In the midst of its epic mismanagement of
Cook County government, the Todd Stroger
administration was caught in an embarrassing lie last
week when one of his political hires attempted to get
cute with a radio talk show host.

But Andre Garner’s feeble effort at deceit isn’t close
to being the biggest lie by the Stroger camp. The
biggest fallacy Stroger is trying to foist on the
public is that county commissioners Forrest Claypool
and Tony Peraica want to trim ten percent from the
2008 county budget.

What the two commissioners actually have proposed is a
modest two percent cut of the 2007 budget, and no
increase in the 2008 budget, which Stroger wants hiked
by eight percent. In other words, Stroger & Company
are complaining about “cuts” to a proposed budget not
yet approved by the county board.

Pushing those inconvenient facts aside, last Thursday,
Dec. 20 county healthcare workers marched outside the
county building with signs decrying alleged draconian
budget cuts. Meanwhile Stroger went on WGN radio Dec.
20 to make his case. That’s when things got
entertaining.

It’s fascinating to watch people who don’t possess the
requisite smarts attempting to be clever. George Bush
may have lied about any number of things, but at least
he had Karl Rove and Dick Cheney to finesse matters.
Stroger has William Beavers and Andre Garner, the Mick
and Mope of governmental public relations.
Yet when Beaver’s moronic and vulgar chest thumping
about the Stroger administration’s supposed political
virility backfired recently, the Stroger forces opted
for clever. The thing about patronage hires is that in
many instances they’re not employed for their smarts
or abilities, but rather for their political loyalty.
So it should be no surprise when they perform as
ineptly as Garner did.

Garner’s behavior was a flat out hoot, unless, of
course, you’re a fan of honest government. In
something akin to a Saturday Night Live skit, Garner
phoned into the John Williams Show on WGN radio.
Disguising his voice and calling himself “Jonathon
from Chicago,” he argued in favor of his boss’s tax
hike. Opponents of the proposed two percent county
sales tax increase, “Jonathon” said, were just gloom
and doomers.

When his deceit was uncovered, Garner admitted to a
“terrible lapse in judgment,” but protested that his
dishonesty had been born of “frustration” that certain
budget information hasn’t been passed onto to the
public, apparently through a compliant and uncritical
media.

How ironic, given that the Stroger administration has
yet to release budget figures on exactly how many tens
of millions of dollars the county has in three reserve
funds, and how much may remain in the general fund
after the fiscal year ended Nov. 30. The Peraica camp
has documents showing reserve funds totaling $125
million to the good, with $304 million left in the
general fund with four weeks unaccounted for. Don’t
expect Stroger’s people to release those figures
anytime soon, however, since they’ll likely hurt
rather than help their case.

If the county were to expend, say, half its reserve
funds, use what ever general fund surplus that
remains, and secure the many tens of millions in funds
available simply by hiring reasonably competent people
to properly fill out and submit the Medicaid and
Medicare reimbursement paperwork reportedly stacked to
the ceiling in a room at County Hospital, it would
likely be within spitting distance of breaking even.
Add the reasonable cuts in administrative staffing
costs proposed by Peraica and Claypool, and you’re
there.

But that wouldn’t allow for the additional increases
Stroger seeks for patronage hires. And additional
patronage is what it’s all about with Stroger- money
and jobs to pass out to bolster his political muscle,
that famous political virility of which Beavers is so
proud. Stroger and his allies have already showed they
don’t care a whit about serving those most in need of
county services. For them, real estate and sales taxes
are ATM machines for their benefit, not Cook County
residents.

One media outlet referred to Garner’s dishonesty as a
“blunder.” But it was no blunder, just as Stroger’s
inflated ten percent budget reduction figure wasn’t
inadvertently poor math. Both were intentional,
cynical lies on a scale worthy of Joseph Goebbels,
lies perpetrated by an administration that has much to
fear from the truth.

As for Garner’s “terrible lapse in judgment,” that
suggests there have been periods where good judgment
was the norm. But Stroger’s approach to governance is
all but bankrupt of any principle other than self
service. Expediency is all that matters- say and do
whatever you think might get past the public and worry
about the consequences later. Lie about your father’s
health. Lie about your own health. Lie about facts and
figures and obscure your real intentions until you get
past the next election.

But the next election may no longer be as inviting as
Stroger believes it to be. The naked arrogance and
blatant buffoonery we’ve seen at the county building
the past 18 months has, hopefully, finally…finally
created an image that will stick in the minds of the
voting populace through the next election cycle.
That may be wishful thinking, as were hopes that
Claypool or Peraica would prevail against Stroger in
the county board president race last year. But at long
last, actual political consequences may eventually
result from our county government’s institutionalized
arrogance.

The current budgetary melodrama is playing badly to a
far bigger audience than just the usual suspects in
the reflexive anti-tax crowd. Go to the Dec. 19 on
line issue of Oak Park’s Wednesday Journal
.
If the letters to the editor section is any indication
is any indication, residents of a village long
accepting of tax hikes to pay for needed services and
infrastructure improvements have clearly had enough,
People have literally been forced to sell their homes
over the past several years by bloated real estate tax
bills.

With the continuing down housing market, many
Oak Park home owners are now finding themselves
trapped in houses on which they can’t afford to pay
both the mortgage and real estate taxes, and can’t
afford to sell. Similar complaints are heard in
affluent River Forest.

Many homeowners are no longer merely putting off
vacations or restaurant dining, but arre now deferring
new car purchases and home maintenance. What was once
an annoyance grew into discomfort and now finally
genuine pain.

WGN’s Williams question if, since the Stroger
administration would “lie or cheat” over “something as
minor as this, what is the president’s office going to
do when it’s truly consequential?” The answer is
clearly “Lie some more.” Lie bigger. Do a Goebbels and
go for broke. Tell people anything but the truth.
Someone should ask Stroger if he recognized his aide’s
voice over the phone. It’ll be interesting to see how
The Toddler answers.

If all else fails, he can always disguise his voice
and lie about his identity.

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Bill Dwyer is a regular political columnist for The Chicago Daily Observer.