Category: County Clerk

Cook County Board Passes “Justice for Black Lives” Resolution

8/2/2020

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Cook County Commissioners - Board and Committee Meetings
July 27, 29 and 30, 2020

Key items passed by the Board:

“Justice for Black Lives” Resolution. The substitute non-binding resolution calls on monies for policing and incarceration to be redirected to public services, not administered by law enforcement, which will promote community health and public safety, particularly in Black and Brown communities most impacted by violence and incarceration. Such services to include housing, health care, mental health, restorative justice, job creation, public transport, eviction/foreclosure, and increasing opportunities for Minority-owned and Women-owned business enterprises. Passed with 15 votes; Commissioner Aguilar voted present and Commissioner Sean Morrison voted no, both expressing concern with the idea that the resolution calls for defunding the police. Commissioners voting in favor say that this lays out priorities for reducing crime and promoting opportunities through these other means. The upcoming 2021 budget (which will be considered in October and November) will offer the first opportunity for the Commissioners to start to carry out the resolution. (Agenda Item 20-2867)
Resolution to utilize $82 million of money County received under the CARES Act to aid economic recovery from COVID-19. (Agenda Item 20-3229) See the Observer Report for the Special Board Meeting on July 16 for details of the distribution.

Other Items of Interest Discussed in Committees:
Finance Committee:

County’s Use of CARES Act funds: CFO Ammar Rizki reported that the $429 million has been allocated for (1) County’s operational costs (46%), (2) County’s direct costs incurred (23%), (3) spurs for economic development across the County (19%, the Resolution described above), and (4) $51 M for eligible costs incurred by suburban municipalities (12%, as described in the Observer Report for the July 16 Special Board Meeting). New guidance comes out regularly from the U.S. Treasury as to how these monies can be spent. Mr. Rizki said that with $300 M in lost revenues to the County, it is critical that now County can use the CARES money to cover some salary and benefit costs. However, Mr. Rizki said that CARES Act money can only be used to cover hazard pay for those employees directly dealing with COVID positive people (health care workers and correctional officers in the Jail). So hazard pay provided to other people will not be covered, based on current information. Mr. Rizki stressed that with many people predicting a spike in COVID cases in the fall, the County needs to conserve some of these funds to cover future costs.
To date, 439 staff members have tested positive for COVID-19.
So far, no monies have been allocated to township governments, which have other options.
Mr. Rizki receives a weekly report of which municipalities have requested monies under the $51 M allocation by the County and will share with the Commissioners so they can make sure municipalities in their districts are applying for that money.
Cook County Health has received $59 million of CARES Act funding in May in addition to the above as a health care provider.

Audit Committee:

Clean audits received for both the County as a whole and Cook County Health (“CCH”) for fiscal year 2019. County has a Fund Balance that would cover 2 months of expenses, which is considered what is necessary. (Agenda Items 20-2685, 2687)
Auditor stated that CCH’s receivables tend to be risky, but thinks there are sufficient reserves to cover delinquencies. Liabilities include $477 M of claims to County Care for outside (“foreign”) providers, $236M which are identified and the rest based on management estimates of what claims will be submitted after the fiscal year for care provided during the fiscal year. Comm. Miller asked for breakdown of these “foreign” claims so they will know where people are going for care outside of CCH’s facilities. Comm. Morrison wants to know dollar amount not collected due to mistakes; this goes beyond scope of this audit. Andrea Gibson, CCH interim chief business officer, will be setting up meetings with the Commissioners. She said that CCH is now catching out-of-network people and so not providing service under County Care. Also, CCH is making sure getting pre-authorizations required by other insurers.
Clean audit for Clerk of the Circuit Court, except that fees not disbursed in timely manner as required under Illinois Clerks of the Courts Act. (Agenda Item 20-2653)

Legislation & Intergovernmental Relations Committee:

Review of the Final Recommended Plan for consolidating the Recorder of Deeds functions into the Office of the County Clerk. Estimated cost savings during 2021 is $1.1 M, and annual savings thereafter over next 3 years estimated at $6 M. Expect reductions in positions down to 79 for recorder’s work due to streamlining and broadening of work done by an employee. Savings also due to moving Clerk’s Vital Records area from Daley Center pedway to Recorder’s office on main floor and moving Clerk’s offices on 14th floor of 69 W. Washington to Recorder’s administrative offices in County building. (Agenda Item 20-2745) Next review by Commissioners of this consolidation will be in the proposed budget submitted in October.

