Editorial: Merge Cook County clerk, recorder of deeds offices

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Updated: March 15, 2012 8:08AM

As governments struggle to balance their budgets in lean times, the rest of us are asked to sacrifice. Workers get furloughs, benefit cuts and layoffs. The public gets higher taxes, higher fees and service cuts.

So we hope when Cook County commissioners meet Tuesday as a committee of the whole, and then Wednesday as a board, they’ll agree the county needs to merge some of its elected offices. Unless there’s support for an even bigger consolidation, a proposal to merge the county clerk and recorder of deeds offices, which could save $1 mil­lion a year, is a good place to start. A yes vote would send the idea to voters in November.

Both offices are administrative. The clerk maintains birth, marriage and death records and runs suburban elections. The recorder keeps track of property transfers, liens and other documents. Having separate elected offices primarily benefits politicians, who get one more position to slate.

Cook County hasn’t eliminated an elected office since the ’70s, when an appointed medical examiner replaced an elected coroner.

It’s time to consolidate again. The Cook County Board owes it to the rest of us.