Brickbat: Chicago Turnaround

Officials in Cook County, Illinois, sold Robin McElroy's house for unpaid property taxes. On top of that, they said she owed three years of rent to the person who bought the house. But McElroy has paid her taxes every year since she bought the house in 2012 and has the paperwork to back it up. In 2019, the county assured her in a letter that there were "no grounds to proceed with a sale" and that the record of her house had been swapped with her neighbor's on the assessor's website, with her taxes applied to that property by mistake. In fact, CBS News Chicago found the number was never corrected and her taxes continued to apply to the wrong property. After the TV station reached out to the assessor's office, it finally corrected the number. Officials said they are trying to resolve the situation.

Comments

[Fire up the Woodchippers! (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

Chicago is one of the worst democrat shitholes in existence.

[Rob Misek]

When did it become normal to be unable to do the job you’re receiving compensation for, correctly?

We joke about “government” incompetence, but I’ve noticed, since this post COVID trend of working from home, online purchases and artificial intelligence that there has been a huge decrease in customer service and support.

Whether it’s online third party tax assessment or providing expertise in purchasing decisions it has become normal to provide inferior service or none at all.

Have you noticed the trend in stores that sell online returns cheaply? Treated like garbage, tons of new products are piled on tables to be unpackaged, picked through and sold for pennies on the dollar.

Along with the triple packaging required to personally deliver every purchase this trashing of returns is an environmental catastrophe.

It’s a brave new world

[jimc5499]

"When did it become normal to be unable to do the job you’re receiving compensation for, correctly?"
When Public Sector Unions showed up. Then there's the whole DEI and Politically Correct bit. Then you have Chicago being run by Democrats who are lapdogs for the Public Sector Unions.
Need any more?

[Adans smith]

Her first mistake was living in Chicago, the second was buying a house there.

[Fist of Etiquette]

...they said she owed three years of rent to the person who bought the house.

The first time a city goes after a squatter.

[diver64]

With the large number of properties in Chicago as well as other cities I'm not surprised that there was a mix up. What is surprising is that even after being notified of the problem and then issuing her a letter admitting what was going on they still seized and sold her property. Whoever is in charge of that department, issued that letter and/or sold the property needs to be terminated.

[mad.casual]

The mix up doesn't quite explain missing property taxes *and* unpaid rent.

Sounds like more than a couple of fuck ups bordering on deliberate malfeasance.

[Minadin]

The city sold her property at auction to some random person, and then expected that she owed the new owner 'rent' for continuing to live in her own house, despite a lack of any agreement.

[Vernon Depner]

I seriously doubt it was a "random person"; it was the chosen beneficiary of the scam.

[Longtobefree]

Terminate a public employee??!!
In Chicago??!!

This isn't 'The Bee'.

[BYODB]

Don't worry, she'll sue and get a massive settlement at public expense and nothing else will happen.

Not to say she doesn't deserve a payout from those assholes for this, but the people responsible probably won't face much more than a slap on the wrist since it's probably a chain of multiple idiots and the one at the bottom of that chain will be the one left holding the 'responsibility' bag.

[Vernon Depner]

When it comes to government, never excuse as incompetence that which can be explained by malice.

[jimc5499]

So who's the Politically Connected new Owner?

[Uncle Jay]

Well, what did you expect from THE most corrupt city in the US?
Fairness?
Efficient municipal government?
Honest bureaucrats?
A mayor who truly represents the people?

[JFree]

Officials said they are trying to resolve the situation.

And they will as soon as she forks over the money they want from her