Mainstreaming w/Tony Peraica: On TV Tonight and streaming
Tony Peraica, Cook County Commissioner and Republican Nominee for County Board President:...Even within the African American community, it is widely known that Todd Stroger doesn’t have the stamina, the wherewithal, or the intelligence to do the job that they are trying to thrust upon him. And, I don’t think he’s going to have—not nearly the kind of support that his father John Stroger was able to get. And, I think we will be able to garner a significant level of support from the African American community.
******************************************
Jeff Berkowitz: Is the [healthcare] service going to be better? How’s it going to be better for consumers?
Tony Peraica: I will go to the Stroger Hospital myself, personally, early in the morning, and sit in the emergency room and find out how long it takes for the patients to be visited by a nurse or a doctor. And if they don’t get services timely, I will be taking names. I will be issuing warnings, and I will be terminating people for lack of performance.
*******************************************
Jeff Berkowitz: So the problem isn’t that John Stroger wanted to provide inefficient service. The problem is that John Stroger—and, you’re saying, Todd Stroger will—put patronage people there who aren’t competent and therefore the service isn’t provided. Am I getting that right?
Tony Peraica: Absolutely. The problem throughout the Cook County Bureau of Health as well as the Cook County Juvenile Detention facility is that you have too many patronage hacks who are not qualified and who are not doing the work.
*************************************************************
Jeff Berkowitz: So Claypool—he’s told me this. He says the staff-- they just lie—that’s what Cook County Commissioner Forrest Claypool said; he said they just lie to you, the Board members. Do you agree?
Tony Peraica: Yes. They did.
Jeff Berkowitz: Are you going to stand for that?
Tony Peraica: No. I’m not going to stand for that.
Jeff Berkowitz: Whose heads are going to roll? What are you going to do?
Tony Peraica: Well, I think we’re going to have to start with the chief of staff and the chief financial officer and the comptroller and the rest of them down the line. We need to find out why we were not given accurate information three weeks ago, when Crain’s Chicago business reported it.
*************************************************************************
"Public Affairs," is featuring Tony Peraica, Cook County Commissioner and Republican nominee for County Board President, tonight [July 17] through-out the City of Chicago on CANTV, Cable Ch. 21 at 8:30 pm; And, anytime on the "Public Affairs," podcast page on your computer [See here]. Among other topics and issues, Peraica discusses and debates nepotism and biblical begetting in the Chicago and Illinois Democratic Party [See here] ; Patronage, Contracts and Waste and how best to provide juvenile detention services, adult jail services and health care services to low income individuals -- with show host and legal recruiter Jeff Berkowitz.
****************************************************************
Tonight's show with Cook County Commissioner and Republican Nominee for Board President Tony Periaica is timed well. Tomorrow the Cook County Democratic Central Committee meets to pick a replacement to succeed John Stroger on the ballot as the Democrat Nominee for President of the Cook County Board. Perhaps the Democratic Chicago Ward Bosses will want to watch the show tonight with Tony Peraica to decide if Tony can beat Todd Stroger, before they slate Todd. Same thing with those Cook County Board members who live in the City. They could use the show to prepare for this Wednesday's Board Meeting to decide on who will be the Board's choice as interim President to replace President John Stroger. "Public Affairs," might prove a better investment of time than Leave it to Beaver.
************************************************
The "Public Affairs," podcast page gives you a choice of more than twenty-five different and recent episodes of “Public Affairs," in addition to this week's suburban edition of Public Affairs with Tony Peraica, Cook County Commissioner and Republican Nominee for County Board President and last week's City of Chicago show with Deputy Governor Bradley Tusk. The choice also includes our show with Ald. Ricardo Munoz- which is airing this week in the Chicago North and Northwest suburbs and next Monday night in the City of Chicago; our recent shows with McSweeney, Giuliani and Gov. Thompson--and State Rep. John Fritchey [D-Chicago] on our video and audio podcast page[See here]. The podcast page also includes a one on one interview with 8th Cong. Dist. Republican Nominee David McSweeney [Barrington Hills], press conferences held with Governor Rod Blagojevich and his Republican Challenger, State Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka after their debate to date, a press conference with U.S. Senator Barack Obama and Cong. Bean and much, much more. [See here].
