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Cook County Budget Hearings Continue for Second Day

7/30/2018

Cook County Board Finance Committee - July 24, 2018
Midyear Budget Hearing - Day 2 - afternoon session

Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas had the shortest meeting of all:

She announced she was $20,000 under budget, asked for questions, and hearing none, thanked everyone, and left.

Cook County Inspector General's Office:

The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD) is looking into using the Cook County Inspector General’s office for its Inspector General (IG) needs. MWRD allotted $600,000 for its IG needs.
Comm. Suffredin asked if it might be possible to bill themselves out to other agencies or governments for Cook County revenue generation.
They will be within their budget.

Recorder of Deeds, Karen Yarborough, presented her budget at 2pm.

She touted her reduction in employees from 200 to 125 over her tenure, and that she had instituted a Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) monitoring system.
Her office is in “substantial Shakman compliance” (but still being overseen).
Commissioner Sims commiserated with Recorder Yarborough about how difficult it is going to be to combine the County Clerk's Office with that of the Recorder of Deeds office. Yarborough agreed about how it would cost lots more money to combine (no firm estimate). She said the big problem was that their cashiering functions used entirely different systems.
Suffredin suggested she try to monetize free services the Recorder of Deeds now offers, like fraud alert of “transfer at death” services, just as the Board of Review has instituted a bulk filing fee.
Most of the commissioners spent considerable time lavishing praise on Recorder Yarborough for her distinguished service.

Clerk of the Circuit Court, Dorothy Brown, relied most of the time on the comptroller to discuss the details of her budget and whether she would be within it.

She will meet her budget mostly due to furlough days.
She complained about how many more man-hours were required under the e-filing system. She said she has had to pull employees from Traffic and Criminal areas to help pro se citizens file their suits in the Civil division. Commissioner Sims offered helpful advice like “closed circuit TV”. Brown said she needed to have screen shots blown up as posters. (Public education should have been part of the rollout.)
Most commissioners sympathized with her for her dedicated employees having to take furlough days and pay cuts. When Com. Tobolski asked if she could stay within her budget for next year, she said she needed more people. He asked if she would be willing to go to the voters to talk about her need for more money in the Circuit Court. No specific numbers were discussed.
Com. Boykin said she had done a lot with a little.

Chief Judge Tim Evans is running at 2% over budget.

He took credit for reducing the jail population from 10,000 to 6,131 which has helped reduce overtime needs (in the Sheriff’s budget).
Judge Evans will reduce his budget by closing two courts at Wentworth and 51st and Belmont and Western by September 1. Cases will be moved from Belmont and Western to Grand and Central for the most part. Wentworth and 51st cases will probably move to California and 26th. He will try to reach a 5.1% reduction for 2019 by further closing Walnut and moving those employees to California and 26th.
Probation officers handle on average 75 cases per person. Similar officers in Washington DC have 25 cases per person. Electronic monitoring and GPS monitoring for protective orders must also be assigned to a probation officer.
With the new public assessment tool, 90% of defendants are showing up for their court dates.
Two pods at the Juvenile Detention Center have been closed since the population is down with a 22 person decrease in headcount, but have had to fill in with overtime due to FMLA.

Budget hearings were adjourned at 4pm. Commissioners Garcia, Sims, Daley, Silvestri, Tobolski, Deer, Boykin, Moore, Moody, and Suffredin were present for most of the budget hearings.

Observer - Amy Little

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Cook County Budget Hearings Continue for Second Day

7/30/2018

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Cook County Board Finance Committee - July 24, 2018
Midyear Budget Hearing - Day 2 - Morning Session

I arrived right at 9AM for the hearings and there were 2 commissioners present (Suffredin and Morrison) other than Chariman Daley. Seven more arrived by 9:30AM and 3 more by 11AM. Absent for the entire morning session were Commissioners Goslin, Gainer, Butler, and Fritchey. Commissioner Sims asked everyone the core mission of his or her department and if there was any waste to cut. She did this even when both questions were answered in the original presentation. Commissioner Morrison asked everyone what new taxes they would propose, if any. Most took no stand on this issue.

Board of Review (BoR): I came in just as their presentation was wrapping up, but I heard all of the questions.

Their budget is only 1% of the whole county’s budget so any increase in personnel should be considered, according to the 3 BoR Commissioners present (Patlak, Rogers, and Cabonargi).
Their biggest problem was losing experienced analysts in the past year. They would like 11 new ones.
Their staff picked up 16,00 extra overtime hours in the past year and were not given more money for this. This was equal to 13 FTE’s.
Most of the hearing was about community events called workshops in which the tax appeals process was explained to the public. Many commissioners participated in these events. Also the B of R said it was a good way for staff to see the properties that were being discussed. More appeals are to be expected this year.

