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Funding for Electronic Monitoring Questioned by Cook County Commissioners

12/20/2020

Cook County Board of Commissioners Meeting - December 17, 2020
Virtual Meeting - All Commissioners present
President Preckwinkle left at 2:10 to attend the Covid inoculation. Vice Chair Sims took over.

Public Speakers:

Statements were read by the Board Secretary and included support for the change of Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples day, support and opposition to the landlord/tenant ordinance, concerns about the use of electronic monitoring.

Board Actions:

Agenda Item 21-0019 Appointment of Michelle Kohler to Cook County Commission on Women’s Issues. Approved.
21-0490 The proclamation of disaster under the Illinois Emergency Management Agency Act due to Covid was extended through January 31, 2021. Passed
21-0295 The Department of Transportation and Highways requested approval of the Intergovernmental Agreement between the County and Metra. Beginning in January 2021, Cook County and the region's transit agencies will launch a three-year pilot project to improve transit service for the residents of south suburban Cook and the south side of Chicago. The pilot will begin with a 50% fare reduction on the Metra Electric and Rock Island commuter rail lines and service improvements on the Pace 352 bus route. Cook County will underwrite the costs of the participating agencies. Passed.
21-0441, 21-0445 Ammar Rizki from the Bureau of Finance explained the resolutions to contribute $341,961,760 to the Pension Stabilization Fund beyond the statute required amount. FY2021 Pension Fund supplemental contributions will be made on a monthly basis in the amount of $20,000,000 from December 2020 through October 2021. The final FY 2021 Pension Fund supplemental contribution will be made during November 2021 in the amount of $33,961,760. Passed.
21-001 The Department of Transportation and Highways requested approval of the proposed Improvement Resolution for the South Cook Fair Transit Pilot. The funds will go towards the planning studies and implementation of the South Cook Fair Transit Pilot in southern Cook County. These funds are to be used with both Metra and Pace working in conjunction on this project. Commission Degnen questioned how this could impact CTA ridership. President Preckwinkle responded that the Department of Transportation is currently working with Metra and PACE and there are ongoing discussions with the CTA. Passed
21-0367 Authorization to enter into an interagency agreement. The Cook County Safety and Justice Challenge Stakeholders including the Office of the Chief Judge, Circuit Court of Cook County, Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office, Cook County Clerk of the Circuit Court, Cook County Public Defender’s Office, and Cook County Sheriff’s Office will partner with Loyola University to provide the data to develop a data portal to host criminal justice data to support data-informed policy decision making. Commissioner Keven Morrison asked when findings will be available. The contract is for 2 years, but data will start to be shared immediately. Passed.
21-0352 This was a request from the Sheriff’s Office and the Court to expand the existing approved contract with the GPS equipment provider. The equipment is used for electronic monitoring. The Original Approval amount was $4,064,311.50. The increase requested was $13,389,943.00. The increase to the contract is needed due to the unforeseen significant increase in electronic monitoring (EM) participants during FY 2020 because of the Covid virus, the program to reduce the use of cash bail, and the Sheriff’s Office transitioning current EM participants from radio frequency equipment to GPS equipment. There was a one-hour discussion about this resolution. Initially it had been decided to send the resolution to committee because several commissioners had questions before the meeting. Other commissioners requested to approve the increase as the Sheriff’s office has said they could run out of equipment. Commissioner Sean Morrison pointed out that this contract had been discussed and approved and that the resolution was only for additional money. Commissioner Anaya and Commissioner Kevin Morrison had a number of questions about the current usage of equipment for both radio frequency and GPS monitoring and why the projection for money was so much. Representatives of the Sheriff’s office had to check on answers. The monitoring is moving from radio frequency to GPS. The equipment is leased and so any outdated radio frequency equipment is being returned to the vendor and all GPS equipment has to be recycled to that vendor for sterilization after use Commissioners Anaya, Johnson, Miller and Degnen had concerns about the use of electronic monitoring. Degnen, Miller, and Anaya had received a letter from George Washington University about the negatives in using electronic monitoring. That is why they wanted the whole program to be discussed in committee. Passed 14 yes 3 no
20-3460 Juneteenth Recognized as a paid Cook County Holiday. Several Commissioners spoke in favor of this. There was no discussion about costs. Passed.