*******************************************************
Coming Attractions on Public Affairs
Next Monday night in the City Ald. Ricardo Munoz [Chicago, 22nd Ward], possible 4th CD Democratic Primary candidate to replace Cong. Gutierrez in 2008 is featured on Public Affairs. This show also airs this week in the North and Northwest Chicago Metro suburbs.
Two Weeks from Tonight: 8th CD Candidates David McSweeney [R-Barrington Hills] and Bill Scheurer [Moderate Party-Lindenhurst] square off. This show also airs next week in the North and Northwest Chicago Metro suburbs.
***************************************************
A partial transcript of tonight's show with Commissioner Peraica is included, below.
***************************************************
Tony Peraica, Cook County Commissioner [R-Riverside] and Republican Nominee for County Board President: I have been diligently visiting all the major power centers within all communities in Cook County, including the African American community. I believe that I have an excellent rapport with the leadership in the African American community who are just as disgusted and just as incredulous about the situation that is developing here. Even within the African American community, it is widely known that Todd Stroger doesn’t have the stamina, the wherewithal, or the intelligence to do the job that they are trying to thrust upon him. And, I don’t think he’s going to have—not nearly the kind of support that his father John Stroger was able to get. And, I think we will be able to garner a significant level of support from the African American community.
Jeff Berkowitz: The African American community are big consumers of Cook County hospitals. ... There’s Stroger Hospital, There’s Provident Hospital. What else do we have?
Tony Peraica: There’s Stroger Hospital, Provident Hospital, Oak Forest Hospital, and-Jeff Berkowitz: Big consumers.
Tony Peraica: Cermak Hospital.
Jeff Berkowitz: Okay, so they’re big consumers.
Tony Peraica: And thirty clinics.
Jeff Berkowitz: Would you say they’re pretty inefficiently run at this point?
Tony Peraica: Yes. We spent a billion dollars a year on the Cook County Health Bureau, which is four hospitals and thirty clinics. We are employing eight thousand employees in functions related to the Health Bureau.
Jeff Berkowitz: What are you going to do differently to make it more efficient, especially for those African American consumers of hospital services in Cook County:
Tony Peraica: I would improve the service greatly by having a hands-on management technique employed, where we would, first of all, call in all of the department heads and ask them, “What have you done in the last six months, within your department? What are you working on now and what do you plan to do within the next six months?” And, if they don’t have a plan of action and it shows, for example, that their departments are languishing and are not performing up to par, I would replace them immediately. We would then bring in industrial engineers to take a look at every one of these departments in terms of what is it that they do, how often do they do it, and how many people does it take to perform the task. And then, based on that, we would try to adjust the level of personnel, increase or decrease, as needed to make sure that we can deliver services through the community that relies on them in an efficient, cost-effective, timely manner.
Jeff Berkowitz: Is the service going to be better? How’s it going to be better for consumers?
Tony Peraica: I will go to the Stroger Hospital myself, personally, early in the morning, and sit in the emergency room and find out how long it takes for the patients to be visited by a nurse or a doctor. And if they don’t get services timely, I will be taking names. I will be issuing warnings, and I will be terminating people for lack of performance.
Jeff Berkowitz: Claypool says there should be more preventive care. You agree?
Tony Peraica: Absolutely. I agree. “Access to Care” is a program that needs to be expanded, particularly throughout our thirty clinic system in the suburbs, where we can have citizens of Cook County obtain medical services in the communities where they live, rather than to travel to one of the four hospitals which are not conveniently located across this one thousand square mile county, which is huge. I traveled it yesterday, and I get reminded each time just how geographically large it is. We need to provide greater access to care in the communities where individuals live. And, we need to provide some sort of a reimbursement or voucher system to local physicians and medical providers to treat the indigent population to prevent problems before they have to be treated in our four hospitals.
