Talk:President of the Cook County Board of Commissioners

Establishment and authority

I'm not an Illinois expert, but this office needs better description/clarification. The 1970 Illinois Constitution explicitly established the President of the Cook County Board as an elected office. But it's clear the office was already an elected office before that time. It seems like it became a county-wide popularly-elected office sometime shortly before November 1887--which was the first such election I could find. The 1870 Illinois Constitution as amended circa 1887 does not mention the office. [1]

The website that seems to have been the main source of this list includes Charles C. P. Holden as the earliest recorded "president" but he was not popularly elected. He was a member of the county board chosen as their chairman/president by the members of the board. So I added the History of Cook County source, which had a list of all the chairmen of the county board since the 1870 Constitution. But an Illinois expert should determine whether these should be considered the same office. And if so, there were chairmen of Cook County prior to the 1870 constitution (board of supervisors) which may also warrant inclusion. -- Asdasdasdff (talk) 22:29, 21 May 2023 (UTC)