Cook County News Herald

How trustworthy is local government?




It seems that bickering about the YMCA and the 1 percent sales tax has come back to haunt Cook County again. My hat is off to both Tod Sylvester and George Wilkes for showing both sides of the coin in the same week… did you guys coordinate that, or was it just serendipity?

In any case, the citizens of Cook County are not only paying attention to these discussions, but feel that it is time to rebuild some trust between the local government and our local communities. Our small group is made up of five local residents: one elected official, one government employee, and one educator, and myself. (As some members of this group are directly involved with government, we feel it is better that they remain anonymous until the survey is completed.) We also recognize that we do not have all the answers, nor do a small group of us want to speak for the entire county.

Our first step towards working with local government employees and elected officials is getting feedback from local communities. To this end, we have compiled a short, 10-question survey to help us better understand the events and issues that have impacted your own personal assessment of how trustworthy our local government is. We invite all residents of Cook County to voice your opinion. Please take our survey online at: bit.ly/ ccgovtrust.

Woody Gilk
Grand Marais



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