Category: Cook County Budget

Cook County Budget Hearings End with Review of the Capital Budget and Review of Chief Judge's Budget

11/23/2019

Cook County Board of Commissioners Finance Committee
Last Day of Departmental Budget Hearings
Public Hearing, Review of The Capital Budget and the Chief Judge’s Budget
November 4, 2019

Public Hearing on 2020 Executive Budget: There were about 20 speakers over a 2-hour period. The main subjects were

Concerns about the plan for transitioning patients receiving mental health services from outside entities to those services being provided by Cook County Health (“CCH”) directly. Commissioner Deere pledged to set up a meeting between these speakers and CCH personnel so the transition plans could be discussed.
Concerns about the elimination of funding for Access to Care, which provides health services at discounted rates to patients primarily in suburban Cook County. The representative for Access to Care stated that about half of the patients seen are not eligible for CCH’s County Care program for those on Medicaid. As a result, if these patients went to CCH, rather than Access to Care, this would add to the already large and growing amount of charity care provided by CCH. Commissioner Sean Morrison said he has long supported helping to fund Access to Care because that funding is much less than the costs CCH would incur to provide the services. Commissioners Sims and Suffredin appeared supportive of again funding Access to Care, but warned that this would likely be the last time.
Support by several entities and individuals for CCH and the services it provides and the partnerships it has.

The Civic Federation has done an analysis of the proposed budget and overall supports it as a reasonable one-year plan. https://www.civicfed.org/CookCountyFY2020. However, there are concerns for the future; specifically:

The growth in uncompensated care at CCH, even as the Civic Federation supports the independent board and says it has had a transformative effect on CCH.
The plan to build a new Provident Hospital with inpatient care. The Civic Federation says there has been little public discussion of this major decision.
The need for more transparency by making the capital plans available, such as for the jail, and Phase I of the court utilization study.
The need for statutory authorization for the supplemental pension payments the County has been making, which the Civic Federation fully supports.

Review of Capital Budget:

Several Commissioners, possibly prompted by the Civic Federation’s comments, asked questions about the justification for $50 million for building the new Provident Hospital. The CCH Chief Financial Officer stated that the costs of operating the current facility are very high and the analysis showed that it was more efficient to build a new facility that could provide needed specialized and outpatient care than to try to rehab the current building.
There is some funding to start the process of redesigning the Board and Commissioner spaces, including making them much more accessible. Commissioner Anaya pointed out that a prior study on accessibility had been done and suggested that be looked at as a starting point.
Commissioner Suffredin asked what happens to the County’s share of the State Motor Fuel Tax fund should DuPage reach 1 million residents. In that case, the two counties would split the fund, thereby significantly decreasing the amount the County currently receives. The Commissioner suggested that there may be a need to seek new legislation in Springfield to revise the formula for disbursing money from the fund.
During the discussion of the Capital Equipment portion, Tom Lynch, the County’s Chief Information Officer, stated that currently there are good relationships between the Bureau of Technology and the IT functions under the other elected officials, a much needed improvement as compared to the past.

Review of the Budget for the Chief Judge:
Chief Judge Timothy Evans answered questions for the different areas under his supervision, including the Adult Probation Department (which encompasses pre-trial services such as electronic monitoring, as well as supervising some sentenced offenders), the Judiciary, the Public Guardian, Forensic Services, Social Services, Juvenile Probation, and the Juvenile Temporary Detention Center (for those awaiting trial). The Chief Judge pointed to his web site, www.cookcountycourt.org where performance metrics and other data may be found.