Items to watch for at next Committee meetings, likely during the week of Sept. 21:

Agenda Item 20-3562: Proposed “Residential Tenant & Landlord Ordinance,” which was referred to the Finance Committee. Co-sponsor Britton said that this is modeled on the Chicago and Evanston ordinances. Would spell out tenant and landlord rights and obligations.
Agenda Item 20-3482: Proposed resolution requesting hearings every month of the Criminal Justice Committee with the Sheriff and senior staff to discuss the operation of the Jail and Police Department (responsible for unincorporated areas plus some suburban towns under inter-government agreements). Referred to Criminal Justice Committee.
Agenda Item 20-3435: Proposed resolution supporting the Illinois NAACP State Conference and Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police Ten Shared Principles. Referred to Law Enforcement Committee.
Commissioners Deer and Moore each submitted separate proposals to add Juneteenth as a County holiday, which were withdrawn. The Commissioners said they would work to add this holiday without putting an added expense to the budget.

Note: The Cook County Board and most of the Board Committees are not scheduled to meet again until week of Sept. 21, though Commissioner Suffredin wanted the public to know that everyone is still working and Commissioners continue meeting virtually in small groups (so as not to violate the Open Meetings Act) each Sunday with key County personnel.

Observer - Priscilla Mims

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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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Recorder of Deeds Tells Cook County Board that Talks Have Not Yet Begun Concerning Merger with County Clerk's Office

10/28/2018

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Cook County Board Finance Committee - Budget Hearings
Oct. 23, 20018 afternoon session

Cook County Land Bank
Cook County Clerk
Recorder of Deeds

Commissioners Present: Daley, Boykin, Silvestri, Morrison, Goslin, Schneider, Gainer, Moody and Deer.

As the observer for this meeting, I was struck by 2 things. The reports went extremely quickly especially compared to last year. This year no department took over 20 minutes as compared to well over an hour each last year. Also the commissioners asked very few substantive questions. Mostly they had comments and compliments for the heads of each department.

Highlights of each department include:

Cook County Land Bank
Director Rob Rose explained the mission of the land bank is to buy up abandoned and foreclosed properties and resell them to potential owners at reduced prices. The main group of buyers for these properties are homeowners. The main geographic areas of focus are the west and south sides of Chicago and the southern suburbs. When no buyers can be found, the Land Bank is responsible for upkeep of the property including lawn care and snow removal.
Some of their successes include:

They are on track to meet their performance management goal of acquiring 800 properties by the end of this year. Next year they hope to reach 1000. They started in 2014 with only 34 properties.
They have rehabbed over 350 of these properties so far and have sold over 275 of these.
Their budget is completely self-supporting as of last year. This has been achieved through sales and grants.
They have been working with the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD) on flooding issues. For example, Riverside Lawn, an unincorporated area next to the suburb of Riverside, has serious flooding issues due to the DesPlaines River. The land bank has acquired problem areas and turned these into green spaces that absorb the water overflow. This process included buying out some homeowners whose properties continued to flood, razing the properties, and turning the land into green space.
Their goal next year is to sell over 400 more properties .

Commissioners Gainer and Boykin thanked Mr. Rose for his great work and leadership.

