Unanimous Approval by Cook County Board for Union Contract with Sheriff's Employees

Cook County Board of Commissioners Meetings - January 17, 2018

Meeting Length: Board Meeting 1.5 hours  
                     Board Committee Meetings embedded within, and preceding from 9:15 ending at 3:15pm
Commissioners Absent:  Butler 
Significant Decisions Made:
Board Meeting: 

• Velisha Haddox of Human Resources announced a labor agreement with the majority of Cook County Sheriff employees’ union.  It involves a 2% increase in pay in the first two years with no increases in later years and a larger co-pay for healthcare by the employees. 
• The Sheriff has not signed the agreement - his representative said management’s issue was over absenteeism, not over the economics of the union agreement. 
• All the commissioners commended Velisha Haddox on a good job negotiating the contract and the agreement was approved unanimously, as their vote was purely on the economics of the contract.

Significant Topics Discussed

Finance Committee: 

• Meeting with the Cook County Assessor was deferred as he did not attend.  
• The Cook County Health and Hospital System (CCHHS) presented the methodology for accounts receivables collection.  Although there were $426 million in receivables for 2017, the real amount that is collectable is closer to $90 million.  There are 315 people in the Receivables department and 15 in Payables.   Commissioner Deere asked if they sent collectables out to a third party agency.  Commissioner Gainer suggested that CCHHS needed to be careful choosing the right collection agency to not over-squeeze the people who couldn’t pay.  

Business and Economic Development Committee: 

• Mike Jasso, Chief of Economic Development Bureau is currently completely revising the tax incentive rules for Cook County so there  will no longer be a need in the future for the Board to vote on exceptions, waivers and amendments for tax incentives.  
• Cook County needs uniform tax incentives to compete with the surrounding four lower cost counties.
• Agenda Item Item 1799-77 suspends affidavits for two years while the county does a complete upgrade on tax incentives.  Industrial properties still must pay the Cook County living wage, but they need not submit the paperwork each year to prove it.  Retail and commercial spaces are not required to pay the living wage.

Homeland Security Committee:

• Com. Schneider presiding,  will have the Court Utilization Study completed by May 2018.  There are 333 courtrooms in Cook County but there has been a 48.9% decline in usage, with Civil hearings down 34%, criminal hearings down, 57%.  Downsizing must occur in a rational, informed manner. 
• There is a new Chief of Cook County Homeland Security, Bill Barnes.  This office and its operation appears well-funded by Federal grant monies for training, Narcan purchases, and personnel. 
• Commissioners Suffredin and Sims want to make sure there is sufficient coordination with local agencies including the Forest Preserve, municipalities, and the Sheriff.

Other Observations: There were two public speakers in addition to George Blakemore. 

• Mark Armstrong of the Fine Arts Council spoke about the need for easier to understand budget to present to citizens so they could better critique it. 
• Val Zimnicki, Director of Outreach for Taxpayers United spoke at the Finance Committee about the need to reform Cook County pensions to address the $1.7Billion pension deficit for 22,000 Cook County workers, and stated that 80% of Cook County tax bills go to sustaining pensions.  He suggested one change in policy could be a switch to 401K programs for new hires at Cook County.

Observer – Amy Little