The Assessor: This presentation and Q and A session was extremely short. It lasted maybe 15 minutes.

Assessor Berrios said he would have no trouble keeping within his budget this year due to new technology. This has helped to eliminate positions that became unnecessary.
Commissioners seemed focused on Senior exemptions and the process that it entails. Ways of simplifying the process were mentioned.

Cook County Health and Hospitals System (CCHHS): A short report was given to each commissioner.

Dr. Shannon said that no new revenues would be requested this year or for FY 2019. They will live within their budget mainly due to the fact that they now have 330,000 new patients enrolled in County Care (up from 270,000). Most new patients come with Medicaid funds which includes federal reimbursement for now.
They have been able to solve any deficit spending by renegotiating contracts with vendors.
Some of their proudest achievements other than the above include getting Cermak hospital out from under its consent decree (this is the jail hospital at Cook County Jail), a technology award for having all patient records electronically filed, and for expanding its charity care (care to those with no insurance at all).
In addition, the future looks to be one of 5-6% growth for a number of reasons. They expect more community centered clinics, especially those that deal with dialysis and dental care, and they have taken on the mental health services for kids in the JTDC (juvenile detention).
They also hope to get to the underlying causes of bad health such as poor diet, housing and lack of job opportunity. He did not say exactly how a health care system would manage those issues, but he is working to obtain grants to study these issues.
He is working on a better system of bill collection to alleviate previous problems.
Comm. Boykin asked about the issue of gun violence as a health epidemic and what CCHHS was doing about it. Dr. Shannon listed many solutions. He said that he agreed with the commissioner and cited last weekend’s shooting statistics: 20 of 35 shooting victims were taken to Stroger.
He said that in the case of a juvenile detainee, CCHHS was linking services he was getting while incarcerated with those out in the community once he was released.
CCHHS is expanding its care under Mental and Behavioral issues in order to treat the whole person. This would include linking that patient with substance abuse programs and programs for depression or anxiety.
CCHHS is working with Westside United and Rush Hospital in order to improve health in several west side neighborhoods.

At one point the hearing got a bit controversial as Commissioner Moore asked about a lawsuit against a doctor in a malpractice case. States Attorney Kim Foxx, who was on deck to speak next, answered that this matter was in litigation and could not be discussed in open hearing. Chairman Daley stifled any more conversation on this issue.

State’s Attorney: Presentation was given by Cook County States Attorney Kim Foxx.

Ms. Foxx said that this past year has been tough because last summer she missed an entire hiring cycle. Most of her new hires come in the summer after new grads finish law school and the bar exam. She was down in staff since her office did not have enough money to hire last summer. This summer is better and she is trying to live within her current budget.
In FY 2019 she would like $1.97M more to hire 20 FTE’s.
On civil cases she needs more experienced lawyers since she represents every county employee who needs defending. The conviction integrity unit has only 5 attorneys and 268 new cases came in this year. Her attorneys have 2-4x the amount of cases recommended by the American Bar Association.
The SA Office also has attorneys working with the Chicago Police Department (CPD) on intelligence gathering in the Englewood and Harrison districts in order to solve gun crimes. Training CPD and suburban police chiefs in how to gather evidence can save money if there are less faulty convictions.
Comm. Suffredin commended her for doing a good job.
Ms. Foxx appealed to simple math often. Hiring outside counsel, she said would cost anywhere from $300 to $500 per hour on civil cases. Her attorneys cost about $90 per hour.

The Public Defender (PD): Presentation given by Cook County Public Defender Amy Campanell. She put up a big poster board with her core mission and with a list of some of the duties performed by her office.

Ms. Campanelli said that in FY2018 positions that were vacant for a long time were slowly being filled and that she was on target to live within her current budget.
She wanted more staff in FY 2019 especially to start a mental health unit, but did not give a specific price tag unless asked. She said that she had asked for this several years in a row . She now had a business plan worked up in which she would use student interns who were psychology or social work majors at local universities to help. Their assistance would be at no cost to the county. Early psych evaluations can also speed up the disposition of many cases. Comm. Deer asked her how much a mental health unit would cost the county. She said that she could do it for a mere $225,000. This would save money at trial since many psych professionals testify at a cost of $500 per hour.
She also noted that now the PD is on call for arrestees in every police district in Chicago. She even gave out the PD phone number several times. A recent survey of 120 arrestees showed that 22 were released because the arrests should never have happened. This saves the county money. PD’s helped this to happen.
She has also asked for more grant money to employ social workers and more lawyers to work with detainees awaiting trial who might be in danger of losing custody of their children.

