As printed in the May 17, 2008 edition of the Daily Herald:
Let public in on public defender hearing
Few people, even the most ardent advocates of open government, would argue that personnel evaluations ought generally to be conducted in open public meetings. But there are times …Take the case of Cook County Public Defender Ed Burnette. Here we have a civil servant whose job is specifically designed to be independent of politics facing the possibility of being fired for purely political reasons.It won’t surprise you to learn who is trying to fire him in such circumstances. That would be Cook County Board President Todd Stroger. Nor, sadly, will the specifics of Burnette’s case surprise anyone remotely familiar with the brazen cynicism of Cook County government. Burnette’s job is on the line because he challenged Stroger at least twice. First by filing suit to assert his independence when the Cook County board president ordered him to trim the size of his staff, then by objecting when Stroger placed on Burnette’s payroll an employee who did no work for the public defender and was answerable only to the county board president.For such determination, Burnette was labeled insubordinate and Stroger set a hearing for his firing. The hearing is required because state law pointedly distinguishes the public defender position from every other administrative role in the county. The public defender’s office exists to ensure justice for some of society’s most vulnerable individuals — the indigent accused of crimes but lacking the means to defend themselves. Such a function, the law wisely realizes, must be protected against the whims of fickle politics, and the person leading it cannot be constantly answering to political rather than legal demands.Thus, the job is established as a fixed six-year appointment, and any attempt to remove the public defender requires a formal hearing. If a political powerbroker aiming to find a new department in which to stash patronage workers wants to remove an impediment, he at least has to show a legitimate job-based cause.Does Stroger have job-based justification here? Well, Burnette certainly has defied his authority. But the question, as Burnette’s suit seeks to clarify, is what authority the public defender has defied.The answer to that question ought to be left to the courts. Curiously, Stroger seems unable to wait that long. Burnette has only a year remaining on his appointment, so the county board president will be able to name whatever puppet he likes soon enough, as long as the person isn’t so clearly incompetent that even the board members in Stroger’s pocket can’t vote to confirm.Why then is Burnette’s dismissal so urgent? What offense has he committed that justifies challenging the critical independence built into the nature of his office? Burnette himself has asked these questions and wants the county board to let them be presented on the public stage. We do, too.This is not a case of violating an employee’s privacy. It’s a case either of the county board president’s simple assertion of power or of the public defender’s inability to accomplish the job he’s been doing for five years. The public should get a free and open opportunity to watch the proceeding and judge for itself.
May 18th, 2008
Will any management members show up at the county hearing on the 20th or will they hide in their offices as most of them do when the jurors are lined up in the hall or the bench trial is about to begin? Just asking.
May 18th, 2008
A more probative question for you “Ouery Questioner” is will YOU be at the hearing on the 20th? The officers of the union have asked the rank & file to attend the hearing if they can. Will you be answering that call or will you be like the majority that probably will leave it for someone else to do.? Just asking.
May 18th, 2008
If we throw all our support behind Ed won’t that ensure the next person who is the Public Defender will say bye bye union?
May 18th, 2008
That could happen whether you support Ed or not.
May 18th, 2008
Stu:
Although you do not believe in voting, the members of the County Board are quite sensitive to the voters and to major financial contributors to their campaigns. Given the power of organized labor in Chicago, I doubt that a move on our Local would garner many votes from the board or from its President when AFSCME and the CFL get involved. So chill and register to vote dude!
Bruce
May 18th, 2008
Since Ed sued Stroger on behalf of his management team, they should be rehearsing “Kumbaya” on Monday!!!!!
Will Lauren and “X” be there to see the final act of their dysfunctional play? Somebody in the Democratic Party that Burnette didn’t find relevant will probably get him on the Bench after this charade plays out.
Burnette is management, the Directors and Chiefs are Management, Burnette’s fate is sealed and the Union is Grandstanding.
NO ONE IS FORCED TO APPLY TO BE A SUPERVISOR IN THIS OFFICE…UNLESS YOU QUIT AND COME BACK…
If individual members want to support Ed, fine.
That is personal and Burnette is a fine gentleman and a great guy….but the Union officially jumping on board the Titanic when it has hit the iceberg is questionable.
May 18th, 2008
Michelle, I am all for anyone who wants to go down and support Ed to do so.
That should be an individual choice, and not a Union sponsored “Wake”.
May 19th, 2008
At this point Ed’s ability to get additional resouces for our office is nil and will continue to be so. As a result, our clients are underserved no matter how hard we work. We are seeing the stall on promotions, new hires etc. This is a direct result of Ed being in disfavor by enough of the Board to make a difference. This is not a touchy feely thing. We have a job to do and need certain resources to do it. Ed’s continued role as The Public Defender means we are suffering. I also would imagine he is preoccupied with his own problems and not focussing on the running of this office.
As for Bruce’s post. Who did you vote for last and how are they doing? Blagojavich is a bbulwark against greed and corrupt politics? What about Daley or did you vote (ineffectually) for whoever his opponent was? The choice for voting in the US is over who will screw us using KY jelly
versus who will do it dry. Either way we get screwed just as bad.
May 19th, 2008
An open hearing would have provided the Public Defender with an opportunity to explain what is causing the stall in hiring. I doubt the stall is solely caused by the Public Defender being in disfavor with the Board. Earl Dunlap could not get people hired to the county’s human resources department; consequently, he had to go through federal court to hire non-unionized security officers at the junvenil detention center. I do not think we want the Public Defender to seek non-unionized attorneys to make up for the attorney vacancies. HOWEVER, we do want those five attorney positions put back into the budget.