Cook County plans overhaul of scandal-plagued job training program

Corruption corruption what is your function...keeping down people and keeping Government funded.....
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle on Tuesday unveiled an overhaul of a scandal-plagued job training program that officials said once served as a depot for the politically connected and is now part of a federal investigation.

The President's Office of Employment Training will be "rebranded" as Cook County Works, she said.

"I think the combination of changed leadership, streamlined staff and reorganizing the work will diminish the likelihood that we'll have the kind of problems we had in the past," Preckwinkle said.

The jobs agency has long been accused of mismanagement, and some former top officials were accused of stealing by the state's attorney. Under then-County Board President Todd Stroger, the program lost millions of dollars in federal funding meant to train thousands of workers because it spent money inappropriately or failed to spend it before deadlines, according to state officials.

After Preckwinkle took office in December, seven workers were suspended. One of them was fired, two face disciplinary hearings and two others will soon be notified of hearings, according to Karin Norington-Reaves, the director Preckwinkle hired to fix the employment training office.

In March, U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald's office subpoenaed emails, personnel files, and attendance and overtime records, among other documents, of agency employees, including past Director Karen Crawford. No charges have been filed.

At Tuesday's news conference, Norington-Reaves was asked if she had discovered employees who had been paid to do no work.

"I would say that it was evident that some people sort of came by their jobs not because of traditional paths to employment and … I think that there were better ways to have managed that," she said.

Norington-Reaves said a comprehensive review showed numerous redundant positions and job titles, as well as ones that were misidentified.

"There was a wild fluctuation in salaries. We had some people who were at $30,000 or $35,000 and others at $80,000 and the exact same title with fewer years," she said. "There was just very little rhyme or reason to how things were structured."

The county will revamp the $13.5 million department by cutting staff from 56 jobs to 33, which officials said will result in approximately 10 layoffs and the elimination of vacant positions. The agency also will focus on administering grants instead of case management. The agency's volunteer board members will drop from 48 to 28, and a provision that allows board members to bid for job program contracts will be repealed.

The goal is to have reforms in place by August, officials said.