Observer - Jan Goldberg

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Three Advisory Referenda Will Be on November Cook County Ballot

7/27/2018

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Cook County Board of Commissioners Meeting - July 25, 2018

What the Board Decided:
The board decided to put three non-binding referendums on the upcoming ballots regarding the following:

“Shall the minimum wage in your municipality match the $13 per hour Cook County minimum wage law for adults over the age of 18 by July 1, 2020, and be indexed to the consumer price index after that?”
“Shall your municipality match the Cook County earned sick time law which allows for workers to earn up to 40 hours (5 days) of sick time a year to take care of their own health or a family member’s health?”
“Shall the State of Illinois strengthen penalties for the illegal trafficking of firearms and require all gun dealers to be certified by the State?”

During the discussion, some commissioners stated that municipalities would opt-out of providing wage and sick time benefits. The referendums will inform the municipalities of their constituents’ wishes.
One of the public speakers was a physician sharing information on a program in Chicago- “Strengthening Chicago’s Communities” to be held on Thursday, August 23, 1-6:30pm at Malcolm X College. The goal is to convene recognized experts and leaders to discuss ways to strengthen our city and communities. Topics include: smarter crime control and community-based policing. For more information on the Event.
A proposed ordinance preventing the detention of juveniles under the age of 13 was moved to the criminal justice committee. A public speaker stated that there are other alternatives, such as foster care, rather than locking children in detention.
A Consensus Revenue Forecasting Commission (18-2073) was deferred.
Sheriff Operations Asset Forfeiture (18-4461) was approved.
Automated Criminal Justice System (18-4007) was received and filed.
When I arrived at the meeting, there was a great deal of discussion regarding registering detainees to vote. Commissioner Simms asked how to help detainees be informed voters, if all their mail goes to the detainees home. She wanted to know how campaign literature could reach detainees.

Other comments:

In addition to George Blakemore, there is another active public commenter- Mark Armstrong. He has some interesting things to say.

Watch for in the Future:

Ordinance on detention of 13 year olds in the criminal justice system.

Observer - Laura Davis Meeting Length Arrived at 9:50. Left 1:05.Meeting was near the end.

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Cook County Board Holds First Ever Mid-Year Budget Hearings

7/27/2018

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Cook County Board Finance Committee - July 23, 2018
Mid-Year Budget Hearings

The Finance Committee held Mid-Year Budget Hearings in connection with the Preliminary Budget Forecast for fiscal year 2019, Item 18-4447, beginning on July 23 to meet with all areas of County government. This is the first time such a process has been conducted. During the opening public comment period, the League of Women Voters of Cook County commended the Committee, noting that during last year’s meetings on the 2018 budget, a number of ideas to reduce costs were proposed, but there was not enough time to explore these ideas in order for them to be implemented during 2018. The League expressed its hope that having these mid-year hearings would allow time for any such ideas to be put forward and properly considered for the 2019 budget. The League also

Said it looked forward to the follow-up from last year’s ideas, such as the court utilization study and the report from the Chief Information Officer on opportunities to consolidate and centralize information technology
Urged that the Commissioners do all they can to see that on-going Shakman court-ordered oversight be concluded in the offices of the County, Assessor, Recorder of Deeds, and Clerk of the Court

Highlights from the hearings:

Chief Financial Officer Ammar Rizki and Budget Director Tanya Anthony
- Recapped the 2018 $5.2 billion budget
- Provided the preliminary 2018 year-end projections that there would be a $600,000 surplus in the total Operating Funds
- Presented the 2019 preliminary budget forecast which has a projected $81.8 million deficit; the Budget Department will be working with all the departments to close that gap, which is the smallest projected deficit over the past 9 years
- Departments have been asked to submit proposed 2019 budgets no greater than 2% over 2018
Comm. Gainer and Morrison both questioned the proposal to decrease the County’s supplemental (over and above the statutory limit) contribution to the pension funds in 2019. The Pension Board has asked for less, but Comm. Morrison in particular asked whether it would not be better to keep the payment at the same level which would either allow full funding to be achieved sooner or make up for any future reduced payments necessitated by a fall in sales tax receipts (the source of these supplemental payments).
County Clerk David Orr expressed his disappointment that his office’s proposal to purchase new voting equipment was not on the agenda for the Board meeting on July 25. He said that the office wanted to purchase this equipment as soon as possible to allow sufficient testing prior to its use during the 2020 primary and general elections. Clerk Orr stated that the vendor selected had the best equipment and lowest bid, along with a good reputation.
Representatives of Sheriff Dart said that the reduction in the jail population has resulted in reduced overtime costs, and the Sheriff expects to have $100,000 less in expenditures than budgeted for 2018. Labor costs for 2019 will exceed 2018 by $10 million due to Board approved labor contracts, but the Sheriff will look to reduce the impact through less overtime, streamlining the records division, and delaying hiring.
Comm. Deere asked the Sheriff to consider whether his area could partner with the Probation Department (under the Chief Judge) in such a way that both costs and recidivism could be reduced.