The Chief Judge cited the large drop in the Cook County jail population as a result of the bail reform measures he has instituted. He also pointed out that the Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts is now providing an additional $24 million to reimburse Cook County for the costs of the court system. This money is going into the County’s General Fund and is not earmarked for the Chief Judge’s budget. He is seeking more money than is currently proposed in the budget so that another 100 law clerks could be hired. There are currently 92 clerks for over 400 judges.
In a letter dated Oct. 3, the Sheriff proposed that the Chief Judge’s Probation Department take over the electronic monitoring that the Sheriff is now doing and merge it into the electronic monitoring the Adult Probation Department is doing. The Sheriff has offered to transfer positions and money from his budget to accomplish this. The Chief Judge says that there are a number of issues that must be dealt with first, including obtaining approval from the Illinois Supreme Court. When pressed by Commissioners, he said that it likely would take longer than 6 months to determine whether merging the electronic monitoring programs was feasible and then to effectuate such a merger.
Leonard Dixon, the head of the Juvenile Temporary Detention Center, said that the N.E. Casey Foundation has recently assessed the Center for the 3rd time and says that it is in the best shape the Foundation has ever seen. The average population is down to about 200, but these are the young people that need the most services. There are over 200 community programs that come into the Center.

Observed by Priscilla Mims

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Cook County Board Passes Balanced $6.2 Billion Budget for 2020

11/21/2019

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Cook County Board Finance Committee Meeting and Board Meeting November 21, 2019

After the Finance Committee considered and passed 15 amendments to the proposed budget, the Cook County Board then passed the 2020 budget, as amended. (Item 19-5916) by a vote of 15 yeas, 1 nay, and 1 absent. The one negative vote was cast by Commissioner Sean Morrison who expressed concern over the total size of the budget and how it has more than doubled since 2011. He said that he would have preferred to maintain the amount budgeted for 2019 and use the additional revenues to further bolster the pension fund. Commissioner Morrison did not, however, offer any amendments to do so. Commissioner Tobolski was absent, as he was throughout the budget meetings.

The 15 amendments that were passed added an additional $23 million to the proposed budget which came from:

additional grants that were identified ($10 million),
a larger than expected TIF surplus declared by Chicago ($9 million), and
the rest from utilizing monies in several Special Purpose Funds

The amendments included:

$1.5 million to fund Access to Care, which carried a requirement of quarterly reports to identify where patients live in Cook County to see whether in fact these patients would otherwise have cost Cook County Health significant dollars by having to provide these patients uncompensated care. It was stressed the money to fund Access to Care came from a one-time revenue source (the TIF surplus) and the County did not expect to provide funding beyond 2020.
A reduction of $140,000 from the Clerk of the Court’s budget to be used to fund a pilot program for the State’s Attorney to aid those who are victims of domestic violence. The Clerk of the Court’s representative expressed support for the program, but opposition to reducing that budget. Most of the money came from two positions that have not been filled since 2016. Commissioner Anaya, the sponsor, explained that this amendment was very personal to her as she had grown up in a household with domestic violence and she did not understand until later that her mother did not leave because she felt she had nowhere to turn.
$300,000 from an unfilled Manager of Records Management position in the Clerk’s office and some of the TIF surplus to fund the recently passed Voting Opportunity & Translation Equity Ordinance that requires ballots and related material to be translated into additional languages.
$500,000 transferred within Cook County Health’s budget to fund prevention efforts and testing for sexually transmitted infections.
$120,000 from the Solid Waste Special Purpose Fund to provide up to 2 schools with solar paneled roofs and funds to develop related STEM-related programs (science, technology, engineering, and math).

Chairman Daley and Commissioner Silvestri thanked a number of people at the end, including the League for observing the budget meetings and providing questions for a number of departments.

Observer: Priscilla Mims

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Cook County Sheriff Highlights Program Offerings during 2020 Proposed Budget Hearing

11/16/2019

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Cook County Board of Commissioners - Finance Committee
Departmental Budget Hearings
October 30, 2019, afternoon session

Cook County Sheriff

Overview of Proposed Budget for Sheriff's Office

As outlined in the Proposed Budget Book, expenditures remain very near 2019 figures, including FTE count and salaries - no raises expected.
Sheriff’s Office will continue to focus on reducing violent crime in areas most at risk.
A Community Corrections Dept. has been created to increase transparency for Electronic Monitoring.
RENEW AND SWAP Programs will be continued
Non-Union job titles will be updated to clarify their duties and responsibilities.
The $7M now available in the operating budget due to reductions in the Jail population and facilities has been used to replace high mileage marked and unmarked police vehicles ($5M) and $2M for various other programs.

