Four to be elected for County Board from this community
January 28, 2010By Marie Balice Ward
Four districts in this community will elect candidates for the Cook County Board in the Feb. 2 primary to represent the Democratic Party in the November election.
1ST DISTRICT
She supports a 50% rollback of the county sales tax that took effect in 2008. She said she is “constantly striving to bring greater transparency and efficiency to Cook County.” During her tenure, she helped integrate technology in Cook County government.
Collins is “working closely with Mayor [Richard M.] Daley and other city and county leaders to end gang violence, crime, and drug proliferation.” She also is involved with programs for teenage girls including those dealing with early pregnancy issues. Collins previously served as a state senator and as assistant administrator of the Department of Children and Family Services.
Collins became the first African American female to be elected to the Illinois Senate in 1976.
Although he is “not a career politician,” Chris Harris believes he can make a difference in politics. “All the rest have been part of the system. I will bring an independent voice. I’m not a machine politician.”
Harris wants to fight corruption in Cook County government and thoroughly investigate — “line by line,” he said—the County budget. He thinks “patronage is pervasive in the Cook County government, providing big salaries for unqualified individuals. There needs to be more transparency.”
Harris favors repealing the sales tax and said he will hold meetings and distribute a newsletter to discuss residents’ concerns and ideas. He wants to strengthen community services to help ex-offenders reenter society. He also will “take a firm stance against gang violence and create programs for young people.” To improve health care, he would create additional satellite centers to reduce demand on emergency rooms. He also would address job development.
Harris was the visual technology development manager at VHT Inc., which develops creative methods of using funds, devises systems that cut costs, and helps build companies from the ground up. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Western Illinois University and lives in Forest Park.
Also, “in this time of serious economic stress on our families, government needs to be innovative and find creative solutions.” Onayemi would engage constituents via newsletters, an interactive website, and town meetings. Onayemi has held appointed and elected civic positions including board member and president of the Oak Park Elementary School
District #97 and various roles with Madison Street Leadership, Austin African American Business Network, Madison Street Development Corporation, and Austin Business and Entrepreneurship Academy. He earned a BA in architecture from the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Smith would “aggressively address the county’s foreclosure and predatory lending crisis” by reviewing lending practices at institutions doing business with the county and “limiting relationships with banks that are not willing to work with homeowners who are facing foreclosure” and with banks “found to be involved in predatory lending.”
He also would “seek effective ways to reduce taxes [on residents] by increasing other sources of revenue such as prompt collection of revenue from matching state and federal government dollars so that the county does not have to forfeit any funding.” He also wants to increase the county’s economic base by “attracting new and retaining current businesses that operate in the county.”
Smith also wants to “increase access to health care facilities for county residents.”
Smith has worked on many political campaigns over the past 30 years. He is a member of St. John Masonic Lodge and the Shriners and volunteers with Chicago Neighborhood United and Soles for the Needy. Married for 24 years, he has three sons and four grandsons.
2ND DISTRICT
Bass wants to boost county government’s efficiency by using technology to reduce costs He also would work on reducing recidivism at Cook County Jail with a pilot program to give first-time nonviolent drug offenders mandatory drug treatment, job training, parenting classes if needed, and community service. “If this is found to be effective, I will advocate its expansion to include the second-time nonviolent drug offenders,” he said. “This program has the possibility of saving the County millions.”
Concerning transportation, Bass would “advocate for legislation at the county, state, and federal level” for public works programs to repair and repave all county roads within Chicago.
As for health care, Bass would “be a strong advocate of programs that stress prevention.”
Grode called county government “a wasteful, patronage-infested bureaucracy” that hurts residents and businesses. “I am ready to…streamline county government and to be a leading advocate for positive change.” She wants “government to work as efficiently as the private sector,” she added.
She is endorsed by State Representative Sara Feigenholtz and 43rd Ward Alderman Vi Daley. Grode works in private practice, focusing on trusts and estates. She earned her JD and LLM in taxation from Illinois Institute of Technology’s Chicago-Kent College of Law. She is a member of the Chicago Bar Association’s Trust Law and Estate/Gift Tax Law Committees and of the Greater North Michigan Avenue Association. She also holds degrees in music and frequently has performed professionally. She is a first-generation American and the child of Holocaust survivors.
“I come face to face with community residents and business constituents on a regular basis,” Steele said. Meeting with the public “affords me a very clear view” of how Cook County budget cuts, layoffs, and service reductions affect “senior citizens who depend on the pharmacy operations; uninsured families who are desperate for medical care; working parents of public school children who are abruptly carted off to a juvenile detention center; employees who are laid off just shy of the years needed to retire; and businesses… forced to reduce their work force to offset the rising cost of health plans or tax increases.”
Steele also goes to county hospitals, clinics, juvenile detention centers, and local businesses, which allows him to “weigh recommendations presented to me” and “engage in constructive dialogues with other county commissioners” and elected officials.
“People are sick of political wrangling and government mismanagement, and they want to see a ‘change,’” Steele added. As a commissioner, he serves on the Construction, Contract Compliance, Environmental Control, Real Estate and Economic Development, Finance, Health and Hospitals, Human Relations, Rules, and Administration and Information Technology Committees.
