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Crain's endorses Claypool for Cook president
Commitment to reform earns Claypool our nod
From the Crain's Chicago Business Newsroom, March 3, 2006
Based on his recent record, we cannot endorse John Stroger for another term as Cook County Board president. His Democratic primary opponent, Forrest Claypool, wins the nod based on his willingness to do what’s needed to fix a broken county government.
Mr. Stroger has served Cook County honorably in 12 years as County Board president. He repaired county finances early in his tenure, earning a respectable AA bond rating. Later, he pulled together a coalition to support the construction of a new county hospital that will stand as his legacy. He has governed with compassion and, above all, concern for the people who depend on the county for services ranging from health care to law enforcement.
But his performance in recent years threatens to undermine those accomplishments. At a time when government needs a new approach, he clings to old ways. Faced with budget shortfalls, he proposes tax hikes. He’s pushed to raise taxes on retail sales, hotels and restaurants, parking and tobacco. He didn’t succeed in every case, but his instincts couldn’t be clearer.
At the same time, he seems to have lost control of critical operations. County forest preserves sank into cronyism and fiscal irresponsibility, hospital bills went uncollected and the county juvenile detention center spiraled out of control.
Mr. Stroger clearly isn’t willing to make the changes needed to bring county government into the 21st century: reducing head count by using technology to the fullest extent possible, offloading operations when it makes sense and taking politics out of hiring.
Mr. Stroger has been loath to lay off workers; he has mainly cut unfilled positions. He hasn’t aggressively deployed technology to improve efficiency or outsourced county functions.
Mr. Claypool has good ideas for making the county more efficient. They include using partnerships with private hospitals to augment county health services, eliminating duplicative hospital bureaucracies and phasing out the superfluous county Highway Department.
Mr. Claypool is no neophyte do-gooder. He’s been a county commissioner for four years. In an earlier stint at the Chicago Park District, he reformed a classic patronage-bloated bureaucracy.
As the candidate most committed to reform, Mr. Claypool deserves the job.
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