A different kind of bird strike

Donna Dunnings is the CFO for Cook County Illinois. Yes, the county that leads the nation in sales taxes. (It’s a tough competition, but someone has to be NUMBER ONE.)

Donna is a cousin of county board president Todd Stroger.

So, Donna was just arriving at a budget meeting on Thursday, spotted a colleague by the name of Alexis Herrera, and fired off a one-finger salute in her direction. You know, the Milwaukee Skyline. The bird. In fact, the Chicago Sun-Times thinks it ought to be the official bird of Cook County.

Donna is quoted thus: "It was a joke. I was teasing with a former employee. We tease all the time. If someone thinks it's more than that, f--- 'em."

Some reporters reminded her that she was just having a heated discussion with Herrera in the hallway about the Sheriff’s Department budget. But Dunnings said it was just a tease.

Then she tells reporters: "As much as people try to make me an ogre, I'm not that at all. I just want best the for administration and county of Cook. They can say what they want about me. I bust my a-- in this job. ... Write what you want. I don't care anymore."

She doesn’t seem very professional to me. Maybe that’s how politicians talk. Maybe she doesn’t have to worry about professionalism because she was hired by her cousin and isn’t likely to get fired by Todd Stroger.

Stroger probably envies her ability to communicate.

And Illinois keeps electing this caliber of person to office. And they keep hiring family and friends to staff their departments. And we continue to get expensive and unprofessional results from staff. It boggles the mind.