I have a history of being the only person who has challenged and won the challenged against  the “most powerful politician in Chicago” Edward Burke, who has been the alderman of the 14^th ward for more than 40 years and had never been challenged before.

One of  the basic needs for a poor Latino community is not to have to pay the highest sales taxes in the nation. Everyone, including the Latino Community, is struggling to make it in this recessionary period.  The very high sales tax hurts poor people disproportionately because they must pay it on the most basic goods that are essential to everyday life.

I am concerned about the Latino leadership in the County, about upper management positions that are filled with people who have no legitimate credentials. Where are our young professionals going when they finish college? One of my goals is to bring these qualified, well-educated Latinos, women and other minorities into Cook County government.

Previous political experience (elective and appointed):

Ms. Andrade is the first Mexican American women elected to be the Illinois State Central Committeewomen on February 2nd, 2010

Paloma currently  serves as the Chairman of the South West Side Greens

Ms. Andrade ran for Cook County Clerk of the Circuit Court and received close to 100,000 votes.

Paloma Andrade ran for Alderman in the 14th ward in the last election. Paloma is the current 14th ward green party committeeman.

Education:

Ms. Paloma Andrade  graduated from Thomas Kelly High School in 1992 and from Robert Morris College in 1997.

At Robert Morris Paloma majored in Business Administration with a concentration in Accounting and she was in the honor society of alpha beta gamma and represented the college as a student ambassador.

Paloma, attended Dominican University as a candidate for a Masters in Education.

1) Should the county health system’s independent board become a permanent entity, with current powers intact? Why or why not?

Yes, absolutely. This board will help become a public interest watch dog reviewing the usually obscure work in Cook County government. In fact, if elected I will propose legislation to strengthen the current powers of the board and make it a permanent entity. This independent board is vital to protect the public interest from the waste, fraud, abuse and patronage rampant in the county health system (to say nothing of the other parts of county government).

2) Will you vote to repeal the 1 percentage point sales tax increase that took effect in 2008? Please explain why that revenue is or is not needed.

Yes, I will vote to repeal the sales tax. I oppose all regressive flat taxes that directly hurt the lowest income residents in our community while taxing the least those people who benefit the most from our economy with large incomes. As Todd Stroger has pointed out, Cook County is unique among units of government these days in that it is not in danger of bankruptcy – including compared to the City of Chicago and the State of Illinois. However, Stroger’s regressive sales tax on the backs of low and moderate income people of the county as well as the rampant “corruption tax” we suffer in Cook County at the hands of Stroger’s administration mean that Stroger’s method of keeping county government solvent is all wrong and not in the public interest. I favor the county moving to instituting a means tested taxation system that would ensure a fair and progressive income tax where your ability to pay is in proportion to your contribution to the running of our collective resource: our county government.

3) What are the essential services provided by the county, and what services could be reduced or eliminated? Can the county workforce be reduced? If so, where would you cut?

Cook County provides a level of government generally unique in western democracies. We have a judicial system that runs at the county level, law enforcement, a vital health system, environmental enforcement and many other government functions. There are some rights and liberties that are best protected for residents on the county level – especially in unincorporated areas of the county. Regarding proving vital heath services for uninsured residents in our area, our county government is the primary source for providing those services. Keeping these health services fully available is vital to those in our county that have no other options to protect their health, can not afford health insurance or were denied health insurance. While the debate rages on the national level between the self-interested health insurance and manufacturing corporations on the one hand and the public interest on the other, Cook County quietly continues to serve thousands of needy residents that otherwise would suffer terribly and in many cases simply die with out available county health care. This is an example of the best of what government can and should do for the people.

The county workforce can be reduced, I believe, and as a county legislator I will introduce legislation that will institute an independent process to find patronage job holders, fire these people, and to review the positions that can be eliminated. I would like to make the spectacle of county government’s waste and bloated patronage an area that newspapers like the Tribune would no longer find a fruitful area for investigative reporting, because it would cease to exist. The residents of Cook County and the 7th District need someone from among their ranks who will make commitments like this, and then stick to them.

4) Do you support contracting with municipalities to take over services provided by the county’s highway department, the forest preserve police, and other offices? Please explain.

This is an interesting idea I am willing to explore further. My concern is that the proposal be cost effective, so that the devil is in the details. Exactly what the terms of the contracts will be for these services to be provided will determine if it is a good idea. To the extent that this idea and the results of negotiations can effectively reduce unnecessary duplication of services and staff and material, I support it.

5) Should the county clerk and county recorder offices merge? Do you favor creating an office of tax administration to combine property tax functions of the assessor, auditor, clerk, treasurer and recorder?

I believe better than combining the entirety of the above offices could be the proposal to help invest in maximizing the technological and information technology solutions to help these information processing-heavy offices and to combine the resources that can be combined. I support building a Cook County Google-like back end server and information technology backbone infrastructure that these departments can then make use of, reduce duplicative staff and material and share and standardize web-enabled and accessible information systems. I do believe that many of these offices perform unique enough functions that we do risk creating a “Homeland Security Department” bureaucracy that is very difficult to manage and unique offices, functions and competencies get unnecessarily lost in the shuffle – and in the rush to “starve the beast”.

6) Several municipalities have sought access to use land owned by the Forest Preserve District of Cook County for recreational purposes. Should the district approve or reject such requests?

This needs to be reviewed on a case by case basis – but in principle unless these requests for access include restricting the rights of county residents to use the land, there should be no major impediment to this proposal.

7) What will be your three highest priorities for the next term?

1) Change the county to derive its tax income from fair, progressive mechanisms
2) Institute permanent boards and systems to route out corruption, waste, fraud, abuse
and patronage rampant in county government
3) Job training and placement services for residents, helping to make Cook County a location attractive to businesses looking for a well educated and trained workforce.

8  A federal monitor reports that some county workers are undermining efforts to prevent illegal patronage hiring in county government. How will you insulate hiring in your office from this influence?

My office will be as transparent as clear glass as I believe all county government should be. As my entire political party, the Green Party, is, I also am running against the very corrupt patronage referenced in this question. Patronage county employee hacks will be tearing down our campaign signs and intimidating our volunteers and supporters, just as they have in the past. So you will not see any patronage employees in my office and I will not be adding any names to a “Clout List” unlike my incumbent opponent. And I have no interest in simply replacing the old patronage system with a new one favoring myself. I support a permanent outside body to review all hires, including for commissioner’s staff.