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“In the performance of his duties, President Stroger submitted his executive budget to the board’s finance committee on October 17, 2007,” says the complaint, filed in county court by Stroger, state’s attorney Richard Devine, and sheriff Tom Dart, naming all 17 board members as defendants. “All conditions precedent to the board’s duty to adopt an Annual Appropriation Ordinance have taken place.” The suit asks the court to order commissioners to keep meeting until they have a budget deal done and, in the event the deadline passes, to authorize county treasurer Maria Pappas to make payments to keep the government running.
But a last-minute deal isn’t going to undo the impression of many taxpayers that the board is full of ineffective grandstanders and the government dismally managed. And some of the most frustrated citizens are the people who work for the county and don’t consider themselves waste.
“All this mess has got to go. Sooner or later they’re going to have to change things. They’re going to have to think of the people paying the taxes.
