Cook County Board Finance Committee
Departmental Budget Meeting
October 27

State’s Attorney - Presented by Kimberly Foxx

Proposed 2022 Budget: $187,870,209            2021 Budget: $176,029.324
2022 includes $526,335 from the American Rescue Plan Special Purpose Fund

Proposed 2022 FTEs: 1,432                2021 FTEs: 1397.4

Highlights: 2021 Initiatives and Outcomes

• Given the pandemic, The Speedy Trial Act was suspended in late March of 2020 and restored on October 1, 2021.   
• Limited court proceedings meant a significant decrease in cases disposed, and although the gap is closing, we expect to finish the year under target.
• The number one charge remains guns, allowing a focus on public safety and violence.

Operational Opportunities: 2022 Initiatives and Goals

• The State's Attorney (SA) office will continue to expand alternative prosecution programs, and work with partners and community to decriminalize addiction, mental health issues, and poverty.  
• Additional initiatives include increased investigations of past wrongful convictions and preparing for implementation of the SAFE-T Act (the Omnibus Criminal Justice Act that the Illinois Legislature passed and the Governor signed early in 2021).

State’s Attorney Foxx’s Remarks

• In addition to the criminal cases, the SA is the lawyer of record for the county (civil side). $266 million were awarded to the County in a case regarding the failure of Sam’s Club to pay taxes on cigarettes.
• Cook County leads the country in vacating wrongful convictions. This work also helps build trust in the community.  
• A goal is increasing community engagement.  We welcome meeting with constituents in order to better explain the work of the SA.  
• The SA endeavors to be the most transparent SA office in the country and the website has a detailed description of the office’s work, accompanied by data. https://www.cookcountystatesattorney.org/ 
• The workload at Cook County exceeds that of Los Angeles County and New York.  LA County is the largest State’s Attorney office in the U.S. and Cook County is second. But LA County does not handle civil cases or misdemeanors.  NY does not handle misdemeanors.  
• In Cook County, felonies must get approval from the SA; but misdemeanors are directly filed by law enforcement.  In other major US jurisdictions, city attorneys deal with misdemeanors.

Foxx suggests that there are misunderstandings and even misinformation about how and when felony charges occur in Cook County.  She explains the procedure:

• The SA is only involved in a case when an arrest is made.
• Law enforcement (LE) investigates, talks with witnesses, gathers information, and makes an arrest. 
• LE takes the case to the felony review office in the SA office to evaluate whether there was a crime, whether the arrestee is the right person, and whether the evidence can be linked to the arrestee.
• When the case is lacking, the SA cannot indict the arrestee but asks LE to gather more evidence.  The case remains open while additional evidence is sought.
• Evidence gathering is done optimally before arrest since after an arrest is made, an arrestee can be held for only 48 hours.  
• Charges are often brought much later than the date of the crime. But once the case is charged, the SA can use only the evidence gathered at that point. 
• According to ABA Criminal Justice Standards:  “A prosecutor should not seek an indictment unless the prosecutor reasonably believes the charges are supported by probable cause and that there will be admissible evidence sufficient to support the charges beyond reasonable doubt at trial.” 

Commisioner Questions:

Q  Do you have any problem hiring staff?
A   We do well in hiring. We target law students.  There are challenges:

• Covid has caused problems in retention and hiring. 
• Cook County is a low paying office: $69,000 start for assistant.  Law firms pay $160,000. 
• Although many new hires come with a commitment to public service, others come, get the experience, but leave.  Student debt factors into staff leaving.  
• A concern is that many experienced people are retiring.  
• A Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion person has been hired to meet hiring standards.  

​Q  How is your budget striking the balance to help people feel safe but not criminalizing members of the community?
A  We prioritize crimes of violence.  In the past, resources were going to shoplifting and drug cases. For the last four years, we have focused on gun offenses.  Narcotics cases have shrunk because these should be diverted to treatment.  This allows more resources to go to violent crime. 

Q  There was a gunfight recently in the Austin neighborhood of Chicago. There was a video.  Why was no one charged? The mayor used the term “mutual combatants,” indicating that both sides of the incident should be arrested.  Should they have been?
A  The video did not capture the beginning of the conflict.  Under the law, people do have the right to defend themselves—and so the beginning is important.  In this instance, all of the witnesses said, “I want a lawyer.”  The police and we agreed that we had not enough evidence. The mayor’s remarks were disappointing.  Frustration cannot lead us to make bad choices.  

Q  How can we help address mental health needs?
A  Too many mentally ill people are in jail. The felony review team sees that these are mental health situations.  But when people go to Mental Health Court, they get more entangled in the system than they need to be.   People should be deflected out of the system entirely.  But the SA doesn’t have a mechanism to do that--we need robust treatment so that they don’t come to us at all. We have not been thoughtful about the role of trauma and mental health in gun violence.  Children who suffer trauma have no access to social workers, therapy.  They feel they are better off with a weapon. But a child with a gun easily overreacts, leading to tragedy. Our strategies have not been proactive but reactive   We need to figure out how to bring services on the front end.

Q What about the budget for dealing with carjackings?
A The PA office cannot do anything until the police bring cases to them.  The case-clearing by the police for carjackings is only about 12%.

