Pols getting serious about former IDOT employee serving on Cook Co. board

How do we know that all the speculation about a former Illinois Department of Transportation employee being the favorite to fill a vacancy on the Cook County Board ought to be taken seriously?

To me, it is the notion that Stanley Moore this week finally got around to paying a $3,000 fine that he was hit with three years ago.

AS THOUGH MOORE thinks that by coughing up the cash all this time after the fine was imposed back in October 2010, he can somehow make the issue of why he was fined to begin with just go away.

If it was worth it financially to Moore to come up with the cash, he must really think he’s got a chance at being named to replace William Beavers as a commissioner on the county board.

All this is coming from the Chicago Tribune, which reported Wednesday that 21^st Ward Alderman Howard Brookins is touting Moore as his pick to replace Beavers.

Brookins is not the only Democratic committeeman with a say in the process. But under the procedures used by the Cook County Democratic Party, he has more of a say than anyone else.

HE IS NOW going about putting together a coalition of other committeemen from the Far South Side to try to get them to favor his decision.

When he gets that coalition together, THEN the party faithful will schedule some sort of public meeting at which time Brookins’ desire will be turned into reality.

For now, all the negotiations are being done in private. Particularly in trying to erase Moore’s record blotch that would cause many political amateurs to ponder why he ought to get the post to begin with.

For the record, Moore tried running back in 2008 against state Rep. Monique Davis, D-Chicago, for her legislative seat representing people in the Morgan Park and Beverly neighborhoods.

HE LOST. BUT in the process, it was determined by the state’s ethics commission that on at least three days, he “clocked in” for his job with the state Transportation Department and got paid his salary – even though all he allegedly did was work related to his unsuccessful political campaign.

By the time all of this was determined, Moore was a former state employee. He quit early in 2009 and the decision was made in October of 2010. Hence, it was felt the fine was the only action that could be taken to penalize him.

For what it’s worth, the Tribune reported that Moore paid $100 of his fine at the time. But it wasn’t until this week, the newspaper contends, that he got around to sending a check for the remaining amount of money.

Gee. I wish I knew it was possible to just ignore debts such as a fine. Because it would appear (to me, at least) that Moore wouldn’t have bothered to pay anything more if he weren’t interested in the county board post.

PERSONALLY, I FIND it interesting to read Moore’s claim that the reason he left his job with the state was because new leadership imposed around the time that Pat Quinn became governor following Rod Blagojevich’s impeachment took the agency in a new direction.

Even Brookins tries to downplay Moore’s alleged activity by claiming it is just evidence that politics is “a full-contact sport.”

As though, somehow, that concept justifies anything that occurs within government or any action taken by elected officials.

Of course, this post was going to gain public attention regardless. Replacing Beavers following the “guilty” verdict that was reached against him on federal tax evasion charges was going to put a lot of attention on the process.

PARTICULARLY WHEN IT became known that former county board President Todd Stroger and a nephew to former Mayor Eugene Sawyer were both among the many who have expressed interest in the post.

So for those people who now want to get all outraged at the thought of Moore, keep in mind that we could very easily be considering the appointment of Stroger, the younger, to this seat. With all the political baggage that his name carries.

On that thought, have a nice day!

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Fire the family?!? Those are ‘fighting words’ to some Chicago politicos

“If a man can’t put his arms around his sons and help them, then what’s the world coming to?” – Richard J. Daley

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DALEY: You know what he said!



Of course, there was another part of that exchange involving Richard Joseph and his attempt toward the end of his mayoral stint to direct some city insurance business to a firm run by the one son of his who didn’t get into electoral politics.

And I’m sure that part, which we’re all thinking about in our heads, is what Cook County Assessor Joseph Berrios wishes he could spout off these days without creating a further stink.

TIMES HAVE CHANGED. We have come a long way since those early 1970s days when Mayor Daley, the first, questioned why he couldn’t use his government influence to benefit his family.

After all, if the insurance firm being developed back then by his son, Michael, had provided legitimate service to the city government, then where’s the problem? Somebody had to benefit financially from getting the city business?

Why not keep it within his family, within people he believes he can trust? I’m sure that back then, there were some people who would have accepted that line of logic. For all I know, there may still be a couple.

But I’ll bet that even those couple of people are disgusted with Berrios these days, who is getting national attention after the Associated Press picked up on a Chicago Sun-Times story about Berrios’ hiring practices.

FOR A COOK County ethics board has found that not only were a couple of Berrios hires within his office ethics violations, they may well also be fiduciary violations as well. Meaning the county may be losing money because of these deals.

BERRIOS: Not the whole problem

For the record, that ethics board wants Berrios to fire his son, Joey, and his sister, Carmen. The former is a residential assistant, while the latter is director of taxpayer services.

Joe Berrios, the former county Board of Review member who in 2010 got elected to the post of Cook County assessor, has become the face of political nepotism in Chicago.

Which really is a joke, when you think about it. In a city where families named “Daley,” “Cullerton,” “Madigan,” “Stroger” and “Jackson” (just to name a few, there are many more) have developed political influence that spans generations, it’s la familia Berrios that is “the problem.”

WHICH IS WHY I really wonder if Berrios wishes he could channel Richard J. Daley in responding to the Cook County ethics board request. He really is just doing things the way they have long been done.

The “Chicago Way,” if you want to be flippant about it, with your lamest attempt at a Sean Connery Scottish accent.

Personally, I think some of the Berrios babble is a bit much, particularly since none of us should be the least bit shocked he would operate in such a manner. This was the man who won his 2010 campaign despite the best efforts of the goo-goo element of our society to demonize him as a political hack.

Should we really be surprised to learn that he would see his election as an upholding, of sorts, by the voters of his way of doing things? He probably figures that if voters really cared about such things, we’d have Assessor Forrest Claypool these days.

I JUST CAN’T be “shocked, shocked” to learn that nepotism is taking place within the assessor’s office. Anybody who is shocked is seriously naïve, or else faking indignation to cover up some other hang-up.

Yes, a part of me wonders if some people think that nepotism is acceptable if the name is “Daley,” but not someone who appears much more ethnic. Although I don’t believe that’s the only (or even dominant) factor at work here.

I am curious to see how this situation plays out. Because I expect an act of defiance on the part of papa Joe before he ultimately has to kick his son and sister off their current spots on the payroll.

Only, in all likelihood, to have them turn up on someone else’s part of the payroll – someone who owed Joe a favor. That, if anything, is the real “Chicago Way” of doing things!

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EDITOR’S NOTE: Yes, I voted for Joe Berrios in that last election cycle. I stand by my line of reasoning.