It`s a familiar scene in the century-old Du Page County Courthouse. You`re standing in the first-floor public area of the circuit court clerk`s office.
John Cockrell, the clerk for almost 20 years and a political mainstay in the county for almost half a century, is strolling between his employees and notices you.
With a questioning look in his eye, he gestures with his index finger for you to enter his domain and says softly, ”Ya got a minute?”
He`s got you.
You look at your watch to see if you have the hour it will take to discuss what Cockrell indicates will take a minute.
Not that the time is wasted. The conversation will certainly cover whatever it was that Cockrell had on his mind when he summoned you. But add to that Du Page politics, your family, his family, any common acquaintances, the general state of the legal community and the current status of the new courthouse, and Cockrell`s new log cabin in Eagle River, Wis.
The log cabin is on Cockrell`s mind a lot these days, as he ponders what life will be like after June 28 when he retires after nearly two decades in office, a career longevity that has made him the dean of countywide elected officials.
”Sometimes it`s like the song: `You have to know when to hold `em and know when to fold `em,”` Cockrell says. ”I`ve stayed long enough, and other politicians can stay long enough if they keep their noses clean. I`ve had my time.
”My one rule has always been to do what I think is right. The day comes when you have to pass the baton and get down to some serious fishing. Up at the log cabin I have two big hangers full of ties. I think I will look for a bag to get rid of them because my new uniform is bib overalls.” Cockrell leaves Joel Kagann, his successor, an office that is a model for the state if not the nation.
”His clerk`s office-and I know this for sure-is the best-run office in the Midwest, and I dare say in the United States,” said William Bauer, presiding judge of the federal Appeals Court in Chicago, which covers several Midwestern states.
”The office is totally efficient, totally honest, and every year the court clerk`s task keeps getting more complex, and there is John, taking advantage of every innovation he can and every time-saving procedure he can,” Bauer said. ”He knows as much about the legal world as any lawyer, and he would have made a good lawyer.”
”John`s office is looked up to across the state as a model,” said Du Page Circuit Chief Judge Anthony Peccarelli.
The computer programs of Cockrell`s child support department, developed by his technician staff, have been sold to other counties for a profit.
His files contain records on everything from parking tickets and $1 small claims courts to multimillion-dollar personal injury suits and the most heinous crimes committed within the county`s boundaries.
About 250,000 lawsuits are filed every year, and his office collects about $40 million a year in fines.
The office has been computerized for more than a decade, and now Cockrell`s staff is implementing a new microfilm and imaging system designed to cut down the paperwork.
”I would eventually like to see a paperless court, in which the often several legal folders for each case don`t have to go to the courtroom every time the case is called,” Cockrell said.
Several years ago, Du Page was the first court district in the state to handle traffic tickets by mail, in which the offender, with a previous good driving record, could pay a fine and receive court supervision. The system has been emulated by Cook and other counties.
”His office is one of the most visible in the county, and he deals with problems continually, yet he has always been friendly and he runs a good office and a clean office,” said Du Page County State`s Atty. James Ryan.
”When I was traveling around the state campaigning last year (for Illinois attorney general), in every Downstate county I visited, the local court clerk would always comment on Cockrell`s office,” Ryan said.
Cockrell obviously has been able to walk down that narrow road, keeping politicians, voters and the public relatively satisfied while helping to create an efficient, technologically advanced system for the circuit court clerk`s office.
His politics are not defined in the current Du Page world of gamesmanship and gaining the upper publicity hand. His politics are helping a constituent get a tree cut down, getting help for a sick child, knowing what government agency to call to get an answer or getting jury duty postponed.
So it`s no surprise that the ”minute” of conversation on this day is interrupted by numerous calls.
It`s impossible to tell if Cockrell is talking to a disgruntled citizen with a traffic ticket problem, the county`s political leaders, such as James
”Pate” Philip, chairman of the Du Page County Republican organization and state Senate minority leader, or Aldo Botti, Du Page County Board chairman, or one of his legions of personal acquaintances. His voice, his advice and his even-handed personality never change. And he can wax for hours on everything from Du Page politics to fishing equipment and Bohemian and Italian cooking.
”I`m going to miss all the good places around here to get pork and dumplings and real good ravioli, but I`ll just have to get used to a good selection of brats,” he said recently in a phone conversation from his log cabin in Eagle River, Wis., where he had just come indoors from preparing his fishing boat to go look for some smallmouth bass.
The number of press releases his office has issued or press conferences he has called in 20 years could be counted on a hand, but he was always available for that minute of conversation. If Du Page ever saw the likes of a neighborhood politician, it was John Cockrell.
His passions are his family, his log cabin and politics-in that order.
The walls of his office are covered with family pictures: wife Helen and his three daughters and three grandchildren. He has spent most of his married life in the same brick bilevel home in a modest Downers Grove neighborhood.
His daughter Theresa is the sole family member to follow him into elective politics, as Downers Grove Township assessor.
He takes more pride in some of the fish he has caught that are mounted on those walls than some of the elections he has won.
”Over Memorial Day, my grandson came up and caught three good-sized fish and I got skunked,” he said. ”But I`m prouder of those fish than if I caught them myself. I can`t think of a better legacy than the ability to understand and enjoy fishing.”
