Cook County Board Finance Committee Departmental Budget Hearings
November 6

CHIEF JUDGE -  TIM EVANS

Proposed 2021 Budget: $267,492,961                Proposed 2021 FTEs - 2783
2020 Budget:  $277,958,472                              2020 FTEs - 3029
Difference:  ($10,465,510)  decrease                  Difference - decrease 246 

Highlights of Presentation and Questions:

• Two more restorative justice courts “opened” but not yet being used—Englewood and      Avondale.  For 18-26 year olds to get “second chance” and  to stay out of Criminal Justice (CJ) System.  Involves the making the victim whole, dismissal of the case if completed.  12 new “peacekeepers have been hired and 12 more to be hired soon.  Difficult to set up more of these courts as they need to be in “gang-neutral territory” and the costs lower.  There will be an increase of judges available for these courts, but often prosecutors, defense attorneys don’t show up
• Length of stay (in jail) question (carry over from Dart budget hearing)  There were 9421 pending cases active since August.  85% (7945) of these were completed within 2 years, another 9% within 3 years.  About 2-3% are very serious cases involving multiple murders, etc. and after 9 years they have not been completed.  Some are on appeal, others require a lot of background investigation for trial (DNA, witness location, etc.), some awaiting sentencing.  Evans stated that this long length of stay is “blown out of proportion.”  Comm. Miller requested a public hearing on Length of Stay with all CJ departments.
• Some delays in court proceedings  are occurring due to the Clerk of the Court’s office having difficulty getting employees to work during COVID, so judges staff did that work.  This is mostly a problem at the suburban sites and the Daley Center.  He suggests sharing staff with the Clerk of the Court in the future.
• Another glitch in the court system is that Odyssey Technology isn't working as it should to track cases.  Mostly used in criminal cases; Evans suggests NOT using in civil cases.
• In the Juvenile Temporary Detention Center (JTDC)  (175 juveniles currently) there has been a cut back on some programs. For other at risk juveniles, there are other programs which appear not to be currently going on, or to a lesser extent—(after school gym, homework help, mentors, dinner, ride home).  Low COVID rate at JTDC (less than 3%), as they are quarantined on arrival pending testing.
• Reduction of 100 employees from Electronic Monitoring, probation, etc.  Use of GPS saves money and staffing needs in the long run.
• An evictions system will be in place when the moratorium on evictions is over.
• Miller asked for data on mental health programs and other programs that are under the Chief Judge or others.
• $6.3 million in budget for overtime, but Evans expects this to be reduced once more staff is hired.  This is mostly in JTDC and mostly due to FMLA leave.
• A concern by Comm. Johnson on the slow pace of expungement cases.  Evans said the Clerk’ of the Court's office isn't sending petitions to the judge (Leroy Martin) for months—even in uncontested expungements.  For contested expungements, there is a problem finding lawyers who would represent for free, having asst. states attorneys there, and only a small number of clerks trained to do the processing.
• According to Ritzki (budget) there is a budget in Economic Development office to deal with CARES money and new programs in the criminal justice system—unclear what those are.
• Bond court is “back to normal” (held within 24 hours of arrest), but that means all hearings are done on Zoom.  They are live-streamed (audio only) on You-tube.

Evans indicated he plans to bring forth several amendments to his budget to restore probation officers and increase programs.  Comm. Daley reminded all that this is an “extremely tight budget” and all amendments need to be budget neutral.

​Observer - Karin Hribar

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