Monday, November 27, 2006
Bobbie Steele's Retirement
Cook County Board Comissioner Bobbie Steele has decided to retire, annointing her son Robert to succeed her. The Chicago Tribune comments:
Steele, who was just re-elected to another term as a county commissioner, told WLS-TV on Thanksgiving that she's going to retire now. That will allow her to collect a fat $136,000-a-year pension. She'll collect far more in retirement than she was ever paid in salary (currently $85,000 a year) as a commissioner.The outrages abound:
How's that?
Thanks to pension laws that politicians designed to make politicians happy, Steele can draw a pension based on her salary during her four months as County Board president. The president makes a lot more than the part-time commissioners make. So Steele gets to cash in.
"I don't want anyone to think I'm a bandit and I'm taking something and running," Steele told WLS. "That's not me. I did not make the law, and if I become the beneficiary of it, it's by no doing of my own."
That's not me? Nonsense.
- The way Steele made this public, telling a reporter while she was helping to feed the poor on Thanksgiving Day.
- That she blatently lied about her plans during her campaign.
- The way she denies she's pulling a fast one, refusing to accept responsibility for her own choices.
- That her pension doubled after serving a mere 4 months as interim president.
- That she has six (6!) children on the county payroll.
- That the two I just listed are even possible.
- That my listing the fact she chose her son as her replacement as an outrage seems like overkill.
