The Z Man's Political Army
South Suburban College is his base
By STEVE RHODES
Updated 3:04 PM CST, Fri, Mar 13, 2009
They call it the Z Team. And nearly everyone at South Suburban College in South Holland is on it.
That's Frank Zuccarelli's team. Zuccarelli is the Thornton Township supervisor, a part-time job that pays $83,000 a year, on a county board in a part-time position that pays $38,000 a year, and the chairman of the board of South Suburban, overseeing millions of dollars in state funds.
As one person told Fox Chicago's Dane Placko, South Holland is Zuccarelli's town.
And as Placko reports, South Suburban College is the center of Zuccarelli's political machine.
Every trustee on the board has donated to Zuccarelli's campaign fund, as have 19 of the college's 28 administrators. On Election Day, Placko found both faculty and students from the college working the streets.
"Everybody's on the Z team!" one exclaimed to Placko.
Zuccarelli denies he "controls" votes in the township, instead attributing voting behavior there to "a smart electorate."
An electorate smart enough to know whose town it is.
This isn't the first report Placko has done on Zuccarelli. Last month Placko investigated Zuccarelli's multiple government jobs.
And Zuccarelli was in the news last month when Cook County Commissioner Tony Peraica took some heat for casting the deciding vote that put the Z man on the Employee Appeals Board.
"Zuccarelli joins Rita Rezko, the wife of Tony Rezko, who awaits federal sentencing on political corruption charges, lobbyist William Filan and two others on the part-time panel," the Tribune reported. "Each is paid $38,500 and receives full benefits, including health care."
Then again, Zuccarelli is a recent Supervisor of the Year.
But just who is he supervising?
Copyright NBC Local Media
First Published: Mar 13, 2009 10:23 AM CST
You Might Like
You have 2000 characters left