Jeff Berkowitz: Juvenile Detention Center. Claypool and others—your fellow reformers—say it’s been a mess. What does it cost—about sixty thousand dollars a year to take care of one of the juveniles who is detained there? Something like that?
Comm. Tony Peraica [R-Riverside]: Well, yeah, if you divide it up.
Jeff Berkowitz: Divide the total budget by the number of people there. Does that make any sense? Are they being well taken care of for sixty thousand dollars?
Tony Peraica: No, they are not being well taken care of, and it does not cost sixty thousand dollars. The average stay for a juvenile in the juvenile detention facility is about three weeks, two to three weeks. So, we have a constant turnover of individuals. The capacity of the Juvenile Detention Center is about four hundred fifty to five hundred maximum juveniles, and during the entire year we get maybe ten to twelve thousand children that come to that facility.
Jeff Berkowitz: What’s the budget?
Tony Peraica: The budget, as I remember last, is about thirty million dollars, twenty seven to thirty million dollars.
Jeff Berkowitz: For those four hundred fifty that are there at any one point in time. What has to be done differently?
Tony Peraica: What has to be done differently is that we open up the hiring process and the contracting process there, so that we can have qualified individuals with proper training and educational backgrounds, with proper psychological backgrounds, working with troubled youth so that they do not make their problems worse, but rather help to decrease the level of tension and to try to alleviate some of these problems and provide an educational component to the troubled youth that are in the Juvenile Detention Center.
Jeff Berkowitz: So the problem isn’t that John Stroger wanted to provide inefficient service. The problem is that John Stroger—and, you’re saying, Todd Stroger will—put patronage people there who aren’t competent and therefore the service isn’t provided. Am I getting that right?
Tony Peraica: Absolutely. The problem throughout the Cook County Bureau of Health as well as the Cook County Juvenile Detention facility is that you have too many patronage hacks who are not qualified and who are not doing the work.
Jeff Berkowitz: Same thing with the Cook County Jail?
Tony Peraica: Yes.
Jeff Berkowitz: So you really have to get the patronage out?
Tony Peraica: The problem at the Cook County Jail is not that you have too many. The Sheriff’s office, which runs the Cook County Jail, has a budget of some four hundred million dollars each year, and employs about seven thousand employees, of whom about thirty six hundred are correctional officers. The problem is not that you have too many, because we had to hire, as you know, under the Duran v. Cook County, or the Duran v. Sheehan case, that was pending for the last over a decade now, we had to hire seven hundred additional correctional officers, to staff the jail properly, to have a proper ratio of correctional officers to inmates. The problem that we have within the Sheriff’s office is that you have correctional officers who are doing, you know, oil changes, who are doing mechanical repairs, who are doing pin striping on cars, who are doing things—janitorial work that does not relate to the function of running a jail, being a sheriff or providing public safety services.
Jeff Berkowitz: So you have to professionalize that? Do you need a new Cook County Sheriff?
Tony Peraica: You need to professionalize some of it. You need to privatize some of it. You need to do things that are necessary to provide a cost-effective service at the lowest possible price.
Jeff Berkowitz: Is that Peter Garza’s platform? He’s the Republican nominee?
Tony Peraica: You will have to have Peter Garza on this show and ask him that question.
Jeff Berkowitz: You support Peter Garza over Tom Dart to replace Sheriff Sheehan?
Tony Peraica: I think Peter Garza is superiorly qualified to Tom Dart to run the county jail. He [Garza] has twenty two years of experience in the area of corrections and he would be a far superior sheriff to Dart, who’s a fine man. I know him [Dart], but he came there [Chief of Staff for Sheriff Sheehan and Democratic Nominee for Sheriff] through political patronage from the 19th ward [Land of Tom Hynes]. And, really, he didn’t come to the office of being a Sheriff of Cook County through great skill or experience.
