CLERK OF THE COURT - Dorothy Brown
REVENUES 2020YTD (May 31, 2020)  are down.  
Budgeted:  $37,650,000  Actual:  $31,333,244  Variance: -$6,316,756   or -16.8%
EXPENSES 2020YTD (May 31, 2020) are down.
Budgeted:  $49,276,430  Actual:  $47.575.410  Variance:  $1,701,020  or 3.5%
Holdback:  $6,513,443 (achieved)
2021 Budgeted:  Not in report, nor on Legistar

Other Information from presentation:

• Criminal Case management system (through $37,000,000 contract with Tyler Technologies) is “working well”—Odyssey Program.  Civil and Traffic Management is still being programmed.  Not clear on which technology programs were up and running and which were still being worked on or not yet started.
• Almost all court procedures are being done virtually or by email, mobile app, website.
• Brown needed to pay “Hazard Pay” to get employees to come to work at court houses during COVID.  $1.9 million.  This will not be reimbursed by federal CARES money.  Some other Court expenses will be reimbursed, but Brown needs to apply for these funds.
• 1400 employees total.  30 were/are COVID positive.  Computers were purchased and borrowed for employees to take home to work from home.  85% of the total employees are back to work—many “are afraid and call out”  (call in sick), even though plexiglass barriers and PPE has been purchased/used.
• regarding Shakman:  Daley asked Brown for a road map toward compliance.  Brown said her team is working on it.
• Expungement program is a big and popular program and several commissioners commented on it and thanked Brown.  This removes the criminal records of certain individuals.  This can be done virtually and will be done again August 1-September 25.
• ​Has 207 open positions and has delayed hiring, which helped with the holdback. But hiring will begin again as it has been previously approved.

CHIEF JUDGE - Tim Evans
REVENUES:  YTD (May 31, 2020)  State of Illinois Salary Subsidies and Public Guardian Fees:  
Budgeted: $29,152,899 and $1,600,000, respectively. 
Actual:  $24,876,994 and $1,047,774  
Variance:  -$4,275,905  -14.7% and -$552,226   -34.5%
EXPENSES:  2020 Budget YTD:  $129,818,323  Actual:  $120,923,415
Variance:  $8,894,908   7%
Holdback:  $17,213,803  Achieved:  $14,643,203

Other Information from Presentation: 

• Court has been open to all except for civil and criminal jury trials.  All court proceedings  are being done by Zoom—virtually.
• Collections have fallen to 23%of target from March through May due to COVID.
• Three new Restorative Justice Courts are being set up:  Avondale (August 10), Englewood (August 3) and another which I didn't catch.  A fourth one will be at 26th and California (Leighton Courthouse) for all of Cook County.  These courts are designed to stop the revenge shootings that have occurred so often.
• All courts are open but almost all employees are working from home and are not in the courthouses and offices.  Evans is thinking about remote jury selection process once this starts again.  This would alleviate the large numbers of people coming to courthouses for jury selection process.  Also mentioned was using large venues like McCormick Place for jury trials to facilitate social distancing.
• The State Supreme Court as put a “toll” on speedy trials, since this is impossible to do now.
• Comm. Suffredin mentioned that because landlords, banks, credit card companies, etc. will be filing next week, there will be a fee spike which is good for revenue.
• The Charitable Bond Fund, passed by this CC Board, has bailed out 800 people for $2.8 million.

Observer - Karin Hribar

Cook County Board Of Commissioners’ Finance Committee
       Midyear Budget Hearings - July 21, 2020

Cook County Health - Debra Cary
Revenues as of May 31, 2020: General information from report available on Legistar 

• Medicaid Expansion up 21% from $798 million budgeted to $965 million actual            
• Patient Fee Revenue down 21% from $332 budgeted to $262 actual

Expenses: 

• $1,665 billion actual versus $1,303 billion budget = 28% higher 

Holdback Target:  Reported as N/A 

Highlights of Presentation and Discussion::

