teachers union that they would start to feel serious backlash as a result of causing parents to be inconvenienced in finding a place for their kids to spend the day.

Which is kind of a shame because it creates the perception that the Chicago Public Schools are little more than a babysitting service. Certainly not a place that one  would send their child to in order to reinforce the intellectual skills they will need in order to have a chance to succeed in life.

But if it means that Rahm Emanuel has been smacked back a bit and that someone was capable of standing up to him, then perhaps that is good. Perhaps we shouldn’t be thinking of our government officials as invincible.

BECAUSE IT SEEMS that the only people who have been backing the mayor this week are those individuals with ideological hang-ups inclined to make them want to say “No!” anytime anyone associated with a labor union says anything.

I was somewhat amazed at the polls that showed a majority of actual people willing to support the teachers in their political fight with the school administration (which was being guided by Emanuel and other city officials).

Then again, it shouldn’t be shocking to learn that those ideologues don’t really represent the attitudes of the public, and that the only real reason they get so much attention is the volume of their voices. Does anybody really care what Paul Ryan or Mitt Romney thinks about a Chicago labor dispute?

He who shouts the loudest can’t be ignored – no matter how nonsensical their rhetoric truly is!

OF COURSE, I’M cadging my bets in writing this commentary because I’m fully aware of how something can always derail a deal at the last minute.

Even teachers union President Karen Lewis was saying that on a scale of 1 through 10, the chance of a contract agreement was a “nine.” Perhaps we all ought to be saying a prayer to whatever divine presence one prefers to believe in that the “1” doesn’t suddenly become a reality and cause picket lines to run into next week.

It really would be preferable if “the kids” were to go back to class come Monday. Some of them really can’t afford any distraction if they’re to have a chance to learn anything.

Besides, if it turns out that the strike is not settled, we may well have to turn to the Rev. Jesse Jackson for help.

FOR JACKSON ON Wednesday offered his services to mediate between the schools and the union in hopes of bringing the two sides together.

The man who has mediated in the Middle East and brought hostages back home to the United States would certainly gain an over-bloated ego if he were to gain any significant role in settling this labor dispute.

And just think of the blow to Emanuel's ego if he were to get upstaged by the Rev. Jackson?

  -30-

EDITOR'S NOTE: The headline is a take-off on long-time baseball broadcaster Harry Caray's home-run call. I'm holding off on the "it is" until I learn of an actual vote.

‘Confused politician’ truly redundant. Or, does 'slammer’ serve good beef?

“This isn’t a double-negative?”

GORMAN: Making sure she doesn't vote wrong

That bit of skepticism and concern came from the lips of Cook County Commissioner Elizabeth Doody Gorman, R-Orland Park, when she and her colleagues were voting on a measure Tuesday that had instigated hours of debate at a previous meeting.

GORMAN WAS CONCERNED she was about to vote the “wrong” way on something because maybe the issue was worded in a way that she’d have to vote “no” to support something.

In fact, she wasn’t the only person confused. It took nearly 15 minutes to take a roll-call vote of 16 individuals (county Commissioner Earlean Collins, D-Chicago, was absent) because everybody was clueless about what was happening at that moment.

Commissioner William Beavers, D-Chicago, engaged in a back-and-forth repartee with the board secretary to ensure that his “yes” vote really was an affirmative one that meant exactly what he intended it to mean.

I would say it was amusing to watch. But the fact that it was our tax dollars at work made it most-definitely a chore.

WHAT WAS AT stake was the food service contract for Cook County Jail (yes, if we incarcerate people, we have to feed them).

Aramark, based in Philadelphia, had the contract.

But the county is now going to transfer over to Sioux Falls, S.D.-based CBM Managed Services, which has a division that specializes in food service at correctional facilities across the country.

It seems that one of the potential perks is that CBM is capable of offering the inmates a culinary treat – if they’re willing to pay for it themselves.

ONCE THE TRANSITION is made and things are up and running, inmates being held at the county jail will get one night a week where they can have an Italian beef sandwich for their dinner (a Buona Beef brand sandwich, I’m told).

Before you start getting all worked up about inmates being coddled, keep in mind that the only ones who will get such a sandwich will be those who have enough money in their jail inmate accounts to cover the cost.

But I can envision the rants and rages of the alleged “law and order” types, and perhaps that fear of instigating these people is what caused the county board members to be overly cautious about casting their votes.

Because this is exactly the kind of issue that gets distorted into a nasty attack ad or the subject material for a campaign mailing by some future opponent who figures real people don’t have time to figure out the “truth” behind the attack.