Jeff Berkowitz: Are you going to get your fellow Democratic reformers to support you? Mike Quigley has said he’s going to support any Democrat, including Todd Stroger, over you, the Republican.
Tony Peraica: Well, I would like to see Commissioner Quigley pushing for Todd Stroger on the Near North Side in the 43rd and 44th wards. I think that will get him a lot of credibility.
Jeff Berkowitz:What about Forrest Claypool? He couldn’t win the Democratic primary [for the Cook County Board President nomination], in part because he couldn’t get the very popular U.S. Senator Barack Obama to endorse him.Tony Peraica: Right.
Jeff Berkowitz: Barack didn’t endorse John Stroger, but he didn’t endorse Claypool—Barack said some nice things about Claypool [the day before the primary election]. Do you think you can get Forrest Claypool to say nice things about Tony Peraica?
Tony Peraica: Forrest Claypool and I have an excellent working relationship. We are, I would say, friends, outside of the County Board.
Jeff Berkowitz: Yes or no? Can you get him to support you?
Tony Peraica: Yes. I think I can.
Jeff Berkowitz: All right. We’re going to continue to speak as the credits roll, but I very much want to thank our guest, Tony Peraica, who is a Cook County Commissioner. He is the Republican nominee for President of the Cook County Board. As we tape this on July 9th of the year 2006, we anticipate his opponent in the general election will be Democrat Todd Stroger. That’s what we anticipate.
Tony Peraica: You didn’t talk about the two hundred million dollar loan.
Jeff Berkowitz: Yeah. Right.
Tony Peraica: You should have covered that, because that’s a germane issue.
Jeff Berkowitz: So you’ve been told all along that the Cook County staff thinks finances are good. Everything’s fine. Now they say they need a two hundred million dollar line of credit.
Tony Peraica: Now we have a cash shortfall and we have to go out and borrow two hundred million dollars to pay our bills and payroll, which is outrageous.
Jeff Berkowitz: So Claypool—he’s told me this. He says the staff-- they just lie—that’s what Cook County Commissioner Forrest Claypool said; he said they just lie to you, the Board members. Do you agree?
Tony Peraica: Yes. They did.
Jeff Berkowitz: Are you going to stand for that?
Tony Peraica: No. I’m not going to stand for that.
Jeff Berkowitz: Whose heads are going to roll? What are you going to do?
Tony Peraica: Well, I think we’re going to have to start with the chief of staff and the chief financial officer and the comptroller and the rest of them down the line. We need to find out why we were not given accurate information three weeks ago, when Crain’s Chicago business reported it.
Jeff Berkowitz: We should say that Todd Stroger was invited to be on this show. He couldn’t make it. We hope he’ll be here. We’re fair and balanced. We’ll give him every shot to express his points of view. What’s Todd Stroger going to do if he’s Board President about that kind of lying that’s going on?
Comm. Tony Peraica [Riverside]: The same old. Nothing is going to change. Patronage will continue. Contracts will go to the insiders. Bloated payrolls will continue and the real estate taxes and other taxes will continue to rise. And, I don’t think that’s what the voters of Cook County want or deserve. We need to have a change. This is the opportunity now. November 7th, everyone needs to come out.
******************************************************
Public Affairs, featuring guest Cook County Commissioner and Republican Nominee for County Board President Tony Peraica was recorded on July 9, 2006 and is airing tonight on the City of Chicago edition of Public Affairs, July 17 at 8:30 pm on Cable Ch. 21. . The show with Commissioner Peraica is also available as a video podcast at the Public Affairs Cinema Complex, along with more than twenty five other shows, which are also airing there. [See here].
****************************************************
Transcript draft prepared by Amy Allen, who also does research for “Public Affairs,” and has her own political blog [See here].
