Cook Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown.

A proposal to make Cook County’s clerk of the Circuit Court an appointed position rather than an elected one has stalled.

County Commissioner Peter Silvestri withdrew the proposal at last week’s County Board meeting to the cheers of the audience, packed with supporters of Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown.

“This was personal,” an audience member yelled out as commissioners commented on the issue.

Silvestri insisted it was not personal and that he considers Brown a friend. He said some time ago his office launched an examination of county positions, including the county clerk, recorder of deeds and Circuit Court clerk, to see if any streamlining could be achieved by the officials being appointed instead of elected.

“The intention was always to see if there was a way to make government more efficient, and to save money,” Silvestri said. “This county is in a potentially precarious financial position, and this is why this decision occurred.”

He said the resolution he planned to present to the County Board, which would have asked legislators in Springfield to change the law to make the Cook County Circuit Court clerk’s position appointed, was the only avenue to make such a change happen.

Silvestri said he purposely waited until after the primary to propose the issue so as to not make the maneuver look political. He said the resolution also would have kept the clerk’s position elected through 2020.

“However, I am very concerned about the divisive nature of this resolution, especially taken out of context as it has (been) in so many different ways,” Silvestri said. “This had nothing ever to do with the current Circuit Court clerk.”

Brown lost the backing of the Cook County Democratic Party, but emerged victorious in the March primary nonetheless. Some critics viewed the proposal for an appointed clerk as a way to get rid of Brown without having to defeat her in an election.

Commissioner Larry Suffredin, who was a co-sponsor of Silvestri’s measure, said the proposal would have brought discussion on the Circuit Court clerk’s position.

“We run the largest court system in the United States, and potentially in the world,” Suffredin said. “Across the street (in the Daley Center), we have a courthouse that has over 200 judges sitting every day. This is an important concept: to do what we can to make this court efficient, and to make the lives of those people who appear in that court every day better.”

The resolution said going to an appointed clerk provided “opportunities for significant cost savings to taxpayers include reducing the top-heavy structure of the elected office, reducing duplication of services, and achieving economies of scale.”

Commissioner Robert Steele thanked Silvestri for withdrawing the proposal. He said efficiency does not always mean justice in some Cook County communities “and it is not always justice when we say we want efficiency.”

“This is an important issue for us as a people, to know that you (Silvestri) are doing justice in the right way right now,” Steele said.

Commissioner Richard Boykin said he would have voted against the measure and that the county needs an elected Circuit Court clerk.

“This is another example of this body actually putting politics ahead of the people,” Boykin said. “We have the most pressing gun-violence issue of our lifetime, the most pressing issue, and we are spending $50 million at the (county) hospital this year to deal with gun violence, spending billions in the city to deal with the gun violence, and yet we want to get waylaid and sidetracked by these kinds of resolutions that seek really to undermine the people’s will.”
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