• As of 7-21, $154 million Cares Act monies have been received plus another $40 million for COVID-19 contact tracing.
• 70 positions were eliminated and another 200 agency positions identified to bring in house as a cost savings.
• Charity and unpaid care continues at 42% to date but expected to rise.
• Commission Daley stressed that the System has to reverse the large percentage of County Care MCO patients using other providers.
• System is expanding use of Telehealth but it is not considered to be an expense saver.
• Stand alone, ambulatory dialysis services at Provident to open in late 2020.
• Patient numbers are slowly rising at the hospitals and community centers as accommodations are made for social distancing.
• Cary said System needs to be prepared for COVID-19 resurgence and continued extra services at the Jail.
• Artificial intelligence being used to reduce claims rejection by ensuring pre-approval is received.  This new approach is operational for radiology and underway for oncology.  Next 2-3 months will provide more information on success.
• It is expected that the County will use tax dollars in the amount of $82 million to help offset Jail and Public Health Expenses and will pick up another $30 million In pension costs.
• Commission Sean Morrison asked for value of denials and billing errors for years 2018-19.  Also wants capital funding expectations from Cook County CFO.
• Projecting a $187 million deficit for 2021 due to personnel, overtime, and pharmacy costs.
• The new Medicare enrollment plan, More Care, is expected to help increase Medicare revenues by $7.4 million.
• Provident Hospital rebuild on hold until new CEO in place.
• CCH Board President expects CEO search to produce 1-2 finalists in the next few weeks.

Independent Inspector General -– Patrick Blanchard
Revenues – N/A
Expenses - $1,043 million YTD budgeted vs $882,545 actual.  Down 15.3%
Holdback Target:   $120,824.  met.
FY 2021 Budget Target:    $1,726,849

Information of Interest

• Did not hire 2 investigators as part of his hold back target and another new hire will start in August.
• Provides services to Cook County, Forest Preserve, and the MWRD.  Exceptions: States Attorney, Chief Justice, and Clerk of the Court
• Used Micro-Soft Teams to good advantage and will incorporate in future operations.  May save on space.
• Noted that since its inception the IG office has consistently had its staff reduced from a high of 20 to the current number of 14 including 2 MWRD investigators.  Blanchard is now doing the complaint triage work previously handled by his deputy who left and has not been replaced.
• Complaints are up about 25% from 2019.  Projecting 800 for 2020 [includes MWRD].
• With the projected cuts in the 2021 budget, Blanchard does not expect his office can be prepared to provide the coverage needed.
• Produces 60 OIG summary reports a year and receives 350 inquires/complaints.
• The OIG has one full-time harassment investigator who is busy but not “crushed” with work.

Public Administrator -– Louis Apostol
Revenues – Up $539,328 or 82.9%.  YTD Budget $650,000 vs YTD Actual $1,189,328
Expenses -  Down $7,129 or 1.07%.  YTD Budget $666,922 vs YTD Actual $658,922
Holdback -   No.
Fiscal 2021 Budget Target:   $1,259,749.    2020 Budget is $1,344,605

Information of Interest

• In explanation of the holdback:  “The office will have generated over $2,865,112 in fees, interest, court costs, and funds for unknown heirs.  Our 2020 budget is $1,344,605.  At the close of Q3 2020, the fees alone will have generated $1,169,933 to the county treasurer.  This office estimates a year-end total of $1,827,331 in revenue which represents $527,331 over the expense amount appropriated for FY 2020.”
• The office assists the public in administering probate estates when a CC resident passes away without family to manage the liquidation and distribution of his/her assets.  It also aids the public and the Medical Examiner’s Office in location of family for unclaimed remains and homes that would otherwise be abandoned.
• The office has a staff of 15 plus the Public Administrator who is a 1099 employee.

Secretary to the Board of Commissioners - Matthew DeLeon       
Revenues:  N/A
Expenses:  Down $90,636 or 10%.   YTD Budget is $932,617 vs YTD Actual of $84,981
Holdback:   $112,707.  Met.
Fiscal 2021 Budget Target:  $1,745,747

Information of Interest​

• A new Manager of Archives has been hired, and the Secretary intends to bring an Ordinance governing the archives in the fall.
• January 2021 is the 190th Birthday of the County for which the board has instituted a flag design contest for the students of the county.  The contest deadline has been extended to September 2020, and the semi-finalists will be picked in October.  The presentation of the flag is projected for spring/summer 2021.
• The Secretary stated that the Board is not likely to be coming back to the conference room any time soon.
• Sims reminded the Board and the Secretary that the current board room needs to be made ADA accessible.  
• Secretary hopes to significantly expand the conference room in addition to making it ADA accessible when resources are available.

Cook County Sheriff - Tom Dart
Revenue: $6,797,999
Expenses:$284,937,121
Holdback:$25,413,144
Target Holdback;$38,884,424

Sheriff Dart appeared early and ran late at the Midyear Budget Hearings. Some Commissioners called it “extra innings” and other baseball analogies. But the Sheriff had much to say and the Commissioners had many questions. His session ran approximately 2 hours and 40 minutes. Although there was some repetition, the Sheriff and the Commissioners are very concerned as his department might be facing $90 million in cuts from his current $600 million budget.