Sheriff Dart stressed that he strongly believes in analyzing people’s needs and then implementing programs to meet them, rather than just incarcerating. The goal should be on preparing offenders to successfully function in the community, he said. After discussing the budget for 15-20 minutes, he focused on questions from the Commissioners and the numerous programs currently available at Cook County Jail.

PROGRAMS

RENEW -formerly an unsuccessful “boot camp” program. It is now reconfigured to use inmates to do demolition work such as removing fixtures, tearing down walls in old buildings, etc. Not only does program provide training, but receives money from sale of iron/copper/wiring and such. Workers can participate while in jail and up to 6 months after return home.
FEMALE COOKING PROGRAM - Privately funded. This was an idea suggested by the women residents and has proved very successful.
FATHER & SON GET-TOGETHERS – Play chess and other board games while visiting.
There are many other programs at the jail ranging from photography to art to yoga. A Pilot Program is being considered to utilize these programs for offenders on electronic monitoring while living at home, making use of time to prepare for life after release.

ELECTRONIC MONITORING

The question of cost for electronic monitors was discussed. There are currently approximately 2,300 offenders on electronic monitoring. 700 alarms go off every day, and these have to be investigated. Taking out the garbage, being late in returning home from work due to transportation issues, faulty wiring can set off the alarms. Phone calls and home visits are sometimes required. This is a labor intensive and costly procedure.
Another issue discussed was solitary confinement. THERE IS NO SOLITARY CONFINEMENT AT COOK COUNTY. Offenders are out of cells at least 4 hours a day, outside if possible. They are ankle chained to a table with other inmates to enable conversation and group interaction, board games and such. Dart emphasized, this is a jail, not a prison.
RECIDIVISM- Sheriff Dart stated 3,000 of the jail population require mental health care. While incarcerated, they receive these services; however, when released into the community, mental health services are scarce, and unfortunately, after 3-6 months, many former residents return.

THE FUTURE –

The Sheriff intends to increase focus on domestic violence, affordable housing, and services for the LGBT communities. Asked if the legalization of marijuana will have an impact on incarceration, he did not think so, except possibly an increase in DUI.
The hearing ended after 2 hours when Sheriff’s staff brought in 2 therapy dogs.

Observer: Carole Cotter

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Cook County Budget Hearings Continue

10/31/2019

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Cook County Board of Commissioners - Finance Committee
Departmental Budget Hearing
October 30, 2019:

