The chief of staff to Todd Stroger is leaving his job with the lame duck Cook County Board president to become an aide to county Treasurer Maria Pappas.
Joseph Fratto will begin his new job in the treasurer’s office on Sept. 1. Fratto will be one of three chiefs of staff to Pappas, replacing Mike Shine, who is retiring.
Stroger lost his re-election bid in the Democratic primary in February to Ald. Toni Preckwinckle (4th Ward).
“I needed someone who understands purchasing, finance and personnel,” Pappas said. “I have been trying since the primary election to hire Joe. He is what I need.”
Fratto lives in the Daley family’s 11th Ward power base and has made donations in recent years to the ward’s Democratic organization, led by John Daley, the county board commissioner and brother of Mayor Richard M. Daley. Those facts sparked speculation that Fratto essentially served as the Daley family’s eyes and ears in the county board president’s office.
But John Daley said Fratto is not an active member of the ward organization. And Fratto said he got a job with Stroger’s administration because he knew the board president from working with him years ago at the Chicago Park District.
The Daleys once supported Stroger heavily, but the generations-old relationship between the Daleys and the Strogers frayed, and the Daleys did not support Stroger’s re-election bid this year, prompting angry criticism from the spurned incumbent.
Stroger’s spokesman, Eugene Mullins, did not return calls seeking comment today. The president’s office has not announced who will serve as Stroger’s chief of staff for the final few months of his term, until his replacement emerges in the November general election.
Pappas, who is a longtime ally of the Daleys, said she hired Fratto on the merits, not as a political favor. She said he is the best pick to replace Shine, who earned a morbid nickname for cutting the treasurer’s payroll from 258 to 120 employees.
“When I hire people, I pick plums off of trees,” Pappas said. “Shine was Dr. Death. I couldn’t replace him with just anybody.”