Lake County needs a new Coroner. Or does it?
In the wake of the various scandals (yes, plural) surrounding the Lake County Coroner's Office, capped off with the resignation of Dr. Richard Keller, Sheriff Mark Curran has been running the office. While I would not suggest that it's fair for Curran to have to be doing two jobs at once, things seem to be going OK.
Apparently, we just can't do with even ONE less elected official in county government (even for a short time), though, as County Board Chairman David Stolman has made his pick (assumedly, really Terry Link's pick) for a replacement coroner: former Waukegan police chief Artis Yancey.
Yancey retired from years of service as a police officer and short stint (18 months) as police chief of Waukegan at just age 51, amid a bit of a scandal of his own that had to do with, shall we say, some domestic entanglements.
While Yancey might look like a good pick for the Dems at first glance -- African-American, law enforcement experience, fairly young, well known in the Waukegan community -- he may also be vulnerable come election time (Nov. 2012) given his personal issues. That is, if he plans to run, which he has, as yet, taken no position on.
So far, two Republicans (that I know of) have expressed interest in running for the Coroner's office.
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7 comments:
This is a black eye for both Democrats and Republicans. The board was made up of 4 Repubs
and 2 Dems. Several more qualified individuals expressed interest in the position.
Yancey while possessing a nice resume has questionable ethical and personal integrity issues in his recent past.
Come November 2012, Dems could sell Link down the river. After all, applications were submitted and no one got an interview. Link and Nixon worked in a vacuum.
For the Republicans, they supported a name brought forward by a minority group and did an auto-bob. In essence they too are supporting and individual with questionable character, a member who broke the "blue code". The Commissioners no doubt will do an auto-bob on April 12th and then their decision making abilities will come into question when they all seek re-election in 2012.
This is just an embarrassment for Lake County regardless of party affiliation. While some may say this is typical of Cook County, even in Cook County such an individual would not get an appointment to such a top position.
Fascinating that Kirk's private life is verbotten, that Dold's predatory lender supporters are verbotten, but TA makes an article out of Yancey. You just have this weird slime standard. Most odd.
Quite frankly, I am surprised there have only been two comments.
Anon 7:25
Under state law, the Board is required to appoint someone of the same party as the last elected official; in other words, a democrat. The republicans on the board could have recommended a republican. Such is life.
Anon 11:12,
Oh boy, did you ever miss the point!
Coroner should be a nonpartisan office. There's no republican or democrat way to examine a dead person.
Phil Collins
+1
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