Commissioners Absent: Deer, Gainer, Tobolski, Sean Morrison

Clerk of the Circuit Court: Dorothy Brown

Clerk’s office is still working on transfer of court case system to digital with Tyler Technology. Veterans Day 3 day weekend will go live with Crimiinal Courts, MLK weekend 2020 will be Civil Courts, and Kasamir Pulaski weekend will be Traffic Courts. Electronic Court Order System will occur in Spring of 2020.
Shakman update includes the Clerk’s filing of an interim employment plan in July with an exempt employee list filed. All 1400 employees have been trained on Shakman. They are in the process of training management on how to interview based on the interim plan. Their remaining job is to agree on the final employment plan and hire a Director of Compliance.
Clerk’s budget request is $8 million more than the President’s budget at $100 million. Most of the increase is due to the need to hire more court recorders since they are an aging workforce and have an absentee rate of 20% every day! They can only promote from within and need to hire more people to fill the lower positions. Much of this absenteeism is due to leaves of absence. She also needs more floaters for Cannabis Expungement paperwork, since the Public Defender plans to expunge 150,000 cases in 2020. They must inform police departments and individuals by mail. Contractual services will cost $359,000 more mostly for postage. New case filings have slightly increased and the number of e-filings has increased from 750,000 in 2018 to 2.7 million this year since it is now mandatory,
The clerk is trying to get all Cook County police departments to become E-sophisticated and issue electronic traffic tickets, although there is resistance due to the need for printers in police cars. There are 28 departments doing e-tickets with 16, including Chicago, yet to switch to electronic. The Clerk’s office has invested nearly 37,000 hours of training on electronic systems.
Com. Britton, an attorney, complained that e-filing at his office experienced 3 outages in 6 weeks. The Clerk explained that as they migrate to the cloud (called Odyssey) there are still glitches in the bridge programming with Tyler Technologies. Com. Anaya asked the Clerk to keep them abreast of Shakman developments. Com. Miller asked about negative balances in the Special Purpose Funds and Tanya Anthony explained the County is working at eliminating all these funds in each department’s budget. Com. Degnen asked very detailed questions about why Expungement help had to be full time, not temporary, how going electronic was supposed to eliminate headcount, not expand it, and why are there more cashiers, not fewer, since the County is increasingly going to electronic filing and payment with credit cards. The Clerk responded that the process was so complex in going digital that they have been trying to reduce people but for so many reasons, have been unable to.
Electronic kiosks will be available in all courtroom areas to help people find cases and courtroom numbers. Information will be available in Spanish, Polish, and English.

Recorder of Deeds: Ed Moody

Recorder Moody believes that the office will soon have Shakman compliance. Employees have been trained, they have job descriptions, and they have annual performance reviews. There is an Employment manual in place. His new Director of HR was head of the County’s Compliance office previously, so has much needed experience.
He believes the Recorder of Deeds office is fully ready to be merged with the County Clerk’s area within 2 months. He is ready for “lights off” in December of 2020.
The Recorder’s office has increased revenue and reduced costs, with 108 FTEs in 2019 versus 120 in 2018. He is requesting a budget 3% lower than 2019 and will bring $1 million back to the county this year. He believes he is on track to bring his actuals in at 15% below 2019 budget.
Outside expenses incurred for Professional Services are for converting the old Deed books from 1871-1959 to digital format (scanning) and moving microfilm deeds from 1959-1971, likewise to digital. These were emergency expenditures but 2020 needs will go through RFP process.
Coms. Anaya, Britton, Miller, and Degnen complemented Recorder Moody on a good job.

County Clerk: Karen Yarborough

Now voter signatures for filing petitions can be viewed on-line at various offices rather than having to come downtown to check. Birth certificates can be obtained on-line. The new voting machines have been universally praised by everyone who has tested them. They come in an easy-to-handle carrier.
Com. Anaya asked why the $1.5 million increase in special purpose fund, to which the response was, the election in 2020. Com. Degnen told the Clerk that her office was there to help in whatever way she could to make the merger with the Recorder go smoothly. Coms. Britton and Kevin Morrison thanked the Clerk for helping to get passed the Voter Participation Ordinance in time for the November 2020 election. There will be 7 early voting sites in jails next year.
Deputy Clerk of Elections, Ed Mikalowski said that due to a much better relationship with Chicago Board of Elections, voting records and communication will be much easier. He praised the LWV Cook County for helping to bring certain awareness and insight to the choice of voting machines.

Office of Inspector General: Patrick Blanchard

This office has 16 employees, with 2 at Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD) and 1 at Stroger. It handled 551 complaints in 2018 vs. 554 complaints so far in 2019. A 9% increase in salaries for 3 positions with a long standing salary disparity are included in this budget. MWRD services are billed on an hourly basis. They have done outreach and 70 trainings on filing internal complaints for MWRD employees (4 times more headcount than the Forest Preserve District). Quarterly reports of billing and complaints can be found online on the MWRD site and Cook County. This office also looks at employment plans on behalf of the Shakman rules to make sure departments are within compliance.

