Power: Cook County Politics

It takes 4/5 of the Cook County Board members to override the veto of the County Board's President. That's an awfully high percentage and gives the president unbelievable power. Although the president is not a voting member of the board (unless, like John Stroger he holds the presidency and a board seat) the president is able to stop all legislation in its tracks.

We learn this little tidbit when 12 members of the board voted to repeal the 1% sales tax increase passed last year. President Todd "Toddler" Stroger has vowed to veto it. To override the veto the board will need 14 of the total 17 members to get on board. The outrage of the tax is pretty strong. Toddler seems in trouble (John Daley, brother of da mayor, told him he, "needs to listen for once.") but I think he can keep 3 of the board members on his side. Then again if
Richard is openly against it that could change the equation when board members start looking for campaign contributions.

Eric Zorn provides some back ground on this rule.

Back in 1870 when the requirement was written into the Illinois Constitution, Cook County had just 15 commissioners -- 10 elected at large in the city and 5 elected at large in the suburbs. By requiring a four-fifths majority to override, lawmakers intended to assure that city commissioners alone would not have veto power; that at least one suburban commissioners had to agree with any veto action.

The high threshhold became unnecessary in 1973 when a 6th suburban commissioner was added (two-thirds would have served the original purpose) and utterly pointless in 1994 when the board expanded to 17 single-member districts -- with some districts, such as Suffredin’s district, including both city and suburban communities.

Naturally, Mike Quigley has proposed changing the 4/5 rule but it went no where.