Highest Bidder? No Problem, this is Cook County.
Filed under: Budget, Corruption, Reform, Spending, Todd Stroger
by Tony Peraica
The process of competitive bidding is supposed to result in the county providing contracts to bidders who come in with the best quality at the lowest cost.
That is, unless we’re talking about Cook County.
The Daily Herald today features a story about one proposed county contract that would go to the highest bidder for a project … a bidder that (surprise, surprise) is also a major contributor to the campaign funds of Todd Stroger and other county officials.
The board will consider awarding $284,000 to Infrastructure Engineering for “parking and entrance control” at the county’s Hawthorne Warehouse on Chicago’s West Side, even though two competitors came in with significantly lower bids on the original parking-lot paving project - a detail that twice led the plan to be scrapped.
The proposal originally came up two years ago, but when the Daily Herald reported that Infrastructure Engineering had donated almost $5,000 to President Todd Stroger and more than $40,000 to other county officials, and Schneider came out against it, it was abruptly dropped at the next county board meeting.
This will be one of the many important issues discussed at Tuesday’s county board meeting related directly to questionable spending of your tax dollars. Also on tap is another push for the hiring freeze we voted to place on the Stroger Administration — but which Todd Stroger vetoed last week.
The ridiculous spending must stop. I will do everything in my power to make sure it does.
Bye, Bye Paul…
Illinois Review tonight cites a Daily Herald report that says Republican-turned-Democrat State Rep. Paul Froehlich will not seek re-election.
That’s the same Froelich who’s facing tough questions following some solid Illinois Review investigative reporting and the below Fox Chicago News report about his possible abuse of the tax appeals process.
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