Marathon Pundit: Rita Rezko's contribution to America's worst government, Cook County

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Rita Rezko's contribution to America's worst government, Cook County

The army of ward-healers and unemployables (for the most part) known as Cook County government includes Rita Rezko, wife of, of course, Antoin "Tony" Rezko.

For reasons still unexplained, it was Rita Rezko, not Tony, who purchased the "Rezko lot" to adjacent to the mansion purchased by Michelle and Barack Obama in 2005. Mr. Rezko has a long, if checkered, history of real estate development on Chicago's South Side. The same can't be said of Rita Rezko, who for all I know, has one source of income, a $38,000 a year part time, if not "barely time," job on an obscure Cook County board.

From ABC 7 Chicago:

His wife continues her work on the Cook County Employee Appeals Board. It decides on the fairness of firings for the roughly 6,000 non-union workers on the county's payroll. Last year, they handled 18 cases.

Rita Rezko has been on the board for eight years. But recently, and understandably, she has had to spend a lot of time at the Dirksen Federal Building (in downtown Chicago). It's where her husband is on trial, accused of stacking state boards and then fixing some of their votes. No one has called into question Mrs. Rezko's work on the Appeals Board; but some say her attendance leaves a lot to be desired.

She and other board members are each paid $38,500 a year - and they receive health insurance - for this "part-time" job. They're expected to attend roughly one meeting per month.

According to documents released by the county, back in 2005, Mrs. Rezko missed nearly half of the meetings. The following year she attended eight of 14 sessions. Last year, her attendance greatly improved and she only missed one. But now, with her husband on trial, she has only made it to one of three board meetings held so far this year.