Priscilla Mims, observer

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Cook County Board Approves Ordinance Calling for an End to "Zero Tolerance" Policy of U. S. President

7/5/2018

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Cook County Board of Commissioners Meeting - June 27, 2018

Board decisions:

Commissioner Garcia introduced and the Board unanimously passed Resolution #18-4466 addressing the harmful effects of family and immigrant children detention and calling on the U.S. Attorney General, Congress, and the Executive Branch to rescind the "Zero Tolerance" policy. Seven public speakers, including psychologists and immigration specialists, testified to the harmful effects on children's brains from family separation. The resolution further called on the U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services and Homeland Security to retract their Memorandum of Agreement that allows the Office for Refugee Resettlement to share data on minors and potential sponsors with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and to keep the work of these agencies separate.
The Finance Committee and Board passed Resolution 18-3651 amending the Cook County Medical Examiner's Ordinance to give the agency "discretion" about whether to go to the scene of deaths. According to President Preckwinkle, the Examiner's office would need a yearly budget of $35 million to send an investigator out to all suspicious deaths in Cook County & Chicago. Its current budget is $14 million, and next year's county-wide budget is facing a big shortfall. In response to editorial criticism, the Chief Medical Examiner said that the department knows of no cases in which not going to the scene of a death compromised an investigation.
The Finance Committee and Board passed Resolution 18-4201 which amends Section 74-63 Assessment Classes to allow a municipality or the Cook County Board to declare a property "abandoned" specifically for the CEERM Program [Critical Emergency Employee Retention Modification]. At least 250 positions must be retained in order to obtain this determination of special circumstances. There are several other requirements that must also be met.

Two Good News items:

Commissioner Daley, reported that on Tuesday, June 26, 2018, the U.S. District Court freed Cermak Health Services from an eight-year consent decree. In 2010 the Department of Justice cited "the failure to protect inmates from harm by fellow inmates, inadequate medical and mental health care, and a lack of adequate fire safety and sanitation."
Commissioner Schneider reported that, because of its participation, the County received a check for $1.9 million from a class-action law suit covering faulty flat-panel TV screens. No other information was provided, but kuddos were given to the staff that quickly responded when the opportunity to participate arose.

The following Resolutions were referred to Committee:

18-4552: Request for up to $175 million in sales tax revenue bonds was sent to the Finance Committee.
18-4330: Request to accept over $18 million in three HUD grants was sent to the Workforce Housing and Community Development Committee.
18-4541: Request to set up a small business commission was sent to the Contract Compliance Committee.
18-4528: All commissioners signed on this resolution opposing the reduction of air and water pollution standards in Wisconsin for the proposed Foxconn fabrication plant which will manufacture ICD glass panels and will require the drawing of massive amounts of water from Lake Michigan and the disposal of such into the Des Plains River with concerns about pollution and flooding. Sent to the Legislation and Intergovernmental Relations Committee.
18-4102: Request to approve a ten-year cable franchise agreement with Comcast was sent to the Finance Committee.
18-4461: Request to create a Sheriff's operations state asset forfeiture and money laundering state asset forfeiture funds to allow the county to better track these funds was sent to the Finance Committee.

Items to watch for in the future:

18-4207: Requiring a fiscal impact note for pending legislation was deferred to allow more time for legal review. Commissioners and the Administration both support but need more time.
18-2073: Establishing a Consensus Revenue Forecasting Commission for Cook County was also deferred as it does not have the votes to pass at this time.

Observer - Diane Edmundson Length of Meeting - 2 hours

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Cook County Budget Hearings Continue for Second Day

Cook County Budget Hearings Continue for Second Day

Three Advisory Referenda Will Be on November Cook County Ballot

Cook County Board Holds First Ever Mid-Year Budget Hearings

Cook County Board Approves Ordinance Calling for an End to "Zero Tolerance" Policy of U. S. President

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