Category: Contracts

Cook County Board Eliminates Regional Gang Data Base

2/21/2019

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Cook County Board of Commissioners Committee Meetings - February 20, 2019

Criminal Justice Committee

After several amendments and substitutions, the Criminal Justice Committee voted to prohibit the use of Sheriff Dart’s Regional Gang Data Base (Agenda Item 19-0687).
The Sheriff has already decommissioned the data base, but this ordinance seeks to prevent a future use by other officials and to prevent a re-commissioning of any future data base.
The ordinance also provides that this committee will hold a public hearing within 90 days on this issue.
Public speakers brought up issues of discrimination, due process and fairness. 84% of the people on the gang data base are African-American or Latino.

Legislation and Intergovernmental Relations Committee

Approved an ordinance that gives a preference on county contracts to businesses owned by people with disabilities—physical and mental. (Agenda Item 19-0604)

Asset Management Committee

Deferred an item that sets up a new procedure for awarding Capital Planning contracts. Commissioners S. Morrison and Silvestri were concerned that the Board is left out of contract oversight with this new procedure. Since so many questions were brought up, further meetings between Procurement and commissioners will be held before a vote. (Agenda Item 19-1074)
Also Deferred at the request of the sponsor, Comm. Moore - a resolution that would hold a hearing to discuss the various projects and programs run by the Bureau of Asset Management. (Agenda Item 19-1358)

Other Items of Interest

Apparently over the last two days, one regular speaker has been derogatory in speaking against the Human Rights Committee formation and against immigrants. The Board will seek a legal opinion on what can be done about abusive speakers during the public testimony time.
This observer came at the designated time for the beginning of all these committee meetings—10:30am. However, the lengthy Consent Calendar, whereby residents and other groups are honored for various accomplishments, was only partially completed so the committee meetings did not begin until 12:50pm. The committee meetings all adjourned by 3:15pm. The League has long proposed that the Consent Calendar business be conducted on days other than Regular Board meeting and committee meeting days so that more time can be spent on the business of the County.

Observer - Karin Hribar

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Public Testimony on Prevailing Wage Amendment Dominates Cook County Board Meeting

4/3/2018

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Cook County Board of Commissioners Meeting- March 14, 2018

Significant Topics Discussed:

There was over 3 ½ hours of public testimony regarding the Property Tax Incentive – prevailing wage amendment. The Board had passed a requirement that unless expressly waived by the County Board, any Employer occupying a property that receives a property tax incentive for Class 6b industrial property, Class 8 industrial property, or Class 9 multifamily residential property shall pay not less than the Living Wage. The vast majority of those speaking were opposed to the requirement, yet were emphatic in stating that they were not opposed to unions nor to apprenticeship programs, but did not think that this approach to pay equity was viable for regions that compete with other states. The Commissioners discussed the issue and voted 12-4 to delay implementation until September, 2018 but still passed the ordinance. The Board plans to further study the ordinance for possible improvements. (Agenda Item 18 – 1604)
Only one item received significant discussion, the decision to defer Agenda Item 18 – 1277 which would give indemnification to Northwestern University for medical malpractice consequences. Northwestern has received a contract to provide mental health services for minors at the Juvenile Temporary Detention Center. The bulk of the discussion focused on who was at fault for not addressing the issue of indemnification in the original contract, the County or Northwestern. It was voted to defer a decision until legal advice could be provided to the Board. The fact that a decision had been made on February 7, 2018 to put the item on hold until legal language was cleared up, was not addressed.
There was brief, but pointed, discussion of Agenda Item 18 – 2379 that called for representatives from the State’s Attorney’s Office, the Public Defender’s Office, the Chief Judge’s Office, and the Sheriff’s Office to appear before the Criminal Justice Committee to investigate the issue of violent offenders being released on electronic monitoring. There were two public witnesses from the Chicago Community Bond Fund who supported passage and gave evidence of Sheriff Dart’s delay in releasing individuals on electronic monitoring for whom that had been mandated. After the testimony of one of the representatives of the Bond Fund, President Preckwinkle stated that she hoped that the Fund would sue Sheriff Dart for his lack of compliance. The matter was referred to the Criminal Justice Task Force for further consideration.

