Monday, May 28, 2007

Todd Stroger: All but Tony P will be confident?

Tony Peraica comments over at IR on Zorn's column on Peraica's proposed vote of no confidence in Stroger. Zorn wrote

Cook County Commissioner Tony Peraica announced Thursday that he will call for a vote of "no confidence" in Board President Todd Stroger at the next board meeting.

The motion makes sense. Stroger's brazen continuation of crony politics has broken faith with those who believed the reform platitudes he issued during his successful campaign against Peraica last fall.

It won't pass, of course. It probably won't even get a second. Cooler heads on the board realize there's no advantage in firing at Stroger now, when he's so capable of repeatedly shooting himself in the foot.
Periaca responded back,
Zorn may be correct that I won't get a second ... and that's a shame, especially from my fellow Republican commissioners. These are the same Republican commissioners, after all, who wouldn't even support my resolution opposing Blagojevich's devastating "Gross Receipts Tax" proposal.

Well, if I have to go it alone again, I'm prepared to do it. But my fellow commissioners better realize their failure to support this resolution clearly shows that they support the failed Stroger administration - rather than the taxpayers and residents they purport to represent.
If the Illinois GOP can't pick up Stroger as poster child of much of what's wrong with Illinois politics, maybe the party should just fold it up now. Is there a way state GOP can excommunicate the GOP county members who can't line up here?

Also, Periaca blogging on the County's contract with Siemens,
Although it's been almost seven years since Siemens Medical Solutions and Faustech pulled a fast one on Cook County officials to get a huge radiology contract, county leaders seem reluctant to get to the bottom of just how they were fooled - or at least reluctant to talk publicly about it.

In fact, it was only after another contractor, GE Medical Systems, sued that the scam came to light.

And, even though two federal judges ruled the contract was a scam and overturned the deal in 2001, Cook County didn't put its inspector general on the case until 2005, just after subpoenas from the U.S. Attorney's office began arriving.

Even today, county leaders decline to say what their investigation turned up.

3 comments:

Anonymous,  9:13 AM  

Faust Villazan (principal of Faustech Industries) just reached a plea with the feds, but hasn't been sentenced yet. If he gets a really favorable sentencing recommendation from the feds in exchange for cooperation, then you'll know this whole deal isn't over.

If Faust Villazan talks, he gives the feds a direct opening to a number of Cook County Government players. This BGA press release has the story dead on right:
http://www.bettergov.org/Press/09162005faustechrelease2.htm

The part the BGA missed is the Cook County contracting people who whiffed on this deal. If Faust deals, Betty should be very, very concerned.....

Btw, there's another connection in all of this. Faust Villazan had other partnership deals with Cook County, and some of his partners (other firms) had most interesting connections to people who the feds have targeted. Stay Tuned....

Btw, SMS (Siemens Medical Systems) just got slaughtered over this whole deal. As crazy as it seems, you almost got to feel sorry for those folks. It's an object lesson to all the honest vendors out there - Stay the hell away from doing business with Cook County government unless you want to get your business slimed by those dishonest sleezeballs.

That's the real shame of it all.

Anonymous,  12:25 AM  

Hopefully the feds will be able to use that information to nail that triple-dipper (or is it a quadruple-dipper; I confess that I am not totally sure on this point) of a County commissioner of mine, Peter Silvestri.

Now that his political mentor (Rosemont Mayor Don Stephens) is dead and can no longer protect Silvestri's political butt, how long will it be before Silvestri's fortunes take a nose-dive?

SP Biloxi 9:00 PM  

"Cook County Commissioner Tony Peraica announced Thursday that he will call for a vote of "no confidence" in Board President Todd Stroger at the next board meeting."

Good for him. Hopefully, Cook county can get rid of garbage and get rid of Stroger. Stroger is trully hurt Cook county and the taxpayers.

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