THEN AGAIN, THIS probably was the ultimate example of “fear and ignorance” combined in our government officials. It definitely wasn’t a pretty sight.

In the end, the measure got a 13-1 vote, with county Commissioner Joan Patricia Murphy, D-Crestwood, being the lone “no” vote. Two other commissioners cast “present” votes – which probably means they couldn’t figure out at all what they should do when they were finally confronted with the roll call.

And soon, the inmates of our county jail will have a food option that might make their incarceration while awaiting trial (or serving a short sentence for a minor offense) just slightly more bearable.

Not that I would want to be held as an inmate for any length of time. Getting a sandwich stuffed with something other than bologna just doesn’t seem worth it.

AYKROYD (as Blues): Not a fan of the oatmeal



EVEN IF THE Cook County Jail develops a reputation for serving a quality beef sandwich!

I suspect that for most of us, all we’re going to know about the food at the jail is what we learned from The Blues Brothers film – namely that the oatmeal is lousy.

  -30-

School negotiations turn to comic relief

Personally if I need a laugh, I’d want to turn to Redd Foxx. Even all these years later, the man is funny.

But some people seem to want to use our public officials and their inanities as a source of humor, and it seems the Chicago school officials and their teachers are going to be willing to play along.

BECAUSE I CAN’T help but find some warped humor in the way negotiations are going toward a new contract. And what is even more pathetic is the fact that officials seem willing to play along.

Talks between the two sides had reached such a stalemate that an arbitrator was brought in to try to negotiate a deal.

That arbitrator, according to the Chicago Tribune, is expected to recommend that teacher salaries be increased for the first year of any contract somewhere between 15-20 percent. Which is a figure that both sides will find completely unacceptable and will refuse to go along with.

Which is going to result in the general populace finding so many reasons to be critical of these people. And I suspect the ideological leanings of people will determine (moreso than the facts) which side they wind up taking.

SOME PEOPLE ARE going to try to spin this as an issue of a Chicago Teachers Union being ridiculous – if not outright greedy. After all, the Chicago schools had been offering a 2 percent pay raise. This is significantly higher.

Why shouldn’t the teachers’ union jump at the chance to accept it – and put the blame on the Chicago Public Schools officials for refusing to go along?

Yet I can’t help but confess that I don’t see the issue that way. In fact, I think the only people who are going to blame the unions are the ones who have ideological hang-ups that always cause them to blame organized labor.

Because I think the people who really are against this deal are the Chicago Public Schools officials. This arbitrator is about to give legitimacy to the claims that the teachers’ union has been making for months – which are flat-out opposed to the ideas that the Chicago Public Schools (and Mayor Rahm Emanuel) have been trying to put in our heads for months.

BECAUSE THE BEGINNING negotiating stance of the Chicago Teachers Union has always been to ask for a 29 percent raise – with 20 percent being for the added hours they’re going to be asked to work as part of a longer school day, and another 4 percent to compensate for a pay hike they had to give up.

As far as what the union was asking for as a pay hike for the upcoming year, it was 5 percent. Compared to the Chicago Public Schools’ offer of 2 percent, it doesn’t sound too far off.

The city has always contended that the teachers’ union was engaging in a stream of nonsense-talk by even bringing up the idea of compensation for a lost past pay raise and more work, in addition to a pay raise for the upcoming year.

Yet this arbitrator is making it clear that the teachers’ union isn’t being ridiculous at all in asking for such things, and that the city may well have to cough up at least a part of these demands if THEY’RE serious about wanting to avert a teacher’s strike sometime this autumn.

WHY DO I suspect that the last time a labor arbitrator upset management so intensely was back in 1975 when Peter Seitz sided with the Major League Baseball Players Association instead of the team owners and made the ruling that created the concept of free agency for veteran players?

No, I don’t expect the teachers of the Chicago Public Schools to become as wealthy as a one-time Cy Young Award winner who only this season is showing anything worth watching while pitching for the White Sox.

EMANUEL: How livid is he these days?



But this kind of ruling does undermine the idea that these teachers ought to be thankful anyone is willing to give them a 2 percent raise. It certainly undermines the hard line that the city officials (at Emanuel’s direction) have been trying to take with the school teachers.

Such as the one they want to spew when they cite studies such as the one that can be interpreted as saying that Chicago teachers are already among the highest-paid in the nation.

IT REINFORCES THE idea that if we do get the sight of teachers walking the picket lines this autumn, Emanuel and his people who have been out to bully the teachers’ union these past few months are going to have to take a significant share of the blame!

And in the end, it would be the students of the Chicago Public Schools who would wind up losing out.

