[BCNnet] Another Tribune editorial: Mr. Stroger, this is beneath you

[Randi Doeker - Chicago]

FYI: Randi Doeker, Chicago


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Mr. Stroger, this is beneath you 
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February 26, 2006

John Stroger approaches his 77th birthday with a reputation for
personal decency that's been decades in the making. So why are the
desperate politicos running Stroger's re-election campaign so bent on
trashing the Cook County Board president's image?

Stroger's TV spots attacking his Democratic primary election
challenger, Forrest Claypool, send false messages--and grossly insult
Mayor Richard M. Daley's legacy in the process.

These ads for John Stroger don't merely play loose with the truth.
These ads mislead voters:

- In one spot, two young people talk about the primary race for County
Board president.

She: "Forrest Claypool likes to call himself a quiet but determined
reformer."

He: "Yeah, his actions speak louder than his words. When he headed the
Chicago Park District [1993-1998], the lawns didn't get mowed until
they looked like--a forest." (A forest--get it?)

She: "Lights were out, fieldhouses in disrepair, broken glass
everywhere ... " It goes on.

The ad's stated source for these accusations: "Journal of Leisure
Research--2000 Study."

That journal, published by the National Recreation and Park
Association, did run a lengthy article on the Chicago Park District in
its First Quarter 2000 edition. But rather than denouncing the
district, the article is heavy with praise. Its title: "Reorganizing
the Chicago Park District--From patronage to professional status."

The article, by a professor at Chicago State University, chronicles
improvements sought by Mayor Daley to correct "years of low-quality
programming, unresponsive employees, and dirty as well as unsafe
parks." The article notes that by 1998, the district was one of only
19 nationwide--and the largest--to earn national accreditation because
of its "commitment to high-quality services, superior management of
resources and compliance with professional standards."

Not one word about unmowed lawns, burned-out lights, run-down
fieldhouses or broken glass. Claypool executed the turnaround Daley
ordered--which is why Daley next made Claypool his chief of staff.
What must the mayor think of ads that slime his stewardship of Chicago
parks?

- Another ad specifically cites a 1993 column in which the late
Chicago Sun-Times columnist Steve Neal knocked Claypool for recruiting
parks officials who weren't from the political camp Neal favored at
the time. Yet the ad omits the hurrahs that Neal lavished on Claypool
in 1998, after Claypool actually ran the parks:

"Claypool, 40, has gotten high marks at the Park District for cleaning
up the city's parks, bringing more efficiency to the workforce and
more than doubling non-tax revenues, from $45 million in 1993 to $92.2
million [in 1997]. He also made the parks safer by improving outdoor
lighting and increasing security with the help of the Police
Department. Claypool held the line on taxes and slashed the payroll by
20 percent. ...

"There were many skeptics, including this reporter," Neal wrote, "who
questioned Claypool's credentials to run the Park District when Daley
chose him in 1993. Claypool had no background in parks or recreation.
But as an outsider, Claypool was more willing to tackle the
bureaucracy than his recent predecessors had been, and he wasn't
afraid to make enemies in his effort to make the parks more accessible
to the public."

So are we all square on that verdict?

- The Stroger ads say Claypool raised park program fees--and that
"Kids' programs had to be cut." Claypool shifted some costs from
taxpayers to users--with many increases aimed at the well-heeled boat
owners who use city harbors. As a result, Claypool was able to double
spending on neighborhood recreation programs, from 12.1 percent of the
Park District budget in 1993 to 25.4 percent in 1998.

Cook County, and its taxpayers, need the fixes and cost-cutting that
Claypool engineered in the parks. His record is superb. That may be
why Stroger's camp had no good explanation when we asked Friday about
the ads that slander a hard-charging opponent.

Mr. Stroger, this sleazy attack on Claypool's bona fide rescue of the
Park District is beneath you.