Cook County Clerk:
David Orr explained that his office is not just about elections, though it seems that way at this time of the year. His office handles tax revenue collection from over 1500 separate taxing bodies in Cook County. And if you want to get married in Cook County his office provides the certificate.
During his tenure as Clerk, Mr. Orr cited some successes:

There will be new voting equipment for the next election cycle. He hoped to have it ready this year but one of the losing vendors sued. He said this was a pattern with this company.
His new election website is up 107% in viewers so far this election season.
His budget has not gone up at all in recent years. He is asking for 14 less FTE’s for fiscal 2019.
Online marriage certificate applications are now available. About 1/2 of all new couples have used this application.
Taxing bodies can now use an online system to file their information with the county. About 1/2 are now doing so.
Early voting and mail-in ballots are up. On the first day of early voting (Oct.22) there were already 25,000 votes case in suburban Cook. This is a record for the midterm elections.

Commissioners Daley, Gainer, Boykin, and Morrison thanked him for his years of service and for making the Clerk’s office more efficient and professional.
Commissioner Silvestri thanked him for making a paper back- up ballot mandatory when using the touchscreen.
Commissioner Schneider said that he has defended the Clerk’s performance vehemently over the years whenever the right wing of his party criticized him.
Lots of good luck wishes could be heard as he left the room.

Recorder of Deeds
Karen Yarbrough said that her office always brings in more money than she spends. Since she took over in 2012 her numbers of FTE’s are down 50%. Some of her successes include:

Online filings. These are up 55% so far this year.
She has been running seminars throughout the county. One example is the “Property After Death” seminar that has been well attended.
She will be rolling out a new “blockchain” technology next year. This will include a flat fee schedule for each document instead of a price per page.

Commissioners Boykin and Moody thanked her for her seminars and service. They both complimented her on how professionally the office was run since she took over. Commissioner Boykin also thanked her for saving Fred Hampton’s house in Maywood. This house (the childhood home of the Black Panther leader) was still in the family. The underwater mortgage was something that was unknown to the family after the owner’s death. Ms. Yarbrough worked on getting the mortgage manageable with the help of pro bono legal help.

Commissioner Morrison asked about the merger between her office and the clerk’s office. She said that no talks have begun yet on formulating a plan for the merger. In other counties, she said the county boards have given out plans for such a merger, but she has not received any instructions from this board. But she has plans to get the 2 staff groupings together early next year. David Orr has also promised to help with this process. She has a team in place to instruct her on the workings of the Clerk’s office.

Observer - Jan Goldberg

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Cook County Budget Hearings Continue for Second Day

7/30/2018

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Cook County Board Finance Committee - July 24, 2018
Midyear Budget Hearing - Day 2 - afternoon session

Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas had the shortest meeting of all:

She announced she was $20,000 under budget, asked for questions, and hearing none, thanked everyone, and left.

Cook County Inspector General's Office:

The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD) is looking into using the Cook County Inspector General’s office for its Inspector General (IG) needs. MWRD allotted $600,000 for its IG needs.
Comm. Suffredin asked if it might be possible to bill themselves out to other agencies or governments for Cook County revenue generation.
They will be within their budget.

Recorder of Deeds, Karen Yarborough, presented her budget at 2pm.

She touted her reduction in employees from 200 to 125 over her tenure, and that she had instituted a Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) monitoring system.
Her office is in “substantial Shakman compliance” (but still being overseen).
Commissioner Sims commiserated with Recorder Yarborough about how difficult it is going to be to combine the County Clerk's Office with that of the Recorder of Deeds office. Yarborough agreed about how it would cost lots more money to combine (no firm estimate). She said the big problem was that their cashiering functions used entirely different systems.
Suffredin suggested she try to monetize free services the Recorder of Deeds now offers, like fraud alert of “transfer at death” services, just as the Board of Review has instituted a bulk filing fee.
Most of the commissioners spent considerable time lavishing praise on Recorder Yarborough for her distinguished service.

Clerk of the Circuit Court, Dorothy Brown, relied most of the time on the comptroller to discuss the details of her budget and whether she would be within it.

