Published report says that a Cook County employee was paid even while in jail.
The Sun-Times reports that busboy turned patronage worker Tony Cole was given paid "excused" absences for his three stints in jail last November.
County president Todd Stroger's cousin, former chief financial officer Donna Dunnings, gave her former secretary paid time off that he did not earn for workdays he was locked in county jail. Dunnings signed time cards that claimed Cole worked weekends that he did not show up at the office, county records show.
Dunnings signed off on time cards that report Cole worked 14 hours the weekend of Nov. 22. But security records kept by the sheriff's department said Cole was in the county building at 118 N. Clark for only four hours and 20 minutes that weekend.
On Jan. 25, the Sunday after Cole was released from jail, Dunnings signed a time card that reported Cole worked four hours. But Cole did not sign in at the county building that day, sheriff's department records show.
When told county time sheets did not show evidence that Cole worked enough extra hours to warrant receiving that much comp time, Dunnings said a "time keeper" kept track of comp time hours and she just signed off on the time sheets. A county source close to the situation said Cole was the office time keeper.
The Cook County state's attorney's office financial crimes unit has launched a probe into the Dunnings- Cole controversy. Cole, who remains in county jail and is due in domestic violence court today, said an assistant states attorney in the financial crimes division visited him in jail and he received a grand jury subpoena.
Cole also told the Sun-Times an FBI agent -- confirmed as an investigator from the Chicago field office -- has visited him in jail several times and as recently as last week to ask questions about Dunnings and Stroger and any information Cole might have about county corruption.
The FBI. ... Now that's more like it. Can we really trust the Cook County state's attorney's office financial crimes unit to handle this? They are entrenched within the belly of the beast and beholden to the budget decisions of Stroger's Cook County Board.
We are all paying a corruption tax in Cook County. We need real reform.