Some Highlights from the Sheriff’s Remarks:

•  The Sheriff began his remarks by stating he was perfectly “on budget’ until March when Covid hit.
• In March, due to Covid, he had to hire new people  (he said about 200) to open up , clean and staff long closed divisions in order to spread out the population. He also tests each detainee upon entry and quarantines them for 2 weeks. All of this has increased his need for personnel costs, including overtime.
• He also has 1000 more people on Electronic Monitoring (EM) as judges are trying to not put more people in the jail.  His jail population is about 4900, and his EM population is about 3300, both are up from
• He also has about 500 Illinois Dept. of Corrections’ inmates who have been sentenced, but are not being placed in prisons, due to Covid. On the positive side he has freed up some sheriff’s deputies who have not been serving evictions. But as the courts reopen, these deputies may go back to those duties.
• The Sheriff also talked at length about the other duties he has taken on recently. He named 3 South Suburbs that his police have been working with in a supplemental capacity (Dolton, Harvey, and Riverdale). He has also been supplementing the CPD on the West and South sides of Chicago during the protests.
• In addition he runs many mental health programs, mentoring programs for youth, job training programs, and opioid addiction treatment programs both in and out of the jail. He has trained his officers in crisis intervention and in the use of naloxone treatments, he said. For these reasons he will be having trouble cutting his budget.

Some Highlights from the Commissioners’ Questions and Comments:

• Many Commissioners congratulated him and asked detailed questions about testing, distancing and tracing. He said that as of July 20 he had only 16 cases that were positive, 10 of which came in that way. All detainees are tested upon entry and isolated for 2 weeks, no matter what the test results may be.
• Commissioner Suffredin asked for a list of all of the programs that sheriff’s deputies are involved with and the costs of each. The Sheriff said he would get that information.
• Commissioner Anaya asked about how the Sheriff planned to cut $90 million from his budget. He mentioned 3 ways: 

1. He hoped to cut staff through attrition. But he warned the board not to be too generous in the next          union contract talks since he is not part of those negotiations.
2. Branch courts could be closed (like Bridgeview and Rolling Meadows). He would then need to staff less officers in the court houses.
3. He could cut all transportation from the jail to the outlying courts for simple hearings that take 1 or 2 minutes. These could be done remotely. He would save the transportation costs for trials, plea bargaining, sentencing, etc.

• Commissioner Johnson asked about administrative costs. The Sheriff said a full review took place a few years ago in order to cut these. It was unclear if more could be cut. The Commissioner also asked for a list of school related programs that the deputies are involved with and their costs, such as those at Proviso and Richards high schools.

Observers - Diane Edmundson and Jan Goldberg 

Cook County Board of Commissioners - July 20,2020 ​ 
Mid-Year Budget Hearings

BUREAU OF FINANCE/BUDGET OVERVIEW
Presented by CFO Ammar Rizki and Budget Director Annette Guzman
The General Fund
General Information from the report available on Legistar:
The General Fund was originally projected to end FY2020 with a $219.7M deficit 

• Revenues down$297 million or 15% below the adopted budget
• Expenses also down by $77.5 million or 4% below the adopted budget

However, with corrective actions already being taken, this projected deficit has been reduced to $100.7 M.  Additional corrective actions are being explored.
The outlook for FY2021 includes a General Fund deficit projected at $222 million

• Revenues down $129 million or 7% below FY2020 adopted budget
• Expenses up $92.9M or 5% above FY2020 adopted budget

Health Enterprise Fund
General information from report available on Legistar
The Health Fund was originally projected to end FY2020 with a $61M deficit

• Revenues up $322 million or 11% above the adopted budget
• Expenses up $383 million or 14% above the adopted budget

However, with corrective actions taken (including eliminating 70 positions), the remaining deficit to deal with is $26 M.
The outlook for FY2021 includes a Health Fund deficit of projected at $187 Million

• Revenues of $405 million or 14% above the FY2020 adopted budget
• Expenses of $592 million or 21% above the 2020 adopted budget

OFFICES UNDER THE PRESIDENT
Presented by Lanetta Hayes Turner, Chief of Staff
General Information from report available on Legista:r

• Revenues in 2020 down by 43,463,342.2 (7%) what was budgeted from this office May 2020.
• Expenses in 2020 up by $4,577,223 (7%) 
• Holdback Target of $9,848,904 
• Amount of Holdback Achieved $10,692,975 
• FY2021 Budget Target $143,164,820

Other information: Lessons Learned during COVID:

• Government can function remotely
• COVID-19 has shown the inequities in Cook County that need to be addressed, particularly gun violence
• Sustainable reforms with Criminal Justice system 

No raised question about the budget or reports on Legistar from Commissioners.