Significant Decisions Made:

All contracts were passed without discussion.
Approved a collective bargaining agreement for the period of December 1, 2017 through November 30, 2020 between the County of Cook/Sheriff of Cook County and the Fraternal Order of Police for wage increases and healthcare. Effective December 1, entry rate for all job classifications shall be reduced by 10%, and pay rates for all job classifications shall be frozen. All bargaining unit members shall receive a $600 payment upon ratification of the agreement, and receive the same on June 1, 2018. Pay rates for all job classifications shall be increased by 2% June 1, 2019, and June 1, 2020. (Agenda Item 18-2440)I

Items to Watch in the Future:

Given the time constraints, most items were referred to committee for further study and later action.
A call upon Washington D.C. and the State of Illinois to pass comprehensive gun control legislation was referred to the Criminal Justice Committee. (Agenda item 18-2672)
Call to establish a foundation for the benefit of the Sheriff’s office of Cook County was referred to the Finance Committee. The Foundation would focus on providing services and programming to individuals in the custody of the Cook County Department of Corrections and alternative sentencing programs and supporting additional policy initiatives within the Sheriff’s mandate. (Agenda Item 18-2671)
The results of further study of the property tax incentive – living wage amendment will be forthcoming (Agenda Item 18- 1604)
A call on the Illinois General Assembly to create an Indiana border tax and regional economic development strategy was referred to the Legislative Committee. (Agenda Item 18-2648)
Legal counsel regarding the contract with Northwestern University and legal indemnification. (Agenda Item 18-1277)
Follow-up action from Criminal Justice Committee regarding study of electronic monitoring of violent offenders. (Agenda Item 18-2379)

Other Observations:

Since the bulk of the meeting was spent in hearing testimony from the public on the tax-incentive – living wage ordinance, all other items were grouped together and passed without discussion. There were 24 contracts and contract amendments passed, 8 interagency agreements, and 6 reports, all received without comment or discussion.

Observer – Sharon Welch

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Cook County Commissioners Find Problems with Contracts

2/12/2018

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Cook County Board of Commissioners Meeting - February 7, 2018

Significant Topics Discussed:

Although most contracts were passed, commissioners expressed concern that too many extensions are given to contracts in the county without RFPs to open bidding to other vendors and organizations. Also of concern is that some contracts are not completed within the designated timeframe and the performance of some vendors is not acceptable. There do not seem to be penalties against vendors who do not complete their contracts on time or correctly accomplish the goals of the contract (Comm. Morrison).
Commissioners are concerned that they receive the contract for approval too late to do anything but “rubber stamp” it (Comm. Fritchey).
Agenda Item 18-1914 (passed) an extension of Securus Technologies to provide telephone service for jail inmates. The cost for inmates to phone anyone within the USA is 12.5 cents per minute, which is a good rate compared to other jurisdictions. Extensions for this contract have gone on for almost 10 years.
Agenda Item 18-1277 (on hold until legal language cleared up) is a contract with Northwestern University to provide mental health services for minors at the Juvenile Temporary Detention Center (JTDC). Northwestern wants an indemnification clause which would relieve them of any medical mal-practice consequenses. The county does not provide this in their contracts.
Agenda Item 18-1649 A hearing was held in the Legislation and Intergovernmental Affairs committee regarding the performance of the Clerk of the Court’s office in completing electronic filing of court cases and an updated case management system. The county has already designated $40 million toward this mandatory directive by the Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts (AOIC). Concerns were expressed by the Board regarding the extension of 6 months to complete this (now extended to July 1, 2018); a convenience fee of $2.95 that is still being charged to obtain case files; and a federal court case regarding media difficulty in obtaining court case information.

Significant Decisions Made:

Agenda Item 18-2022 (passed) a resolution supporting stronger ethics legistation (like the county has) at the state and other local levels.
Agenda Item 18-2050 (passed) a resolution declaring gun violence in Cook County a Public Health Emergency and advocating for additional resources to combat violence.
Agenda Item 18-1750 (passed) requiring a quarterly report from all agencies and departments involved with costs of gun violence—Medical Examiner, Hospital System, Sheriff, etc.
Agenda Item 18-2017 (passed) a resolution to study integration, consolidation, and modernization of all IT services in the County (to save money and increase efficiency.) Following the study (in 120 days) there would be a Governance ordinance drafted by the Chief Information Officer.
Agenda Item 18-2073 (passed) a resolution to form a commission for revenue forecasting and evaluation of revenue types.
Agenda Item 18-2128 (passed) Sheriff offering to help suburban Cook County in investigating police shootings since the county has more resources than most suburbs.
Agenda Item 18-2142 (sent to Finance committee) this report on the tax assessment process by the Civic Alliance, which was initiated several months ago, “will be out next week and will be available on-line” (President Preckwinkle). This has been a very controversial topic regarding Assessor Berrios’ Office. Issues of fairness and accuracy of assessments have been reported by the media and other organizations.

