Some Cook County Board commissioners skip more than 20% of their meetings

Four incumbent Cook County commissioners — including two county board members facing Democratic primary challenges on March 17 — each missed more than 20% of the meetings they were supposed to be at since the beginning of the current term, a WBEZ analysis of county records has found.

The station compiled and analyzed the attendance records from 800 public meetings since the four-year term began in December 2022, finding that the sitting commissioners who did not show up with the greatest frequency were Stanley Moore, Bridget Gainer and Kisha McCaskill.

While Moore is running unopposed for re-election, Gainer and McCaskill have to overcome primary foes to win another term, and their challengers were eager to attempt to capitalize on the results of the WBEZ analysis of meeting attendance reports.

“I think any commissioner who’s able needs to be attending,” said Gainer challenger Drake Warren. “Showing up for work is a really important part of the job.”

WBEZ’s analysis covered county board meetings and board committee sessions and also all gatherings of the Cook County Forest Preserve board – which consists of the elected county commissioners – and Forest Preserve committee meetings during the ongoing term. The overall attendance rate was nearly 87%, the station’s review found.

But several commissioners fell far short of that mark.

Moore was reported absent at 131 of 487 meetings he was supposed to attend over the three years and three months since the county board was sworn in for a new term in early December 2022, records show. That represented an absentee rate of nearly 27%.

Moore historically had not missed many meetings in the years after taking office in 2013, but he acknowledged being absent frequently from board sessions in the last three years because, he said, he was the primary caregiver for three close family members with serious illnesses.

In an interview Thursday, Moore said he still was effective for his constituents, citing improvements to the Forest Preserve facilities in the Dan Ryan Woods.

“Because of the work I’ve done, nobody is running against me,” Moore said.

Among incumbent board members, Gainer had the second-worst record, missing nearly 23% of her meetings. But that represented an improvement compared to her truancy rate between 2013 and 2018, when an investigation by the Chicago Sun-Times revealed Gainer had missed nearly a third of all the meetings she was expected to be present for during that five-year period.

In a statement Thursday, Gainer said she made it to almost all the gatherings of the full board this term, but she was absent from many lower-profile meetings.

“Attendance is an important part of the job,” she said. “I know I have room for improvement with committees and Forest Preserves, and I’ll continue to strive to do so.”

She said she had “delivered real results” in her board district, including “creating 3,000 units of affordable housing.”

But her challenger, Warren, noted that Gainer — who has been on the county board since 2009 — has long been notorious for missing a relatively large proportion of official meetings. The 2018 investigation by the Sun-Times found Gainer also had a poor attendance record at Forest Preserve board meetings.

Warren said Gainer’s absenteeism relative to other commissioners was part of his motivation to run against her. If elected, he promised to have “stellar attendance” and not work at another job outside of being a county commissioner, which pays a salary of $102,170 a year in 2026, according to county budget records.

In addition to being a county commissioner, Gainer works for Aon, the global professional services firm with North American headquarters in downtown Chicago’s Aon Center.

McCaskill, who has touted her long tenure as park district executive director for south suburban Harvey, was appointed to the county board in January 2025 to fill the 5th District vacancy created by the election of Monica Gordon to county clerk.

In the first 13 months after joining the board, McCaskill was supposed to be at 201 meetings but was absent 43 times, according to the minutes from those sessions. That represented an absenteeism rate of 21%.

As she runs for what would be her first full term, McCaskill first must overcome a primary challenge from Dolton Trustee Kiana Belcher.

McCaskill did not return messages, but Belcher said she was concerned about McCaskill missing meetings in her first year in office. The challenger promised she would not work any other job if elected to be a commissioner.

“Taxpayers will have my full and undivided attention,” Belcher said.

Unlike the last time a media investigation gauged the truancy rate among commissioners, though, the county board now considers many of the absences it recorded to be “excused.” Without any public debate, at the first meeting of the current term, commissioners unanimously approved a one-paragraph amendment to their rules that allows them to call in ahead of time to be marked down as excused.

The rule does not require the commissioners to put their excuse in writing or to even state the reason for the absence, although the change did stipulate that excused absences can be taken for reasons such as “illness, family emergency.”

For its analysis, WBEZ considered commissioners absent when records reflected that the absence was excused.

The other incumbents who fell short of the board’s average attendance rate were Sean Morrison (20%), Kevin Morrison (20%), Josina Morita (19%) and Donna Miller (15%), according to county records.

Sean Morrison, the lone Republican on the 17-member county board, is not running for another term. Neither are Kevin Morrison and Miller, who are running for seats in Congress in the primary this month.

In a statement Thursday, Kevin Morrison said he completed law school and prepared for the bar exam during this term “because being an attorney better equips me to serve on the Cook County Board.” He also said he had to go to Florida “to support my fiance, whose parents required end-of-life care.”

Despite those challenges, he said, he took credit for updates to the county’s human rights ordinance, advocated for “due process rights for Cook County citizens from outrageous ICE agents” and held public hearings on human trafficking and anti-trans violence.

“I remain deeply committed to my work as commissioner representing the communities of the 15th District and will remain that through the remainder of my term,” Kevin Morrison said.

Miller also said she was absent on meeting days at times for valid personal and professional reasons, including taking part in the Electoral College in Springfield in 2024, attending a national conference of Black county officials, a hospitalization and the death of her stepfather.

Some of the times when Miller was absent, she was marked as missing several meetings that were all held on the same day.

“I’m on the most committees of any commissioner,” she said. “Other [board commissioners] are absent a lot. I take it very seriously. All of my absences were excused, and all were for legitimate reasons.”

Morita said she and her staff found multiple instances where she said the minutes were incorrect — she was marked absent on the minutes even though she was at those meetings.

The lowest attendance record during the current county board was recorded by Commissioner Dennis Deer — but he was severely ill for an extended period before dying while still in office in 2024. Deer suffered serious health issues after contracting COVID-19 in 2022.

One commissioner who left the county board in the middle of his term — to become mayor of Chicago — missed more than two dozen meetings in the first few months after the 2022 board election. Brandon Johnson racked up 26 absences out of 62 meetings, for a 42% absence rate, between being sworn in for the current term and getting elected mayor a few months later, in the 2023 city election.

With a 99% mark, the best attendance rate this term belonged to Anthony Quezada, who skipped just three of 399 meetings before leaving the county board to become the Chicago City Council member for the 35th Ward last year.

The incumbent with the best attendance rate was Maggie Trevor, from Arlington Heights, with a 98.5% mark. She was present for 590 of 599 meetings. Nobody filed to challenge Trevor’s re-election bid.

Veteran Commissioner John Daley, the chairman of the board’s Finance Committee, also continued his historically stellar attendance with a 94% mark for this term. Daley was at the board 99% of the time between 2013 and 2018.

“I think it’s key. You’re elected to represent your district,” said Daley, the brother and son of former Chicago mayors.

Daley said he was well aware of and supported the rule change to allow for excused absences, pointing out that he missed being at the county board only when he was sick and for his sister’s funeral.

“I don’t think commissioners are misusing this,” Daley said of the rule change. “If they are, they should know better.”

Besides sickness or family issues, Daley said, there was little reason to miss meetings, given that the sessions are scheduled well ahead of time: “Back in November or December of the previous year, for the entire year.”

Dan Mihalopoulos is an investigative reporter for WBEZ. Alden Loury is data projects editor. Amy Qin is a data reporter.

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