Pappas hit the ground running when she became Treasurer, moving with amazing velocity to remake an antiquated office. She is still running and, if anything, is moving yet faster.

Cook County is one of the world's largest economies, with 5.2 million people and the nation's third-largest city, Chicago. The Treasurer's Office handles $18 billion a year, almost $13 billion in property taxes on some 1.8 million parcels of property. The property tax revenues then must be distributed to 2,200 local government agencies such as municipalities, school districts, police and fire districts, library district and others that tax properties. It has to be done right and it has to be done fast.

Pappas didn't like what she saw when she walked into her office for the first time. For one thing, piles of cardboard trays were on the floor. A mess? Yes, but of the worst kind, a financial mess that had no reasonable explanation. There were more than $30 million in payment checks on the trays, undeposited and gathering no interest for the County. This was going to be a daunting task for the new Treasurer.

Was Pappas prepared to straighten things out? She was.