Follow Up Items

Agenda Item 20-5667 PROPOSED RESOLUTION Requesting Presentations from the Cook County Treasurer and Cook County Assessor to Discuss the Impact of Increased Property Taxes on Constituents

Observer: Kathleen Graffam Meeting Length: 5 hours

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Tenant and Landlord Ordinance Delayed Until January Meeting of Cook County Board

12/20/2020

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Cook County Board of Commissioners - Committee Meetings
December 16, 2020

Zoning and Building Committee:

Commissioners Britton and K. Morrison have revised their proposed Tenant and Landlord Ordinance with input from the parties concerned. This ordinance would give tenants in Cook County suburbs more protections from evictions, payments, and other tenant issues. Several thousand comments were submitted to Board members, both in favor of and against the original ordinance. Because this latest iteration of the ordinance was just completed and Board members and the public should have time to review it, the vote on this was delayed until the January Zoning and Building Committee meeting. The new (2nd) substitute ordinance (Agenda Item 20-3562) is over 21 pages long. Meeting observers did not have access to the substitute during this meeting.

Rules Committee:

Commissioners Deer and Moore proposed adding Juneteenth as a 14th paid holiday for all Cook County employees. This ordinance (Agenda Item 20-3460) commemorates Black American freedom. There was not a cost analysis presented that this observer could see. All commissioners spoke in favor of the ordinance and it passed in this committee.
An archive ordinance (Agenda Item 20-3950) will provide for all Cook County offices’ and departments’ historical records dating to 1876 to be formally archived. A Manager of Archives (hired from DuSable Museum) will coordinate this preservation of history of Cook County.

Finance Committee:

An Ordinance (Agenda Item 20-4357) which included edits to the Independent Forecasting Commission Ordinance passed. This will “better serve the purpose of this commission,” according to sponsor Comm. Anaya. This commission analyzes new revenue streams proposed by Board members and the President. There was no mention if this includes the Hospital System.

Health and Hospitals Committee:
The 3rd and 4th quarter reports were presented by the Cook County Department of Public Health (CCDPH).

The 3rd quarter report addressed COVID cases, violations & mitigations, and inspections of businesses violating COVID “rules” such as indoor dining and congregate settings. Over 200 locations have been cited and are listed on the CCDPH website. Among the current rules are the following for Cook County: no indoor dining, retail at 25% capacity, no sports events—games or spectators, restricted visitation at long term facilities.
The 4th quarter report presentation covered flu/COVID combination concerns, vaccine distrust, challenges in vaccinating Cook County communities, logistics of vaccinating, and strategy.

There were many questions and comments from commissioners. Points brought up include the following:

Flu vaccination rate in Cook County is less than 50% (less in Black communities) and the CCDPH wants to use public service announcements to get higher rates of vaccination.
Challenges to vaccinating for COVID mentioned were myths surrounding the vaccine, distrust of vaccine, unclear support from the state, limited resources, and defining critical populations when the vaccine is limited. The current strategy of vaccination for Cook County is health care workers are the first to be vaccinated; County is partnering with CVS, clinics, etc. to distribute the vaccine; tracking and monitoring who has gotten the vaccine will be done. It will take 4-5 weeks to get hospital workers vaccinated. Comm. Deer asked if there will be mandatory vaccinations for Cook County Health workers. Answer will be sent later. Dr. Joshi stated that even after a person is vaccinated there will still be a necessity to mask as it is unclear if the virus can still be spread from that person.
Both quarterly reports were voted on and passed.

Legislation and Intergovernmental Relations Committee:

An Ordinance (Agenda Item 20-4415) transferred special purpose funds to the County Clerk’s office due to the consolidation of the Clerk and Recorder of Deeds offices and cleared up references to the Recorder office (which no longer exists) . Discussion centered on how many Recorder employees will be hired in Clerk’s office. This issue of guaranteeing that employees would have jobs in the new consolidated office was decided by the CC States Attorney office—that the Board cannot interfere in these types of hiring decisions. Comm. Johnson still desired that all the employees have guaranteed jobs—perhaps elsewhere in county government— in order to keep a job and health care. Forty-five have been retained so far. There was a big discrepancy between what the SEIU (union representing those workers) and the Clerk’s office say regarding hires. SEIU has brought a notice to strike in court. This strike would be all SEIU employees in the County. However, the court has enjoined that some essential workers are not allowed to strike.

Follow Up Items:

Tenant/Landlord Ordinance (Agenda Item 20-3562) at January meeting
Board of Review hearing in near future
Hiring between Clerk’s office and now-defunct Recorder office
COVID vaccination procedures and results

Observer: Karin Hribar Meeting(s) length total: 5 1/2 hours

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Funding for Electronic Monitoring Questioned by Cook County Commissioners

Tenant and Landlord Ordinance Delayed Until January Meeting of Cook County Board

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