In his long political career, Joseph Berrios—the incumbent who is running against Jay Paul Deratany for a commissioner's seat on the Cook County Board of Review—can boast many firsts, including being the first Hispanic to be elected to the General Assembly and the first to be selected as the chairman of the Cook County Democratic Party. In a spirited interview with Windy City Times, Berrios talked about his qualifications, shot back at charges of corruption—and revealed how he helped Deb Mell in her race for state representative.
Windy City Times: Why are you running for re-election?
Joseph Berrios: Number one, I feel that I've created an atmosphere at the board where we are there to help the homeowners. There are two brand-new commissioners, Brendan Houlihan and Larry Rogers; I have the experience, know-how and ability to make sure that the office functions for the taxpayers and that we do it in an expeditious way—but not so fast where we put the homeowners in jeopardy by not giving them a chance to express their feelings.
WCT: How are things between you and the other two commissioners?
JB: Things are just wonderful. We're working together and if you look at the way we do things—we looked at 250,000 cases last year, and on 98 percent of them, we [ agreed ] .
WCT: What would you say are your major accomplishments so far?
JB: Number one, I've opened up the board. I was brought in 1980 as chief clerk to the board, when there was an investigation going on, to keep an eye on the day-to-day operations of the board. Since the day I've walked into that office, we've constantly been making changes so that [ illegal activities ] do not happen. We divided departments; we made sure that no one person can go on all the computers and make the entries—two different people and two different sets of hands touch these files. Then, when the final numbers go down to the assessor's office, a third person handles the files, so that no particular person has the same code to go into the computer and make changes. I don't even have a code, and neither do the other two commissioners.
WCT: What has your involvement been with the gay community during your years in office?
JB: Number one, I was very instrumental in helping [ lesbian state representative ] candidate Deb Mell get slated and working with her to make sure she didn't have an opponent. We worked with the particular people in that district to make sure she would be elected. Number two,...
WCT: I'm sorry: Did you say you made sure she did not have an opponent?
JB: Yeah, we worked very hard to clear the field for her for this particular term.
WCT: How does one do that?
JB: She had [ current state senate candidate ] Rich Bradley running against her. Rich Bradley was not going to beat her—let's be honest about it. All the people in the district were supporting Deb, so we talked to Rich and said, 'Rich, you may want to look at a different race.' And he did look at it and said, 'I probably have a better chance running for the senate this time around.' He made the decision; we didn't make the decision for him. But I made it clear that I couldn't support him this time around, so Deb Mell ended up having no opponent.
That's number one. I also supported [ openly gay alderman ] Tom Tunney, who is supporting me. I also support [ openly gay State ] Rep. Harris and, four years ago, we had a judicial candidate from the gay community who was endorsed by the party, and I supported him.
WCT: Your opponent has said that your office is corrupt and...
JB: Will you stop there one second? For him, as a lawyer, to say I'm corrupt—with no [ type of ] investigation or anything out there—I think he should put up or shut up, number one, and I think that's a very, very [ slanderous ] situation, on his part. For anyone to call someone else corrupt, I would think you would have evidence to bring up.
I have a reputation; if you talk to people, they will tell you how honest I am. My father and my mother passed away, and if anyone thinks I would do anything to harm the Berrios name, [ that person is ] nuts.
What if I said he was a friggin' crook and said he misrepresents people? That's wrong to say. Unless you have evidence, you should shut up and run on your record like I'm going to run on my record.
WCT: Your experience would seem to be a big advantage in this race. Do you feel that you have any disadvantage?
JB: Yeah—people can say what they want to say. [ My opponent ] is calling me corrupt—what the hell? He has no basis of fact. He says that I'm an old-timer and I don't do anything; that's wrong. I go down to Springfield and, with my experience as a legislator, I'm able to pass legislation to help. I'm able to go down there because, number one, I am the chair of the [ Cook County ] Democratic Party and, number two, I am a commissioner on the Board of Review. I'm able to go and fight for the people of Cook County—I want to make it easier for the next person coming up.
WCT: I recently read a blog from someone who wrote, 'No matter who's in charge, our property tax system remains an unfair, seemingly arbitrary mass of contradictions. The well-connected get big breaks; the rest of us suckers don't.' What could you say to that person to convince him otherwise?
JB: I would ask that person if he ever filed a complaint. Under the process that we have today, every homeowner has three bites of the apple. Number one, I don't increase the assessments; I review the assessments. The assessor determines how much every particular property should go up; it's not the Board of Review.
Number two, if and when they fail at the assessor's office, they have the ability to come to the Board of Review. The difference between the Board of Review and the Assessor's Office is that [ with the board ] you get to talk to someone. You don't talk to a computer; you don't fill out a little piece of paper and walk away. We at the Board of Review will take a look at your property [ and will even ] see if we can find other things for you. We extend that to every homeowner in Cook County. The board is the people's office.
If you're not happy with what we do, you can go to the Property Tax Appeals Board, who review what we do. So, there are a lot of checks and balances within the system, and when you look at big buildings downtown, look at the difference in values. A 10 percent cut in a homeowner's assessment versus a 10 percent cut with a big building—of course, [ the building's ] number is going to be bigger. But they get no different hearing than any homeowner in Cook County.
WCT: You chair the Cook County Democratic Party—and are endorsed by the party. Isn't there a conflict of interest there?
JB: No. I'm only endorsed by the committeemen in my district, not the entire 80 committeemen. I appeared before my local committeemen ( and I'm not chairman of that committee ) and presented my credentials.
WCT: If you're re-elected, what would you like to see implemented?
JB: We are in the process right now—and I can give credit to Commissioner Rogers for a lot of this—of putting together this new computer program where I can punch up a PIN and it gives me 50 or 60 comparables in an area so we can judge where a homeowner should be on his assessment. We [ also ] want to expand our computer system to make it move a little faster; it'd give us more time to review each case.
There are a lot of things left to be done in Springfield. We have to fight for the 7 percent bill [ which would institute a 7 percent cap on property-tax assessments ] and we're going to be fighting for a senior-citizen freeze where seniors aren't punished for having their kids move in with them.
WCT: What do you want our readers to know about you?
JB: I want the readers to know that Joe Berrios, number one, is fair—not only fighting for taxpayers and that Joe Berrios fights for education and to see that gangs are taken out of areas. I'm very involved with legislation for seniors. Also, my daughter, Toni Berrios, is a state rep; I not only have the ability to work with her, but also with the Hispanic and Black caucuses of Springfield.
See www.ElectJoeBerrios.com for more info.
