Best American Comics News bestamericancomics.com started its broadcasting life on December 21, 2022 and aims to offer original content to users. Aiming to share information in technology, science, education and other fields, bestamericancomics.com aims to provide its readers with the most up-to-date and comprehensive. Since the content of the site is created by expert writers, readers are reliable and accurate referrers.
[ad_1]
The contest to run the oft-overlooked chamber responsible for managing cases in the nation’s second-largest court system could become one of the most expensive races of the March 19 primary.
Democrat Mariyana Spyropoulos, who is seeking to unseat incumbent Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Iris Martinez, loaned her campaign $875,000 on Valentine’s Day, allowing both candidates to accept unlimited campaign contributions ahead of Election Day. Martinez has about $128,000 in cash between his three main campaign funds.
Meanwhile, the incumbent clerk defended her first term at the helm of the office, which she described as the “wild, wild west” when she took over from controversial former clerk Dorothy Brown, who ran the office amid the pandemic in 2020. 20 years.
Martinez defended his record at a hearing before the Chicago Tribune Editorial Board on Thursday, citing improvements in customer service, progress in digitizing a system that has long relied on carbon paper and hard copies, and trying to clear a backlog of expunging criminal records as his main accomplishments. .
Earlier Thursday, he cut the ribbon on a new expungement department on the fifth floor of the Leighton Criminal Court Building at 26th Street and California Avenue, where the public can turn in paperwork and get information about whether they can try the procedures. case records were expunged and sealed.
The clerk’s office staff said the office is also creating a “global filing” system that will allow the public to apply for expungement at any court location. Previously, people had to apply to the branch court where the case was filed. The changes also eliminate some filing fees, staff said.
But Spyropoulos, who now serves as a commissioner on the Greater Chicago Metropolitan Water Reclamation District board of directors, told editorial board members in a separate session Tuesday that Martinez’s modernization efforts have fallen short and that the incumbent’s ethical lapses are little more than an extension of the scandals. Brown’s tenure.
Besides his significant cash advantage, Spyropoulos also has the support of the Cook County Democratic Party and Teamsters Local 700 in Park Ridge. The Teamsters represent most clerk workers. Spyropoulos was previously a Cook County prosecutor and real estate attorney, and his late father was a businessman who worked in auto wholesale, the oil and chemical industry, and manufacturing, according to news reports. He has been on the water reclamation board since 2010.
Among the reforms proposed by Spyropoulos: eliminating the role of home inspector general, currently selected by the clerk, and instead asking the county’s Office of Independent Inspector General to do the job.
Spyropoulos introduced similar legislation in April 2017 to give OIIG oversight of the Water Reclamation District. “It took us two years to record, but we finally passed,” he told the Tribune Editorial Board earlier this week. Employees may submit complaints to OIIG anonymously; This agency’s inspectors may also audit MWRD functions and make recommendations. He wants the clerk’s office to be audited in the same way.
Martinez said he inherited the current superintendent but defended her independence and did “an outstanding job.”
Spyropoulos also promised to further open public access to clerk data. The clerk’s office is not currently subject to the state’s Freedom of Information Act; Martinez, then a state senator, had promised to meet with lawmakers in Springfield. But in the face of pushback from judges, Martinez supported a separate bill to subject the office to a weaker local public records law.
Spyropoulos said he would push for more data access while trying to change state law to subject the office to FOIA. If elected, he said he would release information about the office’s spending, case statistics and how many people remain in cases.
“Of course, we don’t want sensitive information about cases or people’s personal data to be compromised, but I think the operation of the office, how the budget is managed and what kinds of resources are used should be subject to FOIA. said.
by making an allusion Tribune investigation Spyropoulos, who found that dozens of civil servants’ employees participated in campaign efforts or contributed cash to Martinez, said he would “draw a clear line between government and political activity.” The Tribune found that 52 civil servant employees have contributed $45,000 to Martinez’s campaign funds since Martinez took office, and that those 22 employees received promotions or significant raises in civil service jobs just months, sometimes even days, before or after making these political contributions. The Tribune also found that 86 clerk’s office employees circulated petitions to include him on this year’s ballot.
“This is not how the government should be run,” Spyropoulos said.
Martinez defended taking campaign money and said he accepted donations at two widely publicized annual events, including his birthday party. Employees don’t have to participate or cut checks, he said.
“I’m as moral as I can be,” he said during the editorial board session, noting that Spyropoulos accepted campaign contributions from district contractors during his time at the Water Reclamation District.
A Tribune analysis of Spyropoulos’ contributions since 2010 showed he received more than $140,000 from companies doing business with his board.
Asked about the issue Tuesday, Spyropoulos said those contributions “do not affect the way I vote” but that if elected he would not accept contributions from any contractor doing business with the clerk’s office.
Chicago Tribune’s Madeline Buckley contributed.
