Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle discusses the county’s budget shortfall following a Cook County Board meeting on July 27, 2011. (Credit: CBS)
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CHICAGO (CBS) — Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle says it was more a matter of negligence than anything criminal that led her to fire of the county comptroller.
“We were not satisfied with the comptroller’s performance, and as a result, we’re going to make a change,” Preckwinkle said Thursday.
LISTEN: WBBM Newsradio’s Regine Schlesinger reports
As WBBM Newsradio’s Regine Schlesinger reports, Preckwinkle fired comptroller Constance Kravitz after an audit picked up a $90 million overstatement of county tax revenues. The audit found a double journal entry for $66 million in sales tax revenue and $24 million in cigarette tax revenue.
“Frankly, the same audit finding that we were given in 2009 were repeated in 2010, so we felt that it was important to make a change,” Preckwinkle said.
Kravitz had been on the job for two years after being appointed by Preckwinkle’s predecessor, Todd Stroger. Her salary was $90,000.
Preckwinkle said she does not think there is anything shady going on.
“The audit findings did not suggest there was criminal activity,” she said. “I would describe it more as negligence.”
Preckwinkle says after scouring the books, her staff believes it has uncovered all the accounting errors blamed on Kravitz.
Preckwinkle is now looking for a new comptroller.
