Not even the charitable cook county workers are safe from being victims of corruption.  What happened is that when the county employees chose to donate part of their paychecks to charity, 3% of the money donated went to the Cook County Charity Fund, which is discretionary and fully under the control of the board president’s administration.

What happened is that Stroger encouraged the employees to donate money to charities, and then the employees who did want to participate had to fill out a form to deduct the donation from their paychecks.  What most employees didn’t notice is that at the bottom of the form, in fine print, the 3% given back to the county’s charity fund.

Three percent may not seem like a significant amount, but the fund collects $7,000 a year, and currently holds a total of $58,590.  The board says that they use the fund for unexpected events, like earthquakes, etc.

Click link below: “Chicago Sun-Times” to read the article.

Cook County skims 3% from workers' charity donations

August 25, 2008

BY MARK J. KONKOL Cook County Reporter