This time a year ago, Toni Preckwinkle was one of 50 aldermen, and her sphere was the Fourth Ward and its more than 50,000 residents. Now, as Cook County Board president, she directs a government with a $3 billion budget in a sprawling area home to 5.2 million—the nation’s second-most-populous county after Los Angeles County.
In the waning days of the Stroger administration, his deputy chief of staff, Carla Oglesby, was indicted on charges that she funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars in county contracts to companies owned by her or her associates. The FBI is reportedly investigating “Project Shield,” the county’s Homeland Security initiative. Designed to improve communications in the county in the event of an emergency, the project is millions over its original $31.5 million budget and more than two years past its deadline.
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But budget challenges remain. Last week the Civic Federation projected that the budget shortfall in 2012 will be $214 million, and it noted that some of the revenue generators the county tapped this year might not be available next year.
Her administration has made some progress already. The County Board recently passed an ordinance pushed by Preckwinkle requiring quarterly budget reviews and reports from elected officials and department heads that summarize measurable goals and the progress being made toward meeting them. The county also has completed a desk audit she requested to determine which employees are performing duplicative tasks, and which ones don’t have job titles matching their work.
Suffredin said Preckwinkle’s performance so far has been “exceptional,” but that her response regarding the job list was unduly guarded, in the manner of past administrations. “There are still some rough spots here,” he said.
“It’s been more difficult than it should be,” Dart said.
Preckwinkle’s office, on the fifth floor of the County Building, is sparsely decorated. Her desk is bare except for a telephone and a jar of pens. Hanging on the walls are African masks and a framed box of arrowheads—she has hundreds of the arrowheads, a product of her fascination with Native American culture.