  -30-

EXTRA: Some people just like to make things more complex than they truly are

For a routine maneuver that should be fairly straightforward, the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District managed on Thursday to come up with a way of complicating a deal.

Among the many acts of business the water district’s commissioners had to deal with when they met was to approve the process by which they seek bids to buy new kitchen equipment for the cafeteria located in their Near North Side offices, at 100 E. Erie St.

 NOTE THAT WE’RE not talking about awarding a contract. Merely seeking bids.

In short, getting a price from anyone interested in selling the kitchen equipment to the water district so that officials can figure out who will give them the best deal.

It should be a routine matter of advertising for bids for items that include an oven, a grill, a deep fryer and a steam table.

Yet when it comes to political people, they just have a knack for complicating things – which is why the water district ultimately decided to defer any action on seeking a price.

NOT APPROVING A contract. But trying to shop.

The confusion got amped up in part by water district Commissioner Cynthia Santos, who said she wants assurances that whatever kitchen equipment the district buys for their cafeteria will be capable of preparing “healthier meals.”

Which to my sensibility is a new excuse. It’s the stove’s fault that all the food being served is, as the old cliché goes, “deep fried and dipped in chocolate.” The kitchen staff, or types of food being bought, have nothing to do with it! (Heavy sarcasm most definitely intended here).

Although I think water district Commissioner Frank Avila put the issue in proper perspective when he mockingly said that purchasing new kitchen equipment was going to force the politicos who oversee the sewage treatment plants for the Chicago area to go on “vegan diets” and “eliminate deep fried food” they may be eating too much of these days.

AND FOR THOSE of you good-government geeky types who get into contractual numbers, this particular project is to replace cafeteria equipment that was installed in 1985.

Water district officials hope that purchasing new kitchen equipment won’t cost them more than $42,500, and they’re hoping that the project will be complete by year’s end.

  -30-

Being cautious? Or careless?

There are times when I’m not sure whether to think that our government officials are being cautious and protective of the tax dollars they’re spending – or if their unwillingness to rush into something is just evidence that they don’t have a clue as to what they’re talking about.

That was definitely the impression I gained Tuesday from watching the Cook County Board in action.

THE ISSUE OF the moment was approving an item that would have allowed the county to seek bids for, “the purchase of uniforms and clothing for various county departments.”

When I first read that on an agenda, my gut reaction was to wonder, “What departments?!?”

So it was with a jolt of excitement that I heard county board member Deborah Sims start off debate on this issue by asking the very blunt, and straightforward, question.

“What departments are we talking about?”

GEE. A GOVERNMENT official wanting to have a clue as to what is going on. In fact, a government official refusing to just cast a knee-jerk vote in favor of something – even though it really was just a procedural step in the whole purchasing process.

But before you start using e-mail to send me all your horror stories about Sims and her past government actions, this commentary isn’t about to become a piece praising the county board member from the Far South Side and surrounding suburbs.

In fact, it’s not a piece that will make anyone happy – except for maybe the malcontents who like to complain about government and get their joy from watching our public officials screw things up.

I don’t, because I realize it ultimately harms our interests and reflects badly upon us. After all, we voted for Sims and all the other members of the Cook County Board. Her gaffes are our gaffes.

WHAT ENSUED IN response to Sims’ question was a back-and-forth in which the bureaucrats who handle government purchases for the county government tried to avoid giving a direct answer.

“Various departments” was the initial response. Upon some pushing by Sims, one such department was identified as the sheriff’s police.

Which led to some confusion since the sheriff’s deputies and other law enforcement personnel are required to purchase their own uniforms – with eventual reimbursement for their expenses, provided they don’t get carried away with their sartorial demands.

After much more squabbling, it eventually came out that what was being considered here were those deliberately-hideous jump suits that inmates at the Cook County Jail and other facilities are required to wear so that they stand out in a crowd of people.

WHAT THIS IS about is seeking bids from companies to sell the county the khaki clothing that inmates must wear.

But county purchasing agent Maria de Lourdes Coss said, “we do not want to limit it,” because there’s also the chance that they may include bids for uniforms worn by the civilian personnel who work for the sheriff – such as the janitorial staff.

It was a lot of squabbling over what should have been a very straightforward issue. We do, after all, have to clothe those inmates while they are in the custody of the county. It’s one of those dreaded, but very necessary, expenses.

And Sims was legitimate in her indignation upon finally being given a straight answer, saying of the written description provided to county officials, “this doesn’t tell us anything,” adding later, “you’re not telling us who these departments are.”