******************************************
Jeff Berkowitz, Show Host/Producer of "Public Affairs," and Executive Legal Recruiter doing legal search can be reached at JBCG@aol.com
******************
******************************************
Jeff Berkowitz: Is the [healthcare] service going to be better? How’s it going to be better for consumers?
Tony Peraica: I will go to the Stroger Hospital myself, personally, early in the morning, and sit in the emergency room and find out how long it takes for the patients to be visited by a nurse or a doctor. And if they don’t get services timely, I will be taking names. I will be issuing warnings, and I will be terminating people for lack of performance.
*******************************************
Jeff Berkowitz: So the problem isn’t that John Stroger wanted to provide inefficient service. The problem is that John Stroger—and, you’re saying, Todd Stroger will—put patronage people there who aren’t competent and therefore the service isn’t provided. Am I getting that right?
Tony Peraica: Absolutely. The problem throughout the Cook County Bureau of Health as well as the Cook County Juvenile Detention facility is that you have too many patronage hacks who are not qualified and who are not doing the work.
*************************************************************
Jeff Berkowitz: So Claypool—he’s told me this. He says the staff-- they just lie—that’s what Cook County Commissioner Forrest Claypool said; he said they just lie to you, the Board members. Do you agree?
Tony Peraica: Yes. They did.
Jeff Berkowitz: Are you going to stand for that?
Tony Peraica: No. I’m not going to stand for that.
Jeff Berkowitz: Whose heads are going to roll? What are you going to do?
Tony Peraica: Well, I think we’re going to have to start with the chief of staff and the chief financial officer and the comptroller and the rest of them down the line. We need to find out why we were not given accurate information three weeks ago, when Crain’s Chicago business reported it.
*************************************************************************
"Public Affairs," is featuring Tony Peraica, Cook County Commissioner and Republican nominee for County Board President, tonight [July 17] through-out the City of Chicago on CANTV, Cable Ch. 21 at 8:30 pm; And, anytime on the "Public Affairs," podcast page on your computer [See here]. Among other topics and issues, Peraica discusses and debates nepotism and biblical begetting in the Chicago and Illinois Democratic Party [See here] ; Patronage, Contracts and Waste and how best to provide juvenile detention services, adult jail services and health care services to low income individuals -- with show host and legal recruiter Jeff Berkowitz.
****************************************************************
Tonight's show with Cook County Commissioner and Republican Nominee for Board President Tony Periaica is timed well. Tomorrow the Cook County Democratic Central Committee meets to pick a replacement to succeed John Stroger on the ballot as the Democrat Nominee for President of the Cook County Board. Perhaps the Democratic Chicago Ward Bosses will want to watch the show tonight with Tony Peraica to decide if Tony can beat Todd Stroger, before they slate Todd. Same thing with those Cook County Board members who live in the City. They could use the show to prepare for this Wednesday's Board Meeting to decide on who will be the Board's choice as interim President to replace President John Stroger. "Public Affairs," might prove a better investment of time than Leave it to Beaver.
************************************************
The "Public Affairs," podcast page gives you a choice of more than twenty-five different and recent episodes of “Public Affairs," in addition to this week's suburban edition of Public Affairs with Tony Peraica, Cook County Commissioner and Republican Nominee for County Board President and last week's City of Chicago show with Deputy Governor Bradley Tusk. The choice also includes our show with Ald. Ricardo Munoz- which is airing this week in the Chicago North and Northwest suburbs and next Monday night in the City of Chicago; our recent shows with McSweeney, Giuliani and Gov. Thompson--and State Rep. John Fritchey [D-Chicago] on our video and audio podcast page[See here]. The podcast page also includes a one on one interview with 8th Cong. Dist. Republican Nominee David McSweeney [Barrington Hills], press conferences held with Governor Rod Blagojevich and his Republican Challenger, State Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka after their debate to date, a press conference with U.S. Senator Barack Obama and Cong. Bean and much, much more. [See here].
