Cook County Board Approves Amendments to Paid Leave Ordinance

Cook County Board of Commissioners Meeting
December 14, 2023

Board Action:
The first hour of the meeting was devoted to the Consent Agenda and to public speakers. 

When ready for the business of the meeting Comm. Daley asked that a vote be taken to consider an item from the Third New Items Agenda, Agenda Item #24-0583, out of order. The motion to do so was approved and the amended Paid Leave Ordinance was moved for consideration. 

• Comm. Sean Morrison asked several questions about how violations of the ordinance would be handled. He wanted to know what happens when a complaint is filed. Complaints are handled by the Board of Human Rights and Ethics. A representative from that board explained that the rules for how the ordinance would be handled still need to be drafted and cannot be drafted until the Ordinance is approved. It is expected that the Rules will be finalized by February and then approved by the Board of Human Rights and Ethics.  Then the rules will come to the Board of Commissioners for its approval. 
• Comm. Miller wanted to understand the difference between the County ordinance and the legislation as approved by the State. Home Rule communities can opt out of the County ordinance but will need to be in compliance with State Law, so in essence they are the same. She asked that outreach is undertaken so that employers will know what they need to do to be in compliance with the new legislation. 
• Comm. Trevor was concerned with the time frame for instituting this legislation as it takes effect on 1/1/24. She too felt there needs to be more outreach so the employers and employees understand the legislation. Discussion of this agenda item continued for about an hour after which a vote for approval was taken. The vote was 16 ayes with Comm. Lowry voting present due to a Conflict of Interest. 

Comm. Degnan raised an issue with Agenda Item #24-0029, a contract with LexisNexis. She stated a concern that vendors should not be able to collect data that they can then bundle and sell. She asked that language be included in contracts to ensure prohibition of this process. Tanya Anthoney, CFO, said that they are developing a strategy with the Bureau of Technology, the Procurement Department, and the States Attorney’s Office to strengthen the language in this type of contract. 

Comm. Quezada questioned a contract extension, requested by the Chief Judge, with a company for radio frequency electronic monitoring (EM). (Agenda Item #24-0009) He indicated that there are more problems with this type of EM equipment than with GPS monitoring. A representative from the Chief Judge’s office stated that of the 1700 persons in their EM program about 200-400 use the radio frequency equipment. The 7 month extension is being requested so they can complete the RFP process for a new vendor that began in July of 2022. Testing of the equipment takes a long time. This item was deferred after questions from Comm. Anaya and Comm. Stamps were not answered to their satisfaction.  

Most remaining items on the agenda were bundled by department and approved with no discussion. All the items in the 5 sets of New Items were done at once with some items being referred to committee and some items being approved. Meeting lasted 3 hours and 40 minutes.

Previously on December 12 and 13 a number of the Board Committees met, and among the items of interest dealt with are the following:

December 12
Health and Hospitals Committee
Dr. Hasbrouck, COO of the Cook County Department of Public Health, presented the Quarterly COVID and Infectious Disease Update. Highlights of the presentation:

• In October 2023 there were 5 cases of measles, the first since 2017. All cases were in unvaccinated persons and contact tracing was done to contain the outbreak. Over 300 contacts were identified and of those, 88 people were deemed to be at risk and monitored for 21 days. No further cases were reported.
• COVID and Flu are both showing slight increases in number of cases. Waste water contamination is also increasing and is being done for both COVID and the Flu. 
• The majority of those hospitalized with COVID are over 65 years old. COVID vaccine is now considered to be a seasonal vaccine like the Flu vaccine. 
• There have been no new cases of MPox since July in Cook County. 

There was also a presentation about the Good Food Purchasing Program, that provided an update on the implementation and progress of this program since it began in 2018. ARPA funds are to be used to assess the progress of the program in expanding access to healthy foods throughout Cook County as well as changing the food procurement processes within Cook County Government. 

December 13
Finance Committee 
A public speaker expressed concern that a budget amendment was approved during the budget process adding 4 people to the staff of the Board of Review (BoR). He stated that the amendment process did not allow for rebuttal from the public. He stated that the BoR needs to be reined in.

• Lawrence Wilson, CC Comptroller since 2013 will be retiring as of Dec. 31. Several commissioners acknowledged his good work and he made a few comments.
• All business on the agenda was approved without discussion.

Finance Sub-Committee on Litigation 
All business including the Inspector General (IG) 3rd Quarter Report was conducted in closed session and the IG report was voted on to Receive and File when the committee returned to open session. No public discussion. 

Transportation Committee
Jennifer Killen, Superintendent, Department of Transportation and Highways, gave a presentation about 2 programs that will use ARPA funds for various projects. 

• Stormwater Management Project - partnering with the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD) to deal with urban flooding. The funds will be used for technical assistance for those communities that lack municipal capacity, with equity at the forefront of the grants. Over 100 known drainage problems have been identified, and projects were selected based on readiness to proceed and the likelihood that the investment will improve the problems. 26 projects will receive funds with 6 in unincorporated Cook County. $20M is available and $18,775,000 has been granted with a reserve in case it is needed. Under this item, 8 grants to municipalities in Suburban Cook of under $1 M each are recognized as having been granted for a total just under $6 M.  (Agenda Item 23-5643)
• Invest in Cook Expansion Program - These ARPA funds ($25M) will be used for infrastructure projects that are not eligible for Motor Fuel Funds. Over 300 applications were received.. The Board previously approved grants to Chicago totaling 13.5M for 19 projects. This item is acknowledging that 23 entities in Suburban Cook County are receiving approximately $8.4M in separate grants under $1 M each for 23 projects. The total granted, including the amount previously approved for Chicago, is around $23.245M, with again some in reserve if needed. (Agenda Item 23-5644)

All items on the agenda were approved with no questions. It was noted that the Dept. of Transportation had met with each Commissioner about the ARPA funds distribution.

Asset Management Committee
Two items provoked discussion

• A resolution for acquisition of a building to be converted into a mail order robotic pharmacy in Countryside for $2.7M. This property was identified after looking for property for many years. The pharmacy was previously housed at Oak Forest Hospital and then at Stroger Hospital but more space is needed. Comm. Morrison had questions about the cost of renovating the building for its stated purpose. The estimate for renovation was given as about $8.5M. An RFP will be used for new robotics equipment. It will be a 24/7 operation employing about 70 people. (Agenda Item 23-5618)
• A Proposed Lease Agreement for property at 439-493 31st St. in Chicago that would be taking over a lease from Howard Brown Health in property that they have never occupied. Cook County Health would like to relocate outpatient services from Provident to this space so they can expand in-patient areas in Provident. Several commissioners expressed their concern that this was coming before them without any previous outreach from Asset Management, but it seems that email had been sent to at least some of the commissioners about this proposal. In person contact was requested. After much discussion about cost and need for this space, it was approved with 2 commissioners voting no on this item. (Agenda Item 23-5619)

Observer - Cynthia Schilsky