AGREEING WITH HER was county board member Robert Steele, who said, “we want to be quite aware of what we’re voting on.”

In fact, Sims at one point tried to postpone a vote on this measure (which is just about seeking the bids, it’s not about actually awarding a contract) until a future meeting.

Yet that is where Sims goes from being the good-government aggressive-type to being the official who probably didn’t have a clue what she was being told.

Because when she was finally given the explanation, she ultimately voted for the measure to seek bids – even though she admits she’s still upset about the lack of details provided.

“I THINK THEY should give us a better explanation, but this will suffice for today,” she said in backing the measure. Was this just a backing-down to cover up her confusion? It sure seems that way.

So in the end, the routine measure got a routine vote of support – everybody said “aye.” If anybody opposed this measure – which seeks bids for a one-year contract to sell the county inmate uniforms, with three one-year renewal options – they kept it to themselves.

Which in the end means this was county business, as usual.

That may be the real key to comprehending the way government at any level operates. Something does not have to be illegal in order to be bad. Sometimes, it’s the most innocuous moments that are the most cheesy in character.

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Raises really about ‘letter of the law’

A labor arbitrator on Tuesday ruled in a way that will offend so many people – except for those who think logically on issues.

QUINN: Pay up, says arbitrator

Because the arbitrator’s ruling that says the state must provide the pay raises called for in its contracts with some 30,000 employees in 14 state agencies is such a no-brainer.

THE STATE APPROVED a contract with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and it must live up to it. The fact that the state is having financial troubles (who isn’t!) doesn’t get them out of it, just as nobody would by sympathetic if the state were doing well financially and the workers decided they wanted an extra raise.

You live up to the terms of the contract. Come the next round of negotiations, the state will have every right to take a hard line on what it is willing to pay and to try to seek something in the way of concessions. Just as the unions will be anxious to hold the size of financial givebacks to a minimum.

That’s just the way things are.

The fact that Gov. Pat Quinn thought he could pull off a move such as ignoring the terms of the contract that called for 2 percent pay raises for the state fiscal year that began July 1may be evidence that he is just as capable as Rod Blagojevich of operating in an outrageous world of political fantasy.

NOW HAVING SAID all that, keep in mind that I realize the state has financial problems. I realize that somewhere, later this year, the General Assembly and Quinn are going to have to figure out just where to come up with roughly $75 million – the amount of extra money needed to meet the payroll for the full fiscal year.

There will be some serious cuts. Somebody is going to be hurt. And someone inevitably is going to try to stir up the rhetoric against the “greedy” labor unions by claiming that cut is all the fault of the workers who should have been thankful to even be employed – instead of expecting anything resembling a pay hike.

That, of course, is nonsense.

When those ideologues say it later this year, I will call them on it. Just as I’m calling them on it in advance. Because we have to keep in mind that these people just have an ideological opposition to organized labor.

WHICH MEANS THEY’D be complaining about “greedy” unions no matter what the circumstances. Just because they have a right to speak does not mean we are obligated to take them seriously.

The state made a deal, and must now keep it. If times remain tight (and I fully expect they will for the next few years), then when the contract expires and a new one must be negotiated, that will be the time to put on the political pressure to get financial cutbacks.

It is something I have seen in countless units of local government in the past couple of years. Nobody gets a pay raise. But on the other hand, everybody keeps their job.

These are labor unions willing to be responsible and accept the current economic realities.

IF IT TURNS out that AFSCME officials play hardball and try to demand significant increases for the next contract despite current conditions, THEN we can consider lambasting them for being irresponsible.

Although we should keep in mind that anybody who makes knee-jerk reactions to situations involving organized labor most likely is being a dink. Because the specific conditions of each situation need to be studied before determining what should happen.

For now, we have fortunate state employees who will get their 2 percent pay hike for this year – which is something that those workers ought to enjoy while they get it. Because I suspect the state will take a hard line the next round of negotiations, and will have significant public support to do so.

Until then, we have arbitrator Edwin Benn writing an opinion saying that the pay raises stand and that back pay for the past couple of weeks will have to be paid within the next 30 days. “These are hard fiscal times for the state, no doubt,” he wrote.

“WHEN THE STATE did not pay the increase,…the state did not keep its promise,” Benn wrote. “The state must now keep its promise.”

Somehow, I can’t help but think that line of logic is a statement of the incredibly obvious, like something we would teach children to understand as early as Kindergarten.

Perhaps what that really means is that we have officials in our state government who are capable of behaving as though they still belong in pre-school. Perhaps we need to have someone pull out the floor mats so they can take a nap.

Because their fatigue seems to be making them cranky and illogical.

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