Ed Burnette’s Term to End March 31, 2009

By Kulmeet Galhotra | Published: March 4, 2009

Todd Stroger, President of the Cook County Board, nominated Judge A. C. Cunningham of the Law Division, to replace Edwin Burnette as Public Defender of Cook County.  The Cook County Commissioners will vote on the nomination at either the March 17th or April 1st meeting of the County Board.   The Executive Board will continue to update the membership as circumstances develop.

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  • ?

    Not much about him on line. What does the Union think about him?

    • Kulmeet Galhotra

      The Chicago Council of Lawyers, which had originally proposed a resolution to have a nationwide search for the next PD, were quoted in the Daily Law Bulletin as saying they looked forward to working with A. C. Cunningham ”[b]ut the Council is concerned that the position of public defender was filled without a public process,” and that ”We believe that transparent and reform-minded government demands that the selection process for the public defender requires a nationwide search and formal appointment process.”

  • Bruce Mosbacher, Executive at Large

    Why use an alias here? You represent unpopular people all day long, on the record, using your real name. Why not use it here? If you are a Local 3315 member your job is protected by a contract. Use your name!

    I think that most people that know A.C. like A.C. Its been a long time since he has done any criminal defense work… but he is a no nonsense guy likely to want to put together a team of qualified managers who have been in the courtroom battles. How many political people will keep or get their high paying jobs is a key question. We will see.

    Bruce

  • Justice Cardozo

    In all seriousness, Ed Burnette is a wonderful guy.
    Somebody gave him a lot of bad advice over the years telling him he was above politics here in Cook County. It is his fault that he believed them.
    All of this Ed Burnette “job watch” for the last year or so has been an absolute distraction to a lot of the supervisors whose attention seems to have focused on “DOWNTOWN” rather than on their subordinates….and I think it has been to the detriment of the rank and file on the front line.
    Life goes on.

  • Justice Cardozo

    Bruce, you are hitting the nail on the head.
    When Anita took over upstairs, she demoted some folks and promoted some folks…..but no one up there was muttering that the folks she promoted didn’t do their time in the trenches. Some folks thought some of the people demoted or terminated were handled unfairly….but nobody said the replacements were not qualified.
    The truth is we have had some bosses in this office over many years who just couldn’t pass mustard in the courtroom. That has a tendency to kill morale, to say the least.

  • Justice Cardozo

    Hopefully A.C. will not be recruiting folks for high management positions who have never even appeared in a Branch Court and give them titles like Chief of Staff and Director.

  • Justice Cardozo

    Do they want the job up for bid on E-Bay??????

  • Justice Cardozo

    I would certainly hope that A.C. upon getting the job realizes that about 1/2 of the supervisory jobs in the entire office can and should be eliminated and that supervisors should lead by example and try felony cases.

    The idea that a ‘Cult of Personality’ developed around the last 2 Public Defenders with Supervisors nudging each other out of the way to kiss the rear end of the boss was obvious and laughable.

  • Chris Anderson

    The Chicago Council of Lawyers wants a nationwide search for the Public Defender????!!!! Their own Mission statement points out that “We accomplish our mission with the help of a dedicated staff made up of lawyers, non-lawyers and volunteers in the Cook County area…”

    So, I’m sure that the Chicago Council of Lawyers is not looking for someone from Northern Alaska to run their organization. The reason, of course, is that Cook County is the largest unified Court system in the World. Similarly, why would Stroger look for someone who is not from Cook County to run the Public Defender’s Office??

    As far as “a formal appointment process” what is meant by that? Wearing a tux while doing it? This IS the formal appointment process: Stroger nominates a candidate who is approved by the Board. If the Chicago Council of Lawyers is upset, they can always pick up the phone and call their elected County President or Commissioner. It seems to me what they are really trying to do is get their OWN power over the process. No thanks!

    I think almost all Assistant Public Defenders and staff have confidence in A.C. Cunningham leading our office.

  • PD4ever

    I hope this does not mean we will have to work 40 hours per week. If I can’t leave at 2 or 2:30, I will miss my soap operas!

  • Justice Cardozo

    I hope Kendall is OK.

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