Accountability
Forest Preserves
Public Safety
Cook County Budget
Forest Pres. Budget
Property Tax Appeal
Health & Hospitals
Policy Resolutions

An angry Cook County Commissioner Bill Beavers assailed a Brookfield Zoo administrator Wednesday, berating her over low minority employment at the world-famous institution.
The browbeating came after the county released its annual report of minority representation among the work force at the zoo, the Chicago Botanic Garden and the forest preserve, all of which receive at least some funding from the county.
“You can’t find one black person that you can put in any of these spots? That’s ridiculous,” said an incredulous Beavers while questioning Mena Boulanger, vice president of government affairs for the zoo. He noted that in 121 jobs in the areas of technicians, sales, office and clerical, skilled craft workers and semi-skilled operatives at the zoo, no blacks were employed.
Boulanger responded by detailing stepped-up recruitment efforts that the zoo implemented in July.
“The challenge, frankly, is we have very low turnover in some of those positions,” said Boulanger.
Beavers seemed to blame a recently implemented hiring monitor for the lack of minority representation, saying that patronage hiring under past administrations had resulted in a heavily white work force, and the prohibition on patronage hiring now was prohibiting a rectifying of the disparity.
“You know, I’m a patronage person. I love patronage. And if I was in charge, I’d do just like you,” said Beavers to Boulanger, who is white.
“But you ain’t in charge no more,” continued Beavers. “I’d take ’em all (on the payroll), I’d do just like you. But the laws have changed. They don’t like patronage no more. They put somebody in here to watch, to see that we don’t do patronage. But we will never catch  up as black folks (without patronage).”
“I believe in taking everything that you had for all these years, and I don’t bite my tongue about it. But since I don’t have the opportunity, reach out and find somebody. … The next time you come back, I want to see what you have done,” Beavers said.