Thursday, July 15, 2010
Chicago Sun-Times
by Lisa Donovan

A week ago, Cook County Board President Todd Stroger's administration was poised to hire three politically connected job candidates, including the finance chair of Stroger's election campaign and the wife of a Chicago alderman.

But when county hiring watchdog Mary Robinson started asking questions about the job candidates, the Stroger administration nixed hiring all three, including Ebonie Taylor-Brookins, wife of Ald. Howard Brookins (21st). The alderman backed Stroger in his losing bid for re-election this year, even as many other African-American politicians stood with the eventual winner of the Democratic primary, Ald. Toni Preckwinkle (4th).

In that report, Robinson wrote that county emergency management staffers came to her to approve some "emergency" hires "funded by a Homeland Security grant."

The county has until Aug. 31 to submit receipts for the $10.3 million in federal grant money earmarked for flood relief.

Robinson asked for the applications of the hires and discovered that the picks included Taylor-Brookins; Roger Mosley, the onetime finance director for Stroger's re-election bid, and Colin Longworth, a former employee at CGC Communications, the public relations firm owned by Carla Oglesby, Stroger's embattled deputy chief of staff.

Within days, Robinson received an e-mail from an unnamed county staffer "announcing those three candidates should be removed" from contention.

Mosley, Taylor-Brookins and the alderman could not be reached for comment.

In a phone interview Wednesday, Longworth told the Sun-Times he received a call several weeks ago from the county's Homeland Security and Emergency Management office encouraging him to apply.

"I don't remember who it was, somebody named Barry," Longworth said.

Asked what job he applied for and his pay, Longworth said: "To be honest, I'm not sure."

In the end, he said it didn't matter because within the last week, "I got a call saying my application had been removed."

Longworth, who said he does public relations for professional athletes, said he hadn't worked with Oglesby or CGC Communications for two years.

"To be honest, I don't think I was ever officially hired at CGC," he said.

Yet, his resume at Linked In, an online professional networking site, shows he's "director of Player Marketing" at CGC Communications. Asked about that, he said only: "Really?"

CGC had already been awarded a contract to do public relations work on the flood grant, touching off controversy.

Oglesby, who was Stroger's campaign spokeswoman before joining the county in February, signed off on the CGC contract even though she still owns the firm. As a result, Stroger suspended her for a week.

Responding to Robinson's report, Stroger's spokesman has denied any wrongdoing.

Contributing: Mark Konkol