Born more than 64 years ago in Chicago`s Lincoln Park area, Cockrell and his family moved when he was an infant to Brookfield and then to Downers Grove by the time he was 3. He met Helen, a Wisconsin native working in the Du Page area one summer, and married her 42 years ago.
Cockrell went to Downers Grove North High School, then served in the U.S. Army for more than two years, assigned to Iran. ”They (Iran) didn`t like us back then either,” he said.
After the service he came back and worked as a roustabout supervisor for the former Hinsdale-based Dispensa Carnivals, which operated carnivals through Du Page and the northern Illinois area.
He also got into the excavation business, even helping excavate the part of the courthouse addition where his own office sits today.
He was first elected a precinct committeeman in 1953, supported by Elmer Hoffman, the county`s GOP czar of the post-World War II era, and within several years he got his first taste of the Illinois court system when he was elected Downers Grove justice of the peace.
”Back in the early 1950s when I was a lowly assistant Du Page County state`s attorney, and he was a justice of the peace, his style was born. He didn`t diddle around, he got to the point and was fair,” Bauer said. ”When I first ran for state`s attorney, he supported someone else, and he immediately explained the reason to me. We have been friends ever since.”
In 1961, Peccarelli was a ”young upstart assistant state`s attorney trying a case before Judge Cockrell, prosecuting a guy for speeding,”
Peccarelli recalled. ”The guy contended that he wasn`t guilty and gave a detailed, lengthy technical explanation about the coordination between his speedometer and his tachometer. I didn`t know what the hell he was talking about, and I don`t think Cockrell knew either. We looked at each other, and he found the guy innocent.”
In 1964, the state legislature mandated that judges must be lawyers, so Cockrell joined the circuit court clerk`s office. Within a few years, he became chief deputy to Robert M. Haenisch, before getting elected himself in 1972.
The office of circuit court clerk is a creation of the state. The clerk is elected on a countywide basis, but, according to the state constitution, he is a state official rather than a county official. The clerk`s duties are defined by state statute, the Illinois Supreme Court and local judges.
One of his 180 employees is required to be in court every time a judge is there and to record the official actions of the judges and lawyers.
Cockrell has served in every position in the State Association of Circuit Court Clerks and has actively promoted legislation he has favored and opposed legislation he has disliked.
”Since 1972, things in the Du Page court system have ballooned out of proportion and got out of kilter,” Cockrell said. ”There has been a tremendous growth in population and crime and we have still got to perform. When a court system falls prey to dollars, you don`t have a court system.
”In the past 20 years the landscape has changed in Du Page, with all the high-rises and people. Leaders in this county better start thinking seriously about mass transportation. The whole county in the next 20 years may look like Oak Brook does now, totally buildings.”
He hasn`t been a precinct committeemen for years, but he has been Downers Grove Township`s senior statesman, and not much gets done without his input. He works well with Republican Chairman Philip and he offered to work with County Board Chairman Botti.
Several years ago he had a candidate ready to oppose an incumbent County Board member who Cockrell said ”wasn`t serving the public as well as possible and had few accomplishments.”
Philip got wind of the candidate`s petitions being on the street, called Cockrell, and ”I fell behind what Pate asked and didn`t push anymore. He has been good for Du Page, and there are times you fight and times you fall in line.”
Last year the Downers Grove political organization strongly endorsed Jack Knuepfer for county board chairman, but the next day, after Botti`s stunning primary upset, Cockrell told Botti, ”You won and we support you. You tell us if you need anything.”
”John has the personality and the manner where he can sit down with anyone and come up with a solution to a problem,” Philip said. ”As as the head of the Republican Party I will miss his loyalty and his hard work,”
Philip said.
Cockrell`s advice to Philip, who is at odds with Botti: ”Aldo and Pate should sit down and talk to each other and work things out and work together. It`s the people of the county that matter and they should always be the ones considered.”
Chatting with Cockrell offers an image of what all Du Page politicians must have been like 40 years ago. He runs his office with a firm hand. He`s not afraid to fire someone who fails to do the job, but he`s just as ready to lend a helping hand to a hard worker in need.
”He loves people, he loves his job and he is absolutely honest,” Bauer said. ”The best thing I can say about my good friend is that he is a nice guy and that is his secret to success.”
”What we will miss the most is his loyalty to the judicial system,”
Peccarelli said. ”You wouldn`t know it to sit down next to him, but he is an unbelievably farsighted guy. He is gruff and rough and at the same time a shining apple.”
”John has always been perceived by the bar as being very straight, and in that regard he is not a classic politician,” said William Scott, president of the Du Page Bar Association. ”We can see that his office has been on the cutting edge, with computers and optic scanners. Most of the innovations in the new courthouse will have his stamp on them.”
But these days, Cockrell`s interest in innovations is turning to the latest fishing lure.
His new Eagle River home has enough room for himself ”and all my grandkids at the same time.” And the nearby fishing holes are stocked with crappie, walleye, muskies and smallmouth bass.
So Cockrell will stay true to his two main passions: family and fishing. And that third passion, politics, may not be totally spurned.
”Last week I stopped at a little log cabin tavern, near my home, and I met the bartender who used to be a deputy sheriff in Du Page years ago, so I will always have some place to talk politics,” Cockrell said.
”Also, now that I am getting the local Eagle River paper instead of the Tribune, I see that they are having a local Republican meeting coming up. You know I`m retired now, and I just might see what is going on.”