*******************************************************
Coming Attractions on Public Affairs
Next Monday night in the City Ald. Ricardo Munoz [Chicago, 22nd Ward], possible 4th CD Democratic Primary candidate to replace Cong. Gutierrez in 2008 is featured on Public Affairs. This show also airs this week in the North and Northwest Chicago Metro suburbs.
Two Weeks from Tonight: 8th CD Candidates David McSweeney [R-Barrington Hills] and Bill Scheurer [Moderate Party-Lindenhurst] square off. This show also airs next week in the North and Northwest Chicago Metro suburbs.
***************************************************
A partial transcript of tonight's show with Commissioner Peraica is included, below.
***************************************************
Tony Peraica, Cook County Commissioner [R-Riverside] and Republican Nominee for County Board President: I have been diligently visiting all the major power centers within all communities in Cook County, including the African American community. I believe that I have an excellent rapport with the leadership in the African American community who are just as disgusted and just as incredulous about the situation that is developing here. Even within the African American community, it is widely known that Todd Stroger doesn’t have the stamina, the wherewithal, or the intelligence to do the job that they are trying to thrust upon him. And, I don’t think he’s going to have—not nearly the kind of support that his father John Stroger was able to get. And, I think we will be able to garner a significant level of support from the African American community.
Jeff Berkowitz: The African American community are big consumers of Cook County hospitals. ... There’s Stroger Hospital, There’s Provident Hospital. What else do we have?
Tony Peraica: There’s Stroger Hospital, Provident Hospital, Oak Forest Hospital, and-Jeff Berkowitz: Big consumers.
Tony Peraica: Cermak Hospital.
Jeff Berkowitz: Okay, so they’re big consumers.
Tony Peraica: And thirty clinics.
Jeff Berkowitz: Would you say they’re pretty inefficiently run at this point?
Tony Peraica: Yes. We spent a billion dollars a year on the Cook County Health Bureau, which is four hospitals and thirty clinics. We are employing eight thousand employees in functions related to the Health Bureau.
Jeff Berkowitz: What are you going to do differently to make it more efficient, especially for those African American consumers of hospital services in Cook County:
Tony Peraica: I would improve the service greatly by having a hands-on management technique employed, where we would, first of all, call in all of the department heads and ask them, “What have you done in the last six months, within your department? What are you working on now and what do you plan to do within the next six months?” And, if they don’t have a plan of action and it shows, for example, that their departments are languishing and are not performing up to par, I would replace them immediately. We would then bring in industrial engineers to take a look at every one of these departments in terms of what is it that they do, how often do they do it, and how many people does it take to perform the task. And then, based on that, we would try to adjust the level of personnel, increase or decrease, as needed to make sure that we can deliver services through the community that relies on them in an efficient, cost-effective, timely manner.
Jeff Berkowitz: Is the service going to be better? How’s it going to be better for consumers?
Tony Peraica: I will go to the Stroger Hospital myself, personally, early in the morning, and sit in the emergency room and find out how long it takes for the patients to be visited by a nurse or a doctor. And if they don’t get services timely, I will be taking names. I will be issuing warnings, and I will be terminating people for lack of performance.
Jeff Berkowitz: Claypool says there should be more preventive care. You agree?
Tony Peraica: Absolutely. I agree. “Access to Care” is a program that needs to be expanded, particularly throughout our thirty clinic system in the suburbs, where we can have citizens of Cook County obtain medical services in the communities where they live, rather than to travel to one of the four hospitals which are not conveniently located across this one thousand square mile county, which is huge. I traveled it yesterday, and I get reminded each time just how geographically large it is. We need to provide greater access to care in the communities where individuals live. And, we need to provide some sort of a reimbursement or voucher system to local physicians and medical providers to treat the indigent population to prevent problems before they have to be treated in our four hospitals.
