Cook County Board

Last week I read on Tribune columnist Eric Zorn's website that on the Cook County Board, it takes an 80% supermajority to override the veto of the Board President. Which effectively means the president calls the shots. As Zorn pointed out, the original reason for the rule had to do with city vs. suburban politics. If the president was from the suburbs, the Chicago commissioners couldn't all gang up on him and override his veto. But this no longer makes sense, as Zorn writes:

The high threshhold became unnecessary in 1973 when a 6th suburban commissioner was added (two-thirds would have served the original purpose) and utterly pointless in 1994 when the
board expanded to 17 single-member districts -- with some districts, such as Suffredin’s district,  including both city and suburban communities.

Commissioner Mike Quigley, who represents my district, has proposed reducing the veto threshold to 60%. Zorn likes the idea, and I agree.