Member-only story
Many years ago, almost nineteen to be exact, I was a thirty-year-old newcomer to the field of economic development and worked for one of the largest, most inefficient and politically-driven bureaucracies on planet Earth. That’s right. Crook County government, referred to by many as Cook County.
My first mentor in the field was a political appointee from the south side Democratic political machine controlled by Bobby Rush who did not hold a college degree. Nothing against those who do not hold degrees, but I sure did wonder why I went through so many years of schooling only to be out-earned by a guy with only a high school diploma. It’s not like he invented Cook County, or anything for that matter. But he did work for the right political organization.
He was and presumably still is a terrific guy who took me under his wing and always told me the way things were really done at the county. Who was who and what was what. Who’s applications should be moved to the top and were slated for a quick, painless approval and which ones would be lost in the sludge pile never to be seen again. What companies to call when we had to contract for services, and which ones to conveniently lose track of. That sort of…