Jeff Berkowitz: Juvenile Detention Center. Claypool and others—your fellow reformers—say it’s been a mess. What does it cost—about sixty thousand dollars a year to take care of one of the juveniles who is detained there? Something like that?
Comm. Tony Peraica [R-Riverside]: Well, yeah, if you divide it up.
Jeff Berkowitz: Divide the total budget by the number of people there. Does that make any sense? Are they being well taken care of for sixty thousand dollars?
Tony Peraica: No, they are not being well taken care of, and it does not cost sixty thousand dollars. The average stay for a juvenile in the juvenile detention facility is about three weeks, two to three weeks. So, we have a constant turnover of individuals. The capacity of the Juvenile Detention Center is about four hundred fifty to five hundred maximum juveniles, and during the entire year we get maybe ten to twelve thousand children that come to that facility.
Jeff Berkowitz: What’s the budget?
Tony Peraica: The budget, as I remember last, is about thirty million dollars, twenty seven to thirty million dollars.
Jeff Berkowitz: For those four hundred fifty that are there at any one point in time. What has to be done differently?
Tony Peraica: What has to be done differently is that we open up the hiring process and the contracting process there, so that we can have qualified individuals with proper training and educational backgrounds, with proper psychological backgrounds, working with troubled youth so that they do not make their problems worse, but rather help to decrease the level of tension and to try to alleviate some of these problems and provide an educational component to the troubled youth that are in the Juvenile Detention Center.
Jeff Berkowitz: So the problem isn’t that John Stroger wanted to provide inefficient service. The problem is that John Stroger—and, you’re saying, Todd Stroger will—put patronage people there who aren’t competent and therefore the service isn’t provided. Am I getting that right?
Tony Peraica: Absolutely. The problem throughout the Cook County Bureau of Health as well as the Cook County Juvenile Detention facility is that you have too many patronage hacks who are not qualified and who are not doing the work.
Jeff Berkowitz: Same thing with the Cook County Jail?
Tony Peraica: Yes.
Jeff Berkowitz: So you really have to get the patronage out?
Tony Peraica: The problem at the Cook County Jail is not that you have too many. The Sheriff’s office, which runs the Cook County Jail, has a budget of some four hundred million dollars each year, and employs about seven thousand employees, of whom about thirty six hundred are correctional officers. The problem is not that you have too many, because we had to hire, as you know, under the Duran v. Cook County, or the Duran v. Sheehan case, that was pending for the last over a decade now, we had to hire seven hundred additional correctional officers, to staff the jail properly, to have a proper ratio of correctional officers to inmates. The problem that we have within the Sheriff’s office is that you have correctional officers who are doing, you know, oil changes, who are doing mechanical repairs, who are doing pin striping on cars, who are doing things—janitorial work that does not relate to the function of running a jail, being a sheriff or providing public safety services.
Jeff Berkowitz: So you have to professionalize that? Do you need a new Cook County Sheriff?
Tony Peraica: You need to professionalize some of it. You need to privatize some of it. You need to do things that are necessary to provide a cost-effective service at the lowest possible price.
Jeff Berkowitz: Is that Peter Garza’s platform? He’s the Republican nominee?
Tony Peraica: You will have to have Peter Garza on this show and ask him that question.
Jeff Berkowitz: You support Peter Garza over Tom Dart to replace Sheriff Sheehan?
Tony Peraica: I think Peter Garza is superiorly qualified to Tom Dart to run the county jail. He [Garza] has twenty two years of experience in the area of corrections and he would be a far superior sheriff to Dart, who’s a fine man. I know him [Dart], but he came there [Chief of Staff for Sheriff Sheehan and Democratic Nominee for Sheriff] through political patronage from the 19th ward [Land of Tom Hynes]. And, really, he didn’t come to the office of being a Sheriff of Cook County through great skill or experience.