She will meet her budget mostly due to furlough days.
She complained about how many more man-hours were required under the e-filing system. She said she has had to pull employees from Traffic and Criminal areas to help pro se citizens file their suits in the Civil division. Commissioner Sims offered helpful advice like “closed circuit TV”. Brown said she needed to have screen shots blown up as posters. (Public education should have been part of the rollout.)
Most commissioners sympathized with her for her dedicated employees having to take furlough days and pay cuts. When Com. Tobolski asked if she could stay within her budget for next year, she said she needed more people. He asked if she would be willing to go to the voters to talk about her need for more money in the Circuit Court. No specific numbers were discussed.
Com. Boykin said she had done a lot with a little.

Chief Judge Tim Evans is running at 2% over budget.

He took credit for reducing the jail population from 10,000 to 6,131 which has helped reduce overtime needs (in the Sheriff’s budget).
Judge Evans will reduce his budget by closing two courts at Wentworth and 51st and Belmont and Western by September 1. Cases will be moved from Belmont and Western to Grand and Central for the most part. Wentworth and 51st cases will probably move to California and 26th. He will try to reach a 5.1% reduction for 2019 by further closing Walnut and moving those employees to California and 26th.
Probation officers handle on average 75 cases per person. Similar officers in Washington DC have 25 cases per person. Electronic monitoring and GPS monitoring for protective orders must also be assigned to a probation officer.
With the new public assessment tool, 90% of defendants are showing up for their court dates.
Two pods at the Juvenile Detention Center have been closed since the population is down with a 22 person decrease in headcount, but have had to fill in with overtime due to FMLA.

Budget hearings were adjourned at 4pm. Commissioners Garcia, Sims, Daley, Silvestri, Tobolski, Deer, Boykin, Moore, Moody, and Suffredin were present for most of the budget hearings.

Observer - Amy Little

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Cook County Board Approves MacArthur Foundation Grant for Safety and Justice Challenge Program

11/18/2017

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Cook County Board of Commissioners Meeting - November 15, 2017

Significant Actions Taken:

The Board’s approval of the Safety + Justice Challenge Program Grant will fund a set of strategies to reduce the number of low level non-violent detainees in the Cook County Department of Corrections, and reduce racial and ethnic disparities, while maintaining public safety. (Agenda Item 17-5753)
The Resolution 14-4341 Special Purpose Fund Reporting was received and filed with no discussion. (Agenda Item 17-6214)
Referred from the Legislation Committee, the amendment requiring Board approval for certain civil suits was approved. This will require the Cook County States Attorney to notify by letter the members of the Finance Subcommittee on Litigation prior to taking action to file a civil lawsuit or commence legal action in a civil venue against another party, where the lawsuit or legal action seeks damages in excess of $100,000.00. (Agenda Item 17-4717)

Other Items of Interest:
Most of the items on the agenda were referred to committees.

Update on major technology projects including Tyler Technologies, were referred to Technology committee (Agenda Item 17-6199)
Resolution calling for Cook County public safety stakeholders to work together on a Court Utilization Study was referred to Asset Management Committee (Agenda Item 17-6196)
Proposed ordinance amendment concerning decorum of public speakers at meetings was moved to the Rules Committee (Agenda Item 17-6195)
Status update on the Consolidation of Recorder of Deeds and County Clerk was moved to Legislation Committee
An amendment to an ordinance to prevent sexual harassment in Cook County was referred to the Legislation Committee (Agenda Item 17-6302)

Observed by: Nancy Marcus Meeting Length: 1 hour

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Cook County Treasurer Demonstrates Value of Technology and Offers to Show Others

11/2/2017

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Cook County Board of Commissioners Finance Committee - Departmental Budget Hearings
October 30, 2017 (afternoon sessions that started at 1 pm)