Observer - Amy Little

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Cook County Public Defender and State’s Attorney Present Program Evaluation Data at Budget Hearing

10/31/2019

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Cook County Board of Commissioners - Finance Committee
Departmental Budget Hearing
October 29, 2019

Commissioners Absent: Tobolski, Arroyo, Gainer

Public Defender Office
Public Defender Amy Campanelli spoke for almost an hour describing her philosophy, goals and results. This office has 22 divisions with 693 total staff comprised of 5 in Mental Health, 5 in Mitigation, 109 support staff, 58 in management, 59 investigators and 457 attorneys. Three of these positions are grant-funded; 60% of staff are women and 40% are minorities. In 2018 this office handled about 10,000 felony cases and 90,000 misdemeanor cases.

A McArthur grant, Loyola University, and Appleseed aid are helping with data analysis of programs and methods.
Campanelli is a big advocate of going to trial rather than plea bargaining. She said about 50% of defendants at trial are found not guilty. This holds for both bench trials and jury trials.
Police Station Representation Unit (PSRU): This fairly new program provides for 9 on-call attorneys who can be called to represent arrestees at every police station in Cook County 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The intent is to provide immediate defense for arrestees at the police station, where it was found that 20% of the cases were “dismissed.” So far in 2019, there have been 767 station visits; the target goal for 2020 is 1350 which is dependent on how many are arrested and on arrestees making the call. The Public Defender has visited most police stations to put up posters that inform arrestees and ensure that police understand this new requirement.
Mental Health Unit: This new program is only getting started with one psychologist hired in September and 5 social workers needing to be hired. They will work with defendants with mental health issues. The Mental Health Courts are currently available only for felony cases; Campanelli would like this expanded to misdemeanor cases as well. She would like to expand to helping those with educational, housing and other needs as well as keeping students in school.

State’s Attorney Office
Kim Foxx heads this office and gave a brief overview and answered several questions from the commissioners. This office has hired a new Chief Data Officer to assemble and analyze felony case data on the “dashboard” system. It is to improve performance since you “can’t fix what you can’t measure” and to provide transparency.

The majority of cases this office deals with are related to mental illness or addiction of the defendant. There is a “revolving door” of these defendants involved with the criminal justice system. Domestic violence cases are down, which Foxx attributes to illegal immigrants not reporting for fear of being deported. The most referred crime to the State’s Attorney office is Guns and the associated violence.
The Gun Crime Strategies Unit concentrates mostly in Chicago and the south suburbs. It identifies those driving the gun violence. Since 2017, more attorneys have been moved from misdemeanor prosecution to this felony unit.
The Felony Review Unit is available 24 hours a day to review cases of those newly arrested for a felony. This must be done before the case can move forward.
The Expungement Unit reviews dismissed, overturned, etc. cases for record expungement. This will increase with the new marijuana law taking effect January 1, 2020. The office will proactively move to expunge or vacate cases and the records of those affected cases of low level drug possession. This process used to take 18 months but now is down to 10 months. Of the 770,000 affected records in Illinois, 72% are in Cook County. Also because of the new State law, more attorneys have been moved from Narcotics (now zero) to Felony and special prosecution.
Retail theft: Many police chiefs are concerned that felony retail theft is prosecuted down to misdemeanors or not prosecuted at all. Informally, the State’s Attorney has raised the level of prosecution to $1000. This is not a hard/fast rule. Local police can still request serial theft or other defendants be prosecuted. About 50% of retail theft cases are dismissed because the retailer and loss prevention officer do not show in court. They do not see the value of time and money spent going to court as long as they got the merchandise returned and they can prevent the thief from entering the store again. A suggestion brought up was to have municipalities issue a retail theft citation similar to a traffic citation and deal with it locally.