COUNTY CLERK, Karen Yarbrough
General information from report available on Legistar:

• Revenue: (County Clerk Fees) down by $334,010 (9%) from what was budgeted as of May 31,2020
• Expenses: Lower by $347,688 (6%)
• 2020 Holdback Target $830,746
• Amount of Holdback Achieved: $545,762
• FY 2021 Corporate Budget Target Revenues $47,918,5000.00
• FY 2021 Corporate Budget Target Expenditures $18,217,841.00

Other information:
Cook county Clerk Karen Yarbrough talked about the accomplishment of the County Clerk’s office during the COVID-19 pandemic. Questions concerning the November Election were asked. Deputy Clerk Edmund Michalowski was there to answer questions concerning:

• Vote by Mail 
• Security of the election
• Sanitizing Polling places

There were no questions asked from Commissioners concerning the Budget or report on Legistar.

OFFICE OF THE RECORDER OF DEEDS  -  Edward Moody
General information from report available on Legistar:

• Revenues: up $1,018,515 (5%)
• Expenditures: down $590,380 (16%)
• Holdback Target: $467,762
• Amount of Holdback Achieved $467,762
• They met their target.

Other information:

• There were no questions asked of the Recorder of Deeds. 
• There was some discussion of the merger of the offices of the Recorder of Deeds and the County Clerk.
• Yarbrough stated that the merger will happen on schedule

TREASURER - Maria Pappas 
General information from report available on Legistar:

• Revenues up by $2.7 million over what budgeted thru May 31.  Collected additional tax sale penalties as a result of the postponement of the Annual Tax Sale due to COVID-19.
• Expenses lower by $56,513.
• Holdback Target of $54,789 met.n

Other information of interest:

• Treasurer required all employees to keep a daily time sheet identifying what they did at home while office shut.  Used this information to determine that 6 employees were not needed, and 12 seasonal employees were laid off. That leaves 60 employees in office, with 24 open positions.  Says not sure at this time how many of these positions may be needed going forward.  Suggested it would be interesting if all County offices required such time sheets.
• Continued increase of people using web site to gain information; noted that web site can be viewed in many different languages. Said that have had 500,000 web site visits this month.
• “Black Houses Matter” program:  effort to remove properties in African American areas from delinquent tax list by doing reach-outs via media outlets (e.g., radio shows) and other means.  By far, the largest number of properties on the list are in African-American areas (Chicago and suburbs):  28,659 out of 40,568 properties for a total of $81.4 million of the $122 million outstanding.  Many of the individual properties, however, have a fairly small delinquency.
• As show above under Revenues, there are significant benefits to the County for delaying the Annual Tax Sale.  In addition, such sales result in other areas of the County becoming involved:  courts, sheriff, state’s attorney, etc.  And the delay provides the people more time to pay delinquencies, so they are helped.
• While there will be no penalties imposed on those who do not pay their tax bills on time this year until Oct. 1, the Treasurer’s office has reached out to the escrow agents (mortgage holders) to make sure they will be paying on time (by Aug. 3) since they have the money from their mortgagees.  Treasurer is confident that this being done and so the County, and all the local governments listed on the tax bills, will have good cash flow, despite the delay in applying penalties for late payments.

ASSESSOR - Fritz Kaegi 
General information from report available on Legistar:

• Revenues down by $13,939 from what budget from this office thru May 31. 
• Expenses lower by $1,610,730.
• Holdback Target of $1,745,832 met.

Other information of interest:

• This year the south suburbs reassessed.  Started sending out reassessments in January and February, and then halted due to COVID.  Used office shut-down to redo assessments to reflect effects of COVID on property values.  This is reflected in assessment that began going out again in May.  But says, whether or not appeal, the assessments sent out in January and February will be redone after closing of appeals process.
• Investments made in technology, hiring key people and training within office, and the legislative change that eliminated the need for seniors to file each year for the senior exemption were critical to the office to being able to continue working effectively during the office shut-down.  
• Last year the reassessments for the northern suburbs shifted the overall assessed value from 50-50 to 60-40 (commercial vs. residential), but after adjustments made by the Board of Review, the values were shifted back toward residential.  Assessor working on a report that will show actual shift back.  
• Last year and so far this year, the number of appeals the Assessor is handling is slightly down.  Assessor noted that this is a major change from past years when the number of appeals were continuing to go up significantly.
• In 2021, reassessment will be of Chicago properties.  This represents 52% of the properties in Cook County!

