Marijuana Referendum, Sexual Harassment Policy, Public Testimony Decorum Passed Unanimously at County Board Meeting

Cook County Board of Commissioners Committees and Board Meeting
December 13, 2017

Meeting Length:  Committees—3 hours 40 minutes, Board meeting—1 hour 40 minutes
Commissioners Absent:  Butler, Schneider, Silvestri

Significant Decisions Made:

• An advisory referendum on whether the State of Illinois should legalize, regulate and tax recreational marijuana for adults 21 and over will now be on the March, 2018 Cook County primary ballot for voters to weigh in.  Because this is only advisory to the state government, any marijuana laws would still need to be passed by the Legislature.  Several commissioners voted for this to allow voter input, even though they personally may be against recreational marijuana use. (Agenda Item 17-6208)
• An ordinance amendment to require sexual harassment prevention training of all Cook County employees and appointed officials was passed. (Agenda Item 17-6302)
• An amendment to the rules covering public testimony requiring order and decorum of speakers along with repercussions if public speakers do not act appropriately was passed. (Agenda Item 17-6195)

Significant Topics Discussed and/or referred to committee:
Technology reports presented updates and progress on various technology projects. 

• The Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) project on time and attendance has seen time card problems rectified and is now tracking leave cases (FMLA) which number 11,000 cases by computer. With regard to invoices and purchasing, there are now quicker payments made. (Agenda Item 17-6014)
• The Automated Criminal Justice (BUS) System still requires more money  and integration to be effective.  CIO Rollinson stated the current plan “is not sustainable.”  The Public Defender’s office has been on this since September; the Clerk and Sheriff (E-minimus system) are to go on-line December 18.  Reminder calls of court dates to released defendants are now being made with text reminders to go into effect in January, 2018.  There is better control now of which defendants should be released or not. (Agenda Item 17-6095)
• The Clerk of the Court Case Management system through Tyler Technologies is progressing as well as the Integrated Property Tax and Mass Appraisal System through the same company.  With some dissent, a new contract with Clarity Partners to maintain these projects was passed. 

Health and Hospital System (CCHHS) presentation:

• Doug Elwell, CFO for CCHHS, was grilled on why only very few procurement contracts were with minority (African-American) companies—0% prime contracts and 2% secondary.  Overall MWBE contracts are 20% at HHS. $165 millions per year is spent by CCHHS on procurement. Brought up was that very few minority firms were certified for medical supplies; compliance requirements are handled by the County, not CCHHS; and the CC Board did not want to pay for a “diversity company” to find and help more minority businesses be certified—this should be done within the current  CCHHS staffing. 
• Secondly,  Elwell was questioned on why CCHHS was so behind on paying firms for services and goods.  A few payments were up to a year behind, with many 60-90 days late. Elwell stated that the new ERP system had problems and the staff was not very good at adapting to it.  There were many errors in the bill-paying process.  
  
• The CC Board requested (Agenda Item 18-1139)—referred to Finance Committee— that the entire HHS Board come before it and answer these questions at the January, 17, 2018 Board meeting.
  

Juvenile Temporary Detention Center (JTDC) administrator Steve Smith requested another contract extension (Agenda Item 18-0877) to re-hire 30 private security personnel.  This is about the 10th extension of this contract since 2008.  Concern was expressed by the Board that this was not going out to bid and that late bidding requests came too often.  The JTDC has 679 staff which is 2 1/2 staff per juvenile defendant.  There are critical staffing issues at JTDC:  high absence rate due to almost 40% of staff on FMLA (18% being absent everyday and 21% intermittent absence).  

Unexpected Votes and Items to watch for in the Future:

• Agenda Item 17-6196 calling for a Court Utilization Study—under Asset Management—(Schneider) was deferred.
  
• Two seemingly routine property tax incentives were passed but with dissenting votes due to there not being a requirement of prevailing wage for the business.  (Agenda Items 17-6085 and 17-6106)
  
• An ordinance amendment supported by realtors and business developers was deferred for future discussion. (Agenda Item 17-9977) Referred to the Business and Economic Development committee.
  
• A requirement of  Assessor Berrios to appear before the Board to answer tax assessment issues was referred to the Finance Committee (Agenda Item 18-1081)

Other Observations:

• ​There seems to be a significant increase in Board member research on and questioning of various departments and elected officials.  
• Even though there has been “significant progress”—Fritchey, technology issues remain for many departments and elected offices.  This holds up efficiency, accuracy, and communication among departments and offices.

Observer - Karin Hribar