Town Hall with Toni Preckwinkle

Toni Preckwinkle is the 35th president of the Cook County Board of Commissioners, an office she has held since 2010. A dedicated and effective public servant, President Preckwinkle has worked tirelessly and collaboratively to reshape County government through increased fiscal responsibility, transparency and improved services. As the top executive in Cook County, President Preckwinkle oversees one of the nation’s largest public health and hospitals systems and one of the nation’s largest criminal justice systems. President Preckwinkle is a lifelong advocate for equity and equality, and through her work as president, has fought to improve health care access, bring increased fairness to the criminal justice system and expand employment training opportunities for some of the County’s most disadvantaged youth. Leveraging more than 30 years of political experience and leadership, President Preckwinkle has restored credibility to County government, solving for more than $2.1 billion in budget deficits, cutting $851 million in expenditures and passing balanced budgets each year of her tenure. Through the President’s leadership, Cook County used the Affordable Care Act to create CountyCare, a managed care program for Medicaid-eligible residents which now has about 330,000 members. President Preckwinkle is a nationally recognized leader in the drive to reduce unnecessary and costly detention of non-violent offenders in the criminal justice system. The pretrial population at the Cook County Jail has been reduced by more than 30 percent since she took office in 2010 and in 2017, the MacArthur Foundation awarded Cook County one of its highly competitive Safety and Justice grants in recognition of the County’s progress in criminal justice reform and to support its continued efforts. At the same time President Preckwinkle has successfully fought for juvenile justice reform, reducing the number of children tried as adults and the population in the Juvenile Temporary Detention Center. She championed reform of expungement laws to ensure that juvenile records do not keep young people from productive adult lives. For her efforts, President Preckwinkle was honored in 2017 with the inaugural State Champion Award from the Shriver National Center on Poverty Law. President Preckwinkle is also president of the Forest Preserves of Cook County, the largest forest preserve districts in the country spanning 69,000 acres. Under her leadership, the Forest Preserves have been reborn as a public asset providing recreational, educational and ecological opportunities. Before she was elected Cook County Board President, President Preckwinkle served 19 years as Alderman of the 4th Ward, building a reputation for progressive independence. She replaced public housing with viable mixed-income developments that included the first market rate housing built in North Kenwood and Oakland since World War II. She fought for living wages, public education and against payday lending and gun violence. Prior to holding elected office, President Preckwinkle taught high school history for 10 years. She holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Chicago. She is the mother of two and the grandmother of three. --

Peter D. Verros focuses his practice on commercial and industrial property tax assessment appeals, property tax incentives and land use and zoning. He represents small business owners, real estate holding companies, real estate investment managers and multi-national Fortune 500 companies. Mr. Verros has particular interest in property tax litigation and extensive experience in complex valuation matters related to industrial and manufacturing facilities, anchor department stores, Big Box retail stores, hotel properties, shopping centers and office complexes. After graduating from Chicago-Kent College of Law, Mr. Verros joined the Cook County Treasurer’s Office as a staff attorney and later served as the Assistant General Counsel. During his tenure at the Treasurer’s Office, he worked closely with numerous county offices responsible for the valuation and collection of property taxes in Cook County. In addition to carrying out the firm’s mission to provide high quality legal services, Mr. Verros heads initiatives to improve the overall client experience and create value beyond property tax matters. Mr. Verros is a founding partner of Verros Berkshire.