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You may have no idea what the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago does (it treats and releases the wastewater produced in most of Cook County) or why it’s important to the environment (because otherwise we’d have a whole lot of untreated sewage in our waterways). Regardless, if you live around here, you’re helping pay for its nine commissioners to cruise around in gas-guzzling SUVs and Crown Vics wherever they want, whenever they want. Last June commissioner Patricia Young spent at least $250 in taxpayer funds on gas as she drove 1,254 miles in her 2005 Ford Explorer (purchased for $27,325 in public finances)–and that was long before gas topped $4 a gallon. Was all the driving job related? Who knows? The district doesn’t make her keep detailed records, and at the end of 2007 Young estimated that only 57 percent of the miles she put on the car last year had anything to do with district work.
COMMISSIONER
CAR
BUSINESS MILES, 2007
PERSONAL MILES
TOTAL
% BIZ
PATRICIA YOUNG
2005 FORD EXPLORER
5392
4061
9453
57%
TERRY O’BRIEN
2006 FORD CROWN VIC
10781
6760
17541
61%
DEBRA SHORE
2004 FORD CROWN VIC
4481
0
100%
GLORIA MAJEWSKI
2006 CHRYSLER 300C
14699
0%
FRANK AVILA
13905
4635
18540
75%
KATHLEEN THERESE MEANY
2674
6619
9293
29%
CYNTHIA SANTOS
2004 FORD EXPLORER
6000
5189
11189
54%
BARBARA MCGOWAN
3887
1400
5287
74%
PATRICIA HORTON
13910
4637
18547
61030
48000
109030
56%
