More Corruption in Cook County

Cook County Board President Todd Stroger’s deputy chief of staff, Carla Oglesby, has been accused of rigging contracts. The story in the Chicago Tribune described the details. “A bond hearing is scheduled today for a top aide to Cook County Board President Todd Stroger accused of steering hundreds of thousands of dollars in contracts to her own...

Cook County Board President Todd Stroger’s deputy chief of staff, Carla Oglesby, has been accused of rigging contracts.

The story in the Chicago Tribune described the details.

“A bond hearing is scheduled today for a top aide to Cook County Board President Todd Stroger accused of steering hundreds of thousands of dollars in contracts to her own public relations firm and associates who might not have done any work.”

Allegedly, Oglesby signed off on a number of questionable “24-9 contracts”. The “24-9” name comes from the fact that many of these contracts are just under the $25,000 threshold for where contracts need to be approved by the county commissioners.

The good news is increased transparency might have helped bring awareness to the “24-9 contracts”. In March 2009 the Cook County Board passed a transparency ordinance that helped increase public access to the county’s expenditures.

Perhaps its time to take Cook County to the next level and have them complete all 10 points on the 10-Point Transparency Checklist so citizens can find additional corruption, waste, fraud, and abuse.