CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart faces a challenge in the Democratic primary election June and it’s from someone who used to work for him.
Carmen Navarro Gercone said she’s not afraid to challenge her old boss, Sheriff Dart.
“Sitting at home, watching what’s going on, I couldn’t do it anymore. I felt the calling to get up and do something," she said.
Navarro Gercone works currently in the Cook County Circuit Court Clerk’s Office. She has been on a leave-of-absence for the past year from the Cook County Sheriff’s Office, where she had worked since 1994, starting as a deputy sheriff and eventually rising to the job of 1st Assistant Executive Director of Court Services.
“I worked for sheriff’s office for 26 years. I fought to make changes and implement policies and I took it as far as I could take it," she said.
When she was in her executive role with the sheriff’s office, Navarro Gercone felt Dart should have consulted more with her and others when making decisions.
“Court operations is essential to public safety, so I definitely believe I should have been in the room during most of those conversations and I was not," Navarro Gercone said.
The mother of five and grandmother of four said she would model her administrative style to the person she works for now, Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Iris Martinez.
“Even through her hiring process with her exempt staff, she demanded they have the qualifications to do the job. That made me say to myself, 'I could be that kind of leader. That’s the kind of leader holding people accountable and hiring people who can actually do the job to make the difference,'" Navarro Gercone said.
She also said she would like to re-do the electronic monitoring system so that sheriff’s deputies more closely supervise those who wear the electronic ankle bracelets.
If Navarro Gercone is elected, she would become the first woman, first Latina and person of color to become Cook County Sheriff in the office’s 190 year history.
Navarro Gercone pitched Cook County Democratic Party leaders Monday, but did not expect their endorsement.
Navarro Gercone and her husband, who is a Cook County Sheriff’s police sergeant, live on the city’s Northwest Side. She said she wants to make a difference so her family doesn’t have to move out of Chicago as her parents did in the 1980s after her brother was murdered.
Dart, who has been in his current position since 2006, told WBBM Newsradio his thoughts on Navarro Gercone's candidacy.
"My opponent knows she has her facts wrong. The people of Cook County know how hard Sheriff Dart has worked to get guns off the streets, hold criminals accountable and create groundbreaking programs to help those left on the fringes of society. Now is not the time to cast aside experience and roll the dice. The challenges ahead are too great and the need for action so significant," Dart said.
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