Cook County Board of Commissioners Finance Committee - Departmental Budget Hearings
November 2, 2017 - 9AM Capital Budget Commissioners Present from the beginning at 9AM until the end at 11AM Daley, Morrison, Suffredin,Silvestri, Garcia, Boykin, Gainer, Schneider Commissioners Present only for the Q and A : Arroyo, Deer, Simms, Moore Commissioners Absent:Tobolski,Fritchey,Butler, Goslin, Moody The Capital budget is mostly about big, long-term projects. Their overriding principle guiding this department has to do with assessing the county’s needs and matching each project with the necessary funding. They must decide between short-term and long-term financing. Short term financing mostly deals with their operating fund, while long term financing deals with funding through debt. Amman Rizki, as head of the department, gave the main presentation., Ann Kalayil also spoke as Assets Manager. And John Yonan spoke for the transportation issues. All three (and their staffers) answered questions. Some Highlights from their presentations include:
Question and Answer:
(At this point there was a break in the discussion. I was seated behind Comm. Suffredin and asked him about the branch court closings. He said that the most underutilized branch was located at Belmont and Western. If closed, those proceedings would move to Grand and Central. Talk of closing a court like Bridgeview was a whole different matter, he said. Bridgeview represents a whole judicial district, not a branch.) There was much discussion at the end about the Oak Forest Hospital complex. Many commissioners weighed in on what to do with the 340 acres and 60 buildings, plus a church and a cemetery. Department officials admitted that a feasibility study was needed and one is being planned. Questions remained about how much could actually be saved, given the enormity of closing this complex and planning for the future. Observer - Jan Goldberg
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Cook County Board of Commissioners Finance Committee - Departmental Budget Hearings
November 1, 2017 Bureau of Administration - including
Bureau of Technology Commissioners absent for all or most of the meetings: Butler, Deer, Silvestri Commissioners present: Morrison, Boykin, Arroyo, Suffredin, Garcia, Moody, Daley, Schneider, Goslin, Sims, Fritchey, Gainer, Moore, Tobolski During this hearing day, Commissioners were very attuned to making cuts in the Budget to account for the $200 million shortfall. Much discussion on salaries, CPI and step increases, benefits, and negotiations with unions in general. No mention of tax increases was made. Bureau of Administration: This bureau met the 10% reduction requested in letter sent to all departments and elected officials. This was done through the following:
The Medical Examiner decreased staff 10%, (down to 115 FTEs) but the caseload has increased by 12%. This is mainly due to gun deaths and opioid overdoses (1/3 of all cases). This office has outsourced toxicology testing, which saved money ($1.2 million), and will sell the equipment previously used for $600,000. Each autopsy costs an average of $1,900. Gunshot deaths take longer to autopsy and thus cost a lot more than the average listed. There was an increase of $226,000 in salaries for this department. The Homeland Security and Emergency Management’s budget is 90% in grant funds, particularly from FEMA and 9% from the Cook County operating budget ($1.88 million). This is a reduction from 2017 budget. There are 75 FTE; of these 23 are vacant yet funded. Several Commissioners expressed concern that several important positions were not filled. These are currently going through the hiring system. The current Executive Director (Barnes) has only been on the job 3 weeks and wants to re-evaluate what this department is doing and should be doing. This department has recently been moved under the President’s Office from the Sheriff’s Dept. Comm. Gainer is concerned about duplication of administrative functions (financial controls, communications, etc) that could be consolidated under one office. Director of the Bureau will work on getting duplication out of these departments. Commissioner Fritchey commented that even though all departments (through Performance Management) have a metric on zero-based budgeting, they are not really doing this method. Rather, they begin from the previous year’s budget and add or subtract from there. No move to change this any time soon. Dept. of Transportation and Highways has no reduction in staff for the 2018 budget (141.5 FTE). There was discussion on inefficiency and high cost ($20 per mile) of snow removal due to a network of disjointed roads throughout the county (570 total miles). At the State level, an amendment to constitution was passed recently that required all Motor Fuel taxes to be spent on transportation-related projects. There is still some leeway in this such as spending on “safety.” Bureau of Human Resources (HR) has 6 main program areas, mostly for offices under the President and some hiring services (Taleo) for other offices and elected officials. This office does the union contract bargaining/negotiation for all offices in the County. The budget was stated as being “flat” for 2018 with 44 FTE employees. This department is in the process of aligning job classifications to actual duties. Some reductions in costs are due to lowered drug test costs, reduced grievance arbitration, and elimination of the medical division. They are also looking into the consolidation of other elected officials’ HR departments with this main HR Bureau. A letter was sent to all elected official requesting information about their HR departments. This information is expected shortly.
Bureau of Technology has a 2018 budget that was $2 million less than 2017 even before the requested 10% reduction. The Director (Rollinson) described her department’s goal as “a broker of services rather than a provider of services.” This involves standardization throughout the County, which is a work in progress. Some departments do not want consolidation of IT as they feel it restricts their individual needs. Observer - Karin Hribar Cook County Independent Inspector General Wants More Cooperation from some Elected Officials11/2/2017 Cook County Board of Commissioners Finance Committee - Departmental Budget Hearings
October 30, 2017 (morning session) Office of the President Justice Advisory Council Dept of Human Rights and Ethics Inspector General Chicago Cook Workforce Partnership Commissioners absent for all or most of the meetings: Butler, Deer, Fritchey, Goslin, and Moody Commissioners present: Arroyo, Boykin, Daley, Garcia, Gainer, Moore, Morrison, Schneider, Silvestri, Sims, Suffredin, & Tobolski. Items of Interest:
Observer - Amy Little Cook County Board of Commissioners Finance Committee - Departmental Budget Hearings
October 30, 2017 (afternoon sessions that started at 1 pm) Recorder of Deeds Treasurer Commissioners absent for all or most of the meetings: Arroyo, Butler, Fritchey (watching from home), Goslin, Moody Commissioners present: Boykin, Daley, Deer, Gainer, Garcia, Moore (arrived 1:50), Morrison, Schneider, Silvestri, Sims, Suffredin (arrived 2:55), Tobolski (there for Treasurer) Items of Interest:
Observer - Priscilla Mims |
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