BOARD OF REVIEW - Michael Cabonargi,Dan Patlak, & Larry Rogers, Jr.
General information from report available on Legistar:

• Revenues down by $343,667 from what budget from this office thru May 31, but most of the revenues from this data subscription fee come at the end of the appeals process so Board of Review expects most of this will be made up.
• Expenses lower by $436,306, but most of the expenses are incurred in the 3rd and 4th quarters of the fiscal year (June through November).
• Holdback Target of $875,014, but so far only $301,179 met.  Have delayed hiring for 5 or 6 open positions, and expect to continue to delay hiring, so that will help meet more of the Holdback Target. 

Other information of interest:

• Said they processed 253,000 appeals (a record) on time so tax bills could go out on time this July.  Key was the online appeals process which enabled work to be done at home by employees.
• Report states that the 2021 budget target will not allow the Board of Review to complete the appeals process on time next year.
• Was not asked about the adjustments the Board of Review made to the reassessments of the northern suburbs. (See the item of interest under the Assessor.)

Nancy Marcus and Priscilla Mims -  Observers

Cook County Board of Commissioners
Special Meeting on July 16, 2020

The Board 

• Approved the proposed allocation among the 130 plus suburban municipalities in Cook County of $51 Million to offset COVID-19 expenses (Agenda Item 20-3228); 
• Referred to the Finance Committee a resolution allocating an additional $72 million for economic development (Agenda Item 20-3229); and  
• Referred to the Finance Committee the item pertaining to the Preliminary Budget Forecast for 2021 (Agenda Item 20-3165).  Immediately following this Board meeting, the Finance Committee met and adopted a schedule of meetings starting on July 20 with the Cook County departments to explore this preliminary budget forecast further.

Following are more details regarding each of these items:

Agenda Item 20-3165: Preliminary Budget Forecast
  FY2020 Forecast:  Total operating budget shortfall of $280.3 million, composed of

• $219.7 million in General Fund +
• $  60.6 million in Health Fund

  FY2021 Preliminary Forecast:  Total operating budget shortfall of $409.6 million composed of

• $222.2 million in General Fund +
• $187.4 million in Health Fund

Agenda Item 20-3228:  Resolution Allocating Cook County Coronavirus Relief Funds to Suburban Municipalities and other Units of Local Government. 

• These are funds from the Federal Government that Cook County received under the CARES Act to cover only those costs incurred due to COVID-19 from March 1, 2020 thru Dec. 30, 2020. 
• County worked with the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning to determine an equitable method of funding to share a portion ($51 million) of the County’s funds with other local governments in Cook County, including the Forest Preserve District.  

The goal is to give those areas hardest hit by COVID-19 the largest shares of the money.  So the County is not simply allocating by population.  One-third of the allocation is equal to $5.90 per person in the municipality and the remaining 2/3s of the allocation is based on a calculation composed of 4 weighted factors:

• Percentage of the population in disinvested areas (40%)
• Median income (30%)
• COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 (20%)
• Tax base per capita (10%)

The County will enter into intergovernmental agreements with each municipality, which will have to submit documentation demonstrating that the expenses it incurred and is seeking reimbursement for (up to the allocation amount) qualify under the CARES Act.

The County received a total of $429 million under the CARES Act, most of which is being used to cover the County’s costs.  Chicago is not included under this allocation because it directly received its own allocation under the CARES Act of $470 million.

Agenda Item 20-3229:  Resolution allocating a portion of the $429M in CARES Funds the County received for economic development.  Resolution states that $133 M allocated to address impact of COVID on communities:  $51 M to communities (what the Agenda Item 20-3228 above is allocating) and $82M distributed by the Bureau of Economic Development ($10M, of which has already been provided in loans).  Under this Resolution the following allocations are made:

• $15 M to a Cook County COVID-19 Small Business Recovery Grant and Technical Assistance Program:  $12.6 M for grants + $2 M for free advising and educational services + $400,000 for administering.
• $1 M to implement the Southland Development Technical Assistance Network to provide technical assistance to small businesses in the South Suburbs.
• $4 M to implement the Back to Work Cook County program to provide retraining and employment services to dislocated suburban residents.
• $500,000 to implement the Cook County Manufacturing Cares Package
• $20 M to implement the Cook County Rental Assistance Program (with payments going directly to the landlord).
• $20 M to implement the Cook County Mortgage Assistance Program (with payments going directly to the servicer).
• $11.4 M to implement the Cook County Critical Social Service Programs:  services to the homeless ($ 5 M), housing assistance ($1.1 M), utility assistance ($2.1 M), food assistance ($1.1 M), and direct financial assistance ($2.1 M); all to assist those directly impacted by COVID-19.

The Commissioners will be given more detailed information about this proposal in the coming weeks prior to the vote.

Priscilla Mims, League observer