Items to Watch for in the Future:

Results of Civic Alliance study on tax assessments.
Completion of e-filing and case management systems by the Clerk of the Court.

Other Observations:
Commissioners seem to be taking a more active role in how contracts are awarded and whether they are completed on time, accurately, and with reasonable cost.

Observer - Karin Hribar

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Unanimous Approval by Cook County Board for Union Contract with Sheriff's Employees

1/26/2018

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Cook County Board of Commissioners Meetings - January 17, 2018

Meeting Length: Board Meeting 1.5 hours
Board Committee Meetings embedded within, and preceding from 9:15 ending at 3:15pm
Commissioners Absent: Butler
Significant Decisions Made:
Board Meeting:

Velisha Haddox of Human Resources announced a labor agreement with the majority of Cook County Sheriff employees’ union. It involves a 2% increase in pay in the first two years with no increases in later years and a larger co-pay for healthcare by the employees.
The Sheriff has not signed the agreement - his representative said management’s issue was over absenteeism, not over the economics of the union agreement.
All the commissioners commended Velisha Haddox on a good job negotiating the contract and the agreement was approved unanimously, as their vote was purely on the economics of the contract.

Significant Topics Discussed

Finance Committee:

Meeting with the Cook County Assessor was deferred as he did not attend.
The Cook County Health and Hospital System (CCHHS) presented the methodology for accounts receivables collection. Although there were $426 million in receivables for 2017, the real amount that is collectable is closer to $90 million. There are 315 people in the Receivables department and 15 in Payables. Commissioner Deere asked if they sent collectables out to a third party agency. Commissioner Gainer suggested that CCHHS needed to be careful choosing the right collection agency to not over-squeeze the people who couldn’t pay.

Business and Economic Development Committee:

Mike Jasso, Chief of Economic Development Bureau is currently completely revising the tax incentive rules for Cook County so there will no longer be a need in the future for the Board to vote on exceptions, waivers and amendments for tax incentives.
Cook County needs uniform tax incentives to compete with the surrounding four lower cost counties.
Agenda Item Item 1799-77 suspends affidavits for two years while the county does a complete upgrade on tax incentives. Industrial properties still must pay the Cook County living wage, but they need not submit the paperwork each year to prove it. Retail and commercial spaces are not required to pay the living wage.

Homeland Security Committee:

Com. Schneider presiding, will have the Court Utilization Study completed by May 2018. There are 333 courtrooms in Cook County but there has been a 48.9% decline in usage, with Civil hearings down 34%, criminal hearings down, 57%. Downsizing must occur in a rational, informed manner.
There is a new Chief of Cook County Homeland Security, Bill Barnes. This office and its operation appears well-funded by Federal grant monies for training, Narcan purchases, and personnel.
Commissioners Suffredin and Sims want to make sure there is sufficient coordination with local agencies including the Forest Preserve, municipalities, and the Sheriff.

Other Observations: There were two public speakers in addition to George Blakemore.

Mark Armstrong of the Fine Arts Council spoke about the need for easier to understand budget to present to citizens so they could better critique it.
Val Zimnicki, Director of Outreach for Taxpayers United spoke at the Finance Committee about the need to reform Cook County pensions to address the $1.7Billion pension deficit for 22,000 Cook County workers, and stated that 80% of Cook County tax bills go to sustaining pensions. He suggested one change in policy could be a switch to 401K programs for new hires at Cook County.

Observer – Amy Little

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Employee Salaries, Step Increases, and Benefits Focus of Budget Hearings

11/5/2017

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Cook County Board of Commissioners Finance Committee - Departmental Budget Hearings
November 1, 2017

Bureau of Administration - including

Medical Examiner
Dept. of Homeland Security and Emergency Management
Dept. of Transportation and Highways

Bureau of Human Resources
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:

reducing number of fleet vehicles taken home by employees
coordinating maintenance of vehicle fleet
consolidating two print shops and renting out the space of one at 69 W Washington St.
reduction in staff of some departments

Questions/points brought up by Commissioners:

savings by freezing purchases of vehicles for one year ($10.9 million, but not all in the Operating Budget), leasing instead of purchasing vehicles (could be savings OR cost, depending), $11 million annual maintenance and fuel costs to the County, the Sheriff’s dept. does all the maintenance for County vehicles now. (Suffredin)
overtime in this department doubled since last year—Why?, printing services up due to election materials (Boykin)
there will be a summary of all 10% cuts made by departments by Friday, Nov. 3. Comm. Daley concerned that elected officials would make 10% cuts based on getting state money which may not be coming.