Jeff Berkowitz: Are you going to get your fellow Democratic reformers to support you? Mike Quigley has said he’s going to support any Democrat, including Todd Stroger, over you, the Republican.
Tony Peraica: Well, I would like to see Commissioner Quigley pushing for Todd Stroger on the Near North Side in the 43rd and 44th wards. I think that will get him a lot of credibility.
Jeff Berkowitz:What about Forrest Claypool? He couldn’t win the Democratic primary [for the Cook County Board President nomination], in part because he couldn’t get the very popular U.S. Senator Barack Obama to endorse him.Tony Peraica: Right.
Jeff Berkowitz: Barack didn’t endorse John Stroger, but he didn’t endorse Claypool—Barack said some nice things about Claypool [the day before the primary election]. Do you think you can get Forrest Claypool to say nice things about Tony Peraica?
Tony Peraica: Forrest Claypool and I have an excellent working relationship. We are, I would say, friends, outside of the County Board.
Jeff Berkowitz: Yes or no? Can you get him to support you?
Tony Peraica: Yes. I think I can.
Jeff Berkowitz: All right. We’re going to continue to speak as the credits roll, but I very much want to thank our guest, Tony Peraica, who is a Cook County Commissioner. He is the Republican nominee for President of the Cook County Board. As we tape this on July 9th of the year 2006, we anticipate his opponent in the general election will be Democrat Todd Stroger. That’s what we anticipate.
Tony Peraica: You didn’t talk about the two hundred million dollar loan.
Jeff Berkowitz: Yeah. Right.
Tony Peraica: You should have covered that, because that’s a germane issue.
Jeff Berkowitz: So you’ve been told all along that the Cook County staff thinks finances are good. Everything’s fine. Now they say they need a two hundred million dollar line of credit.
Tony Peraica: Now we have a cash shortfall and we have to go out and borrow two hundred million dollars to pay our bills and payroll, which is outrageous.
Jeff Berkowitz: So Claypool—he’s told me this. He says the staff-- they just lie—that’s what Cook County Commissioner Forrest Claypool said; he said they just lie to you, the Board members. Do you agree?
Tony Peraica: Yes. They did.
Jeff Berkowitz: Are you going to stand for that?
Tony Peraica: No. I’m not going to stand for that.
Jeff Berkowitz: Whose heads are going to roll? What are you going to do?
Tony Peraica: Well, I think we’re going to have to start with the chief of staff and the chief financial officer and the comptroller and the rest of them down the line. We need to find out why we were not given accurate information three weeks ago, when Crain’s Chicago business reported it.
Jeff Berkowitz: We should say that Todd Stroger was invited to be on this show. He couldn’t make it. We hope he’ll be here. We’re fair and balanced. We’ll give him every shot to express his points of view. What’s Todd Stroger going to do if he’s Board President about that kind of lying that’s going on?
Comm. Tony Peraica [Riverside]: The same old. Nothing is going to change. Patronage will continue. Contracts will go to the insiders. Bloated payrolls will continue and the real estate taxes and other taxes will continue to rise. And, I don’t think that’s what the voters of Cook County want or deserve. We need to have a change. This is the opportunity now. November 7th, everyone needs to come out.
******************************************************
Public Affairs, featuring guest Cook County Commissioner and Republican Nominee for County Board President Tony Peraica was recorded on July 9, 2006 and is airing tonight on the City of Chicago edition of Public Affairs, July 17 at 8:30 pm on Cable Ch. 21. . The show with Commissioner Peraica is also available as a video podcast at the Public Affairs Cinema Complex, along with more than twenty five other shows, which are also airing there. [See here].
****************************************************
Transcript draft prepared by Amy Allen, who also does research for “Public Affairs,” and has her own political blog [See here].
******************************************
Jeff Berkowitz, Show Host/Producer of "Public Affairs," and Executive Legal Recruiter doing legal search can be reached at JBCG@aol.com
******************
<< Home