Recorder of Deeds
Treasurer
Commissioners absent for all or most of the meetings: Arroyo, Butler, Fritchey (watching from home), Goslin, Moody
Commissioners present: Boykin, Daley, Deer, Gainer, Garcia, Moore (arrived 1:50), Morrison, Schneider, Silvestri, Sims, Suffredin (arrived 2:55), Tobolski (there for Treasurer)

Items of Interest:

Treasurer Maria Pappas provided the Commissioners with a BOOKLET full of information showing the value that has been realized by all the automation projects in her office since 1998 when she was first elected Treasurer:
- Improved services
- Fewer employees
- Reduced Costs
In addition, the booklet contains comparisons of 1998 to 2018 of
- Salaries of grades 11 thru 23 after the “cost of living adjustments (COLAs)” given by the County to employees. The increase has been 116%. P. 73.
- The list of the percentage COLAs actually given. P. 74
- The value of fringe benefits: $7,955 in 1998 and $22,198 in 2018, a 179% increase in the average cost. (The average salary in her department for 2018 is $67,000 in response to a question by Comm. Schneider.) The majority of the 2018 benefit costs are for medical (excluding dental) of $12, 526 and for pension of $7,578.
The Treasurer was making the point that salaries and benefits for Cook County employees have gone up tremendously over the years, which the County Board has approved through its votes. However, there was no information as to how employees in other governmental entities or in the private sector compare or how the COLAs compare to the increase in the Consumer Price Index.
- Comm. Morrison stated that his office has calculated an average COLA of 3% each year since 2000, while the growth in average household income for that period was 2.2%. His office calculates that if the County had held salary growth to the average nationwide, it would have saved the County $1.22 billion.
- Another point the Treasurer made was that by 2022, if salaries and benefits continue to rise as they have, her office, which currently provides the County more revenues than it costs, will no longer have such a surplus.
Treasurer Pappas also discussed the negatives to the County and property owners resulting from moving the sales of property for unpaid taxes (the “tax sale”) from 13 months after the taxes became past due to 9 months. The County loses $6 million each month, or $36 million per the Treasurer. The Treasurer highlighted how many of the tax sales are because of unpaid taxes of less than $1,000. The Treasurer has done a lot of outreach to notify property owners of the impending sale, and, in 2017 the number of tax sales was the lowest since the automation of the sale 10 years ago. Comm. Boykin is working on creating a loan program for these property owners who owe so little so they can avoid having their property sold.
Treasurer Pappas said that her office was going to start holding seminars every two weeks for other departments to learn how that office has utilized technology to achieve such positive results.

Both the Treasurer and the Recorder have more than met the request for a 10% cut (or equivalent through an increase in revenues).
Upon questioning by Comm. Boykin, Recorder Karen Yarbrough stated that she did not feel merging her human resources (4 employees) or information technology (5 employees) with those of the County would result in much of a savings.
Recorder Yarbrough said that she and Clerk Orr have thus far had only 1 meeting about the merger of the Recorder of Deeds and the County Clerk offices in 2020, but sees no reason why the merger should not be smooth, and she expects that most of it will in effect be done prior to the 2020 date. However, she questions whether the projected savings of $1 million/year will be realized.
As a result of a complaint prior to Recorder Yarbrough being elected in 2012, the office is under court oversight to come into compliance with the Shakman case, which prohibits either favoritism or penalties for political reasons. The Recorder said she hopes the office will be found in compliance, and out from under court oversight, in 2018.

Observer - Priscilla Mims

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Cook County Board Passes “Justice for Black Lives” Resolution

Cook County Budget Hearings Continue

Recorder of Deeds Tells Cook County Board that Talks Have Not Yet Begun Concerning Merger with County Clerk's Office

Cook County Budget Hearings Continue for Second Day

Cook County Board Approves MacArthur Foundation Grant for Safety and Justice Challenge Program

Cook County Treasurer Demonstrates Value of Technology and Offers to Show Others

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