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.

Concerns by commissioners regarding union contracts included salaries compared to the private sector, step increases, Consumer Price Index increases, ability of the County to pay. It was pointed out that according to state law, ability of the county to pay is not a factor in contracts. Comm. Schneider pointed to information provided by the Treasurer (Pappas) regarding salary increases between 1998 and 2017 using CPI and the county raises in comparison. The results showed much higher increases than just CPI increases would have been. The Benefits package for employees (pension, medical, etc.) adds 33% to their salary amounts.
Negotiating contracts on time (as has been done recently) saves the county money. It was determined that encouraging early retirement is not cost-effective for the county. There is a possibility of concessionary bargaining where previously negotiated items can be taken back—but agreement needs to happen between county and the unions. Several commissioners preferred employees take pay cuts or pay freezes rather than laying off employees.
Comm. Schneider expressed concern that commissioners are not informed about negotiations until the contract is completed. (He read about Sheriff department contract in Crains Chicago Business). Director Haddox did not feel it appropriate that commissioners be involved throughout the process. Commissioners (as the Board) still have the final approval of all contracts. Comm. Arroyo, as chair of the Labor committee, will hold an executive closed session regarding all these issues later in November.

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

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Cook County Independent Inspector General Wants More Cooperation from some Elected Officials

11/2/2017

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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:

Most of the commissioners present commended the Office of the President for actually presenting a proposal to cut the budget for departments reporting to the President by 10%, although they wanted to know specific vacancies and in which departments. Commissioners complained more about the Electeds who had been short on specifics and didn’t seem to appreciate that Cook County had a $200 million shortfall. Morrison had been asking for a list of vacancies from the Electeds for a few weeks and requested Tanya Anthony follow up for him.
John Culler (the Chief of Staff) and Tanya Anthony (the Budget Director) pointed out Cook County has a far more lean office of the president than New York, LA, or Maricopa County.
Cook County is changing banks from Bank of America to Citibank thereby negotiating better interest payment terms, making the county an estimated $1 million more in interest each year.
The Justice Advisory Council is six people tasked with reviewing and distributing grant monies to 56 different qualifying organizations for restorative justice, violence prevention, and recidivism reduction. Commissioner Gainer wants to make sure that grant evaluation is effective to determine which recipient organizations are performing well, and asked to receive the 2016 grant evaluation report. The JAC also oversees the newly received Macarthur Grant to be spent mostly to train police stations regarding public safety.
The Dept of Human Rights and Ethics is a small department overseeing vendor compliance, Shakman principles, minimum wage issues, and lobbyist requirements, among many tasks. Commissioner Sims asked how the department was dealing with repeat public speakers at public meetings, with Mr. Hakim responding that public speakers have a strong constitutional right to be heard at public meetings. Chair. Daley reminded Mr. Hakim that signs be placed outside of the board room to remind lobbyists they needed to wear badges to self-identify.
The office of the Inspector General (OIG) was mostly praised by commissioners for performing its duties to detect and deter criminal activity in Cook County. It was suggested that the County save money by having all the Electeds use the OIG rather than having individual internal inspectors funded in each Elected’s budget. Inspector General Patrick Blanchard will address budget shortfalls by furloughing each of his 16 employees by 16 days over the fiscal year.
Mr. Blanchard stated the hardest part of the OIG’s job was collecting information from the Electeds. The OIG has had trouble obtaining information from the Assessor, the Chief Judge, the Clerk of the Circuit Court, over the ten years of Blanchard’s tenure.
When asked the status of the Berrios case, Blanchard replied the OIG can only make recommendations, which were upheld by the IL Supreme Court.
Com. Tobolski stated he was tired of hearing about parts of Cook County where contracts had not been re-negotiated for ten years but continued to be paid “to friends”. He hoped the bad old days of Cook County were ending.
The Chicago Cook Workforce Development Partnership is revenue-neutral for Cook County. They receive $70 million in workforce training dollars from the Dept of Labor block grants. They train about 11,400 people each year. The city of Chicago and Cook County have now combined efforts in this one organization. They feed grants to over 50 agencies around Chicago and Cook County.

Observer - Amy Little

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Cook County Board Eliminates Regional Gang Data Base

Public Testimony on Prevailing Wage Amendment Dominates Cook County Board Meeting

Cook County Commissioners Find Problems with Contracts

Unanimous Approval by Cook County Board for Union Contract with Sheriff's Employees

Employee Salaries, Step Increases, and Benefits Focus of Budget Hearings

Cook County Independent Inspector General Wants More Cooperation from some Elected Officials

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