Daily Line

Treasurer Maria Pappas has asked the county's Board of Commissioners to audit the Cook County Land Bank Authority, saying the agency has "made a shambles" of the Treasurer's semi-annual sale of delinquent properties, Daily Line reports.

In a fiery letter to Land Bank Executive Director Rob Rose and all 17 commissioners, Pappas wrote that the agency has acquired more than 27,000 properties from the county's three most recent Scavenger Sales, only to turn about a third of them back over to the auction block, according to the politics news website.

"The no-cash bid power is a strong one. It must not be abused," the treasurer wrote on Nov. 5, 2019. "The Land Bank is now using this power to freeze huge tracts of property in hopes that neighborhoods will improve."

Pappas told Daily Line that she wants to see a "who's who audit" that tracks the life of each property acquired by the Land Bank, rather than a simple financial audit.

"I want to know, who's buying these properties?" Pappas said. "Answer 'who,' not 'how much.'"

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