Observed by: Karin Hribar

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Cook County Board Begins Budget Hearings on Proposed 2020 $6.18 Billion Budget

10/28/2019

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Cook County Board of Commissioners - Finance Committee
Departmental Budget Hearings
2020 Cook County Executive Budget Recommendation
October 28, 2019

Departments heard from: Chief Financial Officer and Budget Director for Budget Overview, Offices under the President, Treasurer, Cook County Land Bank Authority, Board of Review, and Office of the County Assessor

This is the first of several days during which the Finance Committee (composed of all 17 County Commissioners) is meeting with all County elected officials and their department heads to consider the Proposed Budget. Last week the League of Women Voters of Cook County submitted questions for some of the departments which Committee Chairman John Daley provided to the applicable department and has requested responses. For information on the questions click here.

Overview of President’s Proposed Budget

$6.18 Billion, composed of $2.84 Billion for Healthcare, $1.31 Billion for Public Safety, $527.9 Million for Annuity and Benefits, $491.6 Million for Capital Projects, $374.9 Million for Finance & Administration, $297,6 Million for Debt Repayment, $144.4 Million for Fixed Charges (expenses that are not attributable to any one department, such as utility costs) $113.9 Million for Property & Taxation, and $82.3 Million for Economic Development.
Healthcare and Public Safety make up 67% of the Total Budget
Position counts (“Full Time Equivalents” or “FTEs”) are proposed to decrease by 401 from 2019, for a total of 22,037 FTEs. These are all positions that are currently not filled.
There are no layoffs proposed and no proposed tax or fee increases

Board of Review (BoR) presents its case for $2.8 million more than President recommending

BoR reviews appeals from the property assessments of the Assessor
Commissioners Dan Patlak, Larry Rogers and Michael Cabonargi stated that BoR needs 35 more FTEs than the 142 budgeted for in order to (1) be able to deal with the expected increase in assessment appeals in time so that the 2nd installment tax bills can go out on time, and (2) reduce the amount of overtime and the corresponding wear and tear and loss of existing employees. Cost would be an additional $2.8 million above the proposed $13.5 million budget.
Number of appeals has almost doubled over last 10 years but FTE count has remained essentially flat. Technology has enabled BoR to handle the work increase, but BoR argues that at the end of efficiencies gained from technology and now need more FTEs.
Budget does have 16 more FTEs than 2019, but BoR asking for 35 more
County Commissioners were sympathetic because want to avoid delaying the 2nd installment property tax bill which would hurt all government bodies in Cook County (schools, municipal governments, libraries, park districts, etc.)
However, the question is where will extra money come from? Chairman Daley asked BoR for ideas that would not be a one-time revenue fix (such as TIF surplus) for a cost that will be ongoing

Assessor sees correlation between number of appeals and accuracy of initial assessments

Accordingly, his goal is to hire and train employees and provide better data tools and technology to improve the accuracy and fairness of assessments
Expects that this will take at least 3 years or more as each area of County is reassessed and trust in the assessments improves
Budget of $30 million is $1.6 million more than 2019 and has 17 additional FTEs
Cites new law which he championed that eliminates need for yearly senior exemption requests

Treasurer Pappas touts technology as allowing better services with continued reduction in FTEs

Celebrating 1 million visits to web site that provides information and allows public to do many things that used to require a phone call and/or visit to the Treasurer’s office. Among other tasks the public can do online: see and print out property tax bill; apply for refunds of overpayments; request name and address changes; view the web site in many different languages; see local government bodies financial statements; and make payments
More people now paying online than those making payments at Chase banks
Has 24 Deputy Treasurers from different ethnic backgrounds to help with the outreach being done to communities around the County

Observer: Priscilla Mims

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Cook County Budget Hearings End with Review of the Capital Budget and Review of Chief Judge's Budget

Cook County Board Passes Balanced $6.2 Billion Budget for 2020

Cook County Sheriff Highlights Program Offerings during 2020 Proposed Budget Hearing

Cook County Budget Hearings Continue

Cook County Public Defender and State’s Attorney Present Program Evaluation Data at Budget Hearing

Cook County Board Begins Budget Hearings on Proposed 2020 $6.18 Billion Budget

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