Steele sees himself as “the voice of constituents who do not have one — those who are indigent, need health care, and more.”
Erold Elysee is the fourth candidate in this race. Elysee was asked, but provided no information for this article.
3RD DISTRICT
Calling himself “very budgetoriented,” Butler said the hospital and County Jail are the county budget’s two biggest items. Regarding the correctional system, Butler said, “Let’s stop looking for minor infractions, and let’s seek alternative vehicles than jail. Second-time offenders are very costly for our jail system,” and the system is consistently overcrowded or nearly so. If re-elected, he will improve the health and jail systems and consolidate appropriate services.
A professional musician, Butler earned a BS in computer studies with a minor in accounting from Northwestern University’s School of Continuing Studies. He has been endorsed by the Firefighters Union, Independent Voters of Illinois Independent Precinct Organization, and Alderman Toni Preckwinkle. He lives in Chicago with his wife, three sons, and a grandson.
“I have practiced law with government or in the public interest for seven years, including positions with the Cook County Public Defenders’ Office and as an attorney for the Child Protection Division,” she said.
If elected, she would institute monthly community meetings for the 3rd District in a different location each month. “I will also fight to enable the public to have greater access to online postings of both employment opportunities and business proposals for all of Cook County’s hiring and business,” she said.
Torres-Linares also would “immediately support a rollback of the increase in our sales tax rate through a vote of the county board, unless the next Board President can justify, in detail, the need for this increase.
Without a doubt, the current administration has not made its case for increased taxes.”
She supports continuing a 7% cap on property tax increases as well as assessment decreases on Cook County houses because “in recent years home values and assessments have far outpaced those for business property,” she said.
If elected, she would reform the criminal justice system, “which currently compromises safety due to overcrowded conditions in courts and jail” and “fix the health care system to efficiently provide quality services.”
Oliver blames high taxes on extensive patronage in county government, citing a mailroom clerk earning in excess of $100,000 per year. “With 80% of the budget as payroll, continuing to hire in such an imprudent manner will cause even greater problems to our county.”
Oliver also criticized “handing over” Cook County’s health care system to an independent board that is “not making good decisions.” Rather than “shirk responsibility” for health care services, he would return their management to the Cook County commissioners.
An accountant, Oliver wants to bring his private sector style of decision-making to Cook County’s fiscal situation. Previously, he held several computer and technology positions. He holds a BS degree in computer studies from the Northwestern University School of Continuing Studies, where he also took courses in accounting. Oliver, unmarried, lives in Hyde Park.
7TH DISTRICT
Jesus “Chuy” Garcia was elected to the Chicago City Council in 1986 during Mayor Harold Washington’s administration. In 1992, he was elected and served two terms as a state senator until the Hispanic Democratic Organization (HDO), the Hispanic arm of the regular Democratic organization, worked to oust him. He has a reputation as a reformer.
His platform embraces “accountability, transparency, and efficiency” in county government, and he criticized his opponent, Commissioner Joseph Mario Moreno, for being a regular Democrat and a supporter of Board President Todd Stroger.
“Challenging budget problems, inefficient service delivery, billing problems, and poor planning and management have made people feel that the system is slow, unresponsive to their needs, and an increasingly large waste of money,” he said. “Worse, people believe that the government can do nothing to stop this.”
For health care, Garcia’s top issue, Garcia offered a four-point plan: “Pledge to provide care for the most vulnerable, oppose corruption, be transparent, be a good steward of public resources.”
Garcia is chairman of the board of the Woods Fund of Chicago, an organization that helps disadvantaged people and communities. Previously, Garcia served on several community organizations and was founding executive director of Enlace Chicago, a non-profit community development organization in Little Village that focuses on safety, health, educational advancement, and economic development.
Moreno is chairman of the Roads and Bridges and Rules and Administration Committees; vice president of the Labor Committee; and member of the Construction, Contract Compliance, Criminal Justice, Environmental Control, Finance, Health and Hospitals, Information Technology and Automation, Law Enforcement, Legislation, Intergovernmental and Veterans Relations, Real Estate and Business and Economic Development, Tax Delinquency, Workers Compensation, and Zoning and Building Committees.
He spearheaded expansion of the Jorge Prieto Clinic, doubling its capacity, and proposed revenue enhancing and modernization initiatives to streamline county government.
“The two largest components of this government are healthcare and public safety, which the county is mandated by the state constitution to provide,” Moreno explained. “Consequently, if I’m reelected my objectives for this government will be to continue to fight for greater access to healthcare something that is dearly needed in the 7th Cook County District and support our public safety efforts to ensure our people are safe.
“I also plan to continue to spearhead initiatives to streamline this government so that we can provide these services in the most efficient manner possible. I will introduce programs to save taxpayer dollars and work with the rest of the board to see that they are implemented, something I have done throughout my tenure.
“This government is the government of last resort. We are here to take care of those who cannot take care of themselves, a mission that I take very seriously and one that I will fight to uphold for the betterment of the families of the 7th District,” Moreno concluded.
