Look at Assessor Race. Isn’t Democracy Grand? / Chicago News Cooperative

Joe Berrios is two-legged evidence that the greatest outrages in politics tend to involve what’s absolutely legal.

This enduring truth suggests why the Chicago electorate, having set a record in the Feb. 2 primary for its worst turnout, might actually be roused to vote in the November election for the confounding, mystery-shrouded post of Cook County assessor.

Mr. Berrios is a former state representative and a multitasking phenomenon worthy of a course at the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy Studies. He’s the Cook County Democratic chairman, a lobbyist for the Illinois Coin Machine Operators Association and Illinois Licensed Beverage Association and the longest-serving member of the important, anonymous, incestuous Cook County Board of Review.

Like the assessor’s office, which sets our property tax rates, the board is so enveloped in complexity that its inscrutability ensures a lack of accountability. The chance that any local journalist has covered one of its meetings is about the same as his covering the august South Cook County Mosquito Abatement District.

But the board is critical to corporate Chicago and the lucrative commercial real-estate tax appeals practices of certain law firms, including that of Michael Madigan, speaker of the Illinois House. It’s where you appeal the assessor’s decisions.

It’s partly why Mr. Berrios and Mr. Madigan are worthy of a Discovery Channel special: the first pair of Hispanic-Irish conjoined twins attached at the checkbook. Mr. Berrios lobbies Mr. Madigan on legislation, while Mr. Madigan appeals to Mr. Berrios for tax relief for clients — saving them many millions of dollars.

The two men can make political donations to each other, just like litigants before the board can contribute to Mr. Berrios’s campaigns and Springfield lobbyists can enrich Mr. Madigan. And the duo can plot in political tandem since Mr. Madigan runs the state Democratic Party while Mr. Berrios runs the county party apparatus.

Isn’t democracy grand? Mr. Berrios spent part of his youth living in the awful, defunct Cabrini-Green housing project. He’s now a Horatio Alger hero, Chicago-style, faithful servant of coin operators, Anheuser-Busch and high-rise developers avoiding a fair share of taxes.

Mr. Berrios won the Democratic primary for assessor but is aghast that Forrest Claypool has announced an independent candidacy. Mr. Claypool is the reform-minded Democratic Cook County commissioner who served Mayor Richard M. Daley (twice) as chief of staff — as have enough others to fill the United Center — and head of the Park District.

He’s also close to two Chicagoans working in the White House, namely President Obama and David Axelrod. He might be County Board president now if then-Senator Obama hadn’t been too coy by half and waited until the day before the 2006 primary to back him.

Mr. Berrios says that Mr. Claypool should have run in the primary and that to the victor goes the spoils. Such a rationale did not prevail when party honchos showed the exit to Scott Lee Cohen, the pawnbroker who won the Democratic primary for lieutenant governor.

Mr. Claypool needs 25,000 valid signatures by June 21 to get on the ballot, then a lot of free publicity and some luck. As important as the assessor’s post is, it’s not one to galvanize voters, especially in a year when an awful economy, high unemployment and the imminent trial of an impeached Democratic governor are all there to suppress interest.

So he’ll have to educate us and get our apathetic selves to the polls. He needs to explain how the system is broken; why the assessed values of our homes seem to bear little link to their market value; how the heck the infamous “multiplier” works in calculating values, and why good intentions won’t be undermined by the review board.

Representative Mike Quigley, an ally of Mr. Claypool, cites the “bully pulpit” aspect of the job, including pressing for change, like putting online the results, justifications and attorneys of record for all appeals.

But I’d also love to know why assessor is even an elected position. “Good question,” Mr. Claypool said. He then argued that the post is so influential, and can do such damage in the wrong hands, there needs to be political accountability.

Cross your fingers and hope for a re-invention. Just imagine somebody pressing to eliminate donations to review board members by the people who practice before it.

That’s probably do-gooder dreaming. It’s more realistic to hope that if Mr. Berrios does win, he’ll at least invite us all over to headquarters for free licensed beverages and video poker.

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 11th, 2010 at 2:12 am and is filed under James Warren. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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