Would you like a pastry with your coffee?
Last week, we posted on revelations of Cook County’s “coffee czar.”
This week, we learn that county government is spending tens of thousands of your dollars each month on fresh bread, rolls and pastries.
As The Prairie Stater reports:
According to the county’s publicly-available online check register, the county paid out $19,404.03 to Chicago-based Alpha Baking Company during the month of January 2010.
According to an agenda for the Cook County Board Finance Committee dated April 16, 2009, Alpha was on track to receive a one year contract with the county “for the purchase of fresh break, rolls and pastries for John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital of Cook County and Oak Forest Hospital of Cook County (Contract No. 09-83-30).”
The total value of that contract was $233,506.34.
As the story points out, Commissioner Peraica is responsible for pushing for the online check register that has made revelations of these questionable expenditures possible.
Goudie Bases Report on County’s Online Check Register
ABC 7 News bases this investigative report on Cook County’s new online check register — an important transparency tool made possible by a measure sponsored by Commissioner Tony Peraica.
Victory for Transparency!
I am pleased to announce that the Cook County Board today passed my resolution to put the county check register online.
This is a victory for the county taxpayers, as well as everyone who believes in reform and open, honest government. We ask our taxpayers to shoulder the highest tax burden in the country - we owe it to them to provide full transparency on how their money is being spent.
The board passed this resolution during the same meeting at which I introduced a resolution calling on the board to appoint a bi-partisan, private sector commission charged with identifying waste and abuse in the county budget.
We’re declaring war on the waste and abuse that costs taxpayers millions of their hard-earned money. It’s time to usher in a new era of transparency and fiscal sanity in Cook County government.
UPDATE: Thanks to the following blogs that posted about this victory for the taxpayers:
Click here to read Illinois Review’s post.
Click here to read OpenIllinois.org’s blog post.
Illinois Policy Institute’s Transparency Pledge
IPI is asking all elected officials and candidates to sign on to their transparency pledge.
Numerous individuals wanting to open up government to the voters are signing on to the pledge. The time to make those in office accountable and all revenue and expenditure data available to the taxpayers is now.
A pdf version of the pledge can be found here. More information on the “Open Illinois” project can be found here.
Keep in mind those pledging their support for transparency and always work to make sure they stay true to a government that works for you - the taxpayer, the citizen.
Peraica’s Transparency Resolution Attracting Attention
The Chicago Tribune’s Hal Dardick posted in the paper’s Clout Street blog about Tony Peraica’s resolution to post the county’s check register online:
Posting the register would allow residents “to see where their money is being spent and perhaps wasted,” Peraica said. He also said the data could be compared to campaign disclosure reports, to see which vendors receiving county checks also are making political donations….“We are not changing the law,” (Adam) Andrzejewski (director of FortheGoodofIllinois) said, noting that county payments are considered public information subject to the state Freedom of Information Act. “We are simply changing county policy.”
Chicago’s News Bench also posted on the resolution:
Tony Peraica just can’t help himself. He’s a Cook County Commissioner, but don’t hold that against him. He’s one of the good guys, fighting to reform one of the most corrupt and inefficient county governments in the nation. Today, Peraica introduced a resolution to put the Cook County check register online.
And here’s OpenIllinois.org’s take:
Kudos to Cook County Commissioner Tony Peraica for introducing a resolution to post the Cook County check register online. During a press conference this morning, Commissioner Peraica spoke about the need to restore confidence and trust in government. Commissioner Peraica cited the growing need for creating accountability and transparency.
And this from the Illinois Policy Institute:
Taxpayers deserve to know how government spends their money, and transparency gives them that chance. It serves as an x-ray machine and allows people to look into the details of the budget books and understand where their tax dollars go – and to whom. [...] It’s simple, good policy – and we’re seeing dramatic, public support all over the state of Illinois.
And you can read Sunshine Review Blog’s take here.
All in all…not a bad day’s work for Commissioner Peraica.
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