Observer - Janet Kittlaus

Cook County Board Finance Committee
Departmental Budget Hearings
Oct. 26, 2021

The meeting scheduled for 9 a.m. was held at 10:30 due to CCH scheduling issues.  It continued until 1:15 for 2 hours and 45 minutes due to commissioner questioning and compliments. 

Cook County Health - presented by CEO Israel Rocha and former Interim Budget Officer, Andrea Gibson

Proposed 2022 Budget:  $ 3.889 Billion    2021 Budget:  $3.388 Billion
Proposed 2022 FTEs:         7,560                 2021 FTEs:       6,803 

CEO Rocha’s comments
Both internal and external factors were considered in developing the 2022 budget; and while he stated that this is a conservative budget, he also stated that is has taken into consideration the importance of meeting the needs of patients, staff, and growth challenges.  Health Equity runs through all budget allocations.

2021 Accomplishments

• Mitigated COVID at CC Jail
• Established a health line for employees
• 900,000 Covid shots administered
• Established an Office of Health Equity
• County Care again received the highest recognition from the State for its coverage and options.

The COVID Pandemic impact on the 2022 budget:

• FY 2019 patient volumes were used as a baseline as all volumes were down in 20-21.
• Medicaid has been expanded to those previously considered charity care which includes undocumented seniors 65+.  And beginning in January undocumented seniors 55+ will also be covered.
• The County Care Management Program has grown beyond expectations due to the state not requiring the usual annual re-determination of Medicaid eligibility.

Other Highlights of his presentation:

• County Care now has 415,000 members which has driven up both anticipated revenues and expenses for 2022.  Focus will continue to be on increasing the use of in-house medical care vs members using outside providers.  Emphasis will be on closing service gaps, investing in the nursing staff, and increasing emergency and dialysis services at Provident.  
• Neurology, Oncology, behavioral services will all be increased offerings at Provident, Stroger, and several of the community health centers.  The ultimate goal is to offer these services at all or most of the centers.  Also reported that a new state-of-the-art health center was opened in 2021 on W. Fullerton named Belmont Cragin.
• Public Health received funding from the Center for Disease Control and the County will increase its tax allocation by $10 million each year contingent on revenue.
• Surgical rooms are being increased and modernized at both Stroger and Provident. Provident is resuming emergency ambulance runs.
• There is the potential for national recognition of Provident Hospital’s Dialysis and Renal Center.

Commissioner Questions

1. When will the vaccine for ages 5-11 be available.  Answer:  expect vaccine on hand in two weeks.  To date every suburban school has been contacted.  Emphasis will be on schools and family doctors to answer questions and vaccinate.
2. Have outstanding accounts receivables improved.  Ans:  Yes.  In 2021 to date cash collection increased by $24 million.  Also, the System is establishing a claims reserve for County Care.
3. Commissioner Miller wants to see the ambulatory care clinics much more robust and all offering life style services.  She also wants more services provided in the Southland area.
4. Anaya asked that Telehealth be expanded.
5. A question on the pandemic effects on the staff was answered this way: There were many more retirements.  The System is asking itself “how do we energize our staff?” Need more patient education. Need increased emphasis on Mental Health. Mr. Rocha stated he will be offering a new Strategic Plan at the end of 2022. 

Diane Edmundson - Observer

Cook County Board Finance Committee
Departmental Budget Hearings:
October 27, 2021

This report covers the meetings with the Chief Judge and the Land Bank.

Chief Judge presented by Honorable Tim Evans
Proposed 2022 Budget: $287,915,856        2021 Budget: $273,508,315
(2022 includes $1.9 M from American Rescue Plan funds)
Proposed 2022 FTEs: 2,906.6                2021 FTEs: 2,872.6
(2022 includes 29 FTEs from American Rescue Plan funds)

The Chief Judge’s office is the administrative office serving the Circuit Court of Cook County. The office supervises non-judicial employees who provide a wide range of services including judicial support, probation, guardianship, Juvenile Detention, clinical and other support.  

​The Chief Judge stated that the Chief Judges Office is more than hearings in Court and emphasized the good work they are doing with the money that they are given. Some of the highlighted offices under the Chief Judge include:

• Adult and Juvenile Probation-pre- and post-trial activities
• Juvenile Temporary Detention Center (largest in the US)
• Jury Administration
• Children’s Room, place where children can go while their parents are in court
• Restorative Justice Court: there are 4 in Cook County that hear cases for young adults 18-26 that have been charged with non-violent felony or misdemeanors.
• Mental, Drug and Veterans Courts.  There are currently 20 Drug Courts

Chief Judge Evans was very proud of the documentary Any Given Day which is about the Mental Health Court. It won at the Chicago International Film Festival.
Chief Judge Evans will submit 2 amendments to the Chief Judge’s budget:

• The first for Domestic Violence.  He is asking for $2,360,000. This will be used to improve the services at the Domestic Violence Court at 555 E. Harrison, Chicago. The money will be used to support 15 Court coordinators, 5 law Clerks, 40 laptops, Advocates for Elderly Law, Advocates for Disability Law, and advocates to work 24 hours/7 days a week to help make sure orders of protections are provided to those in need. The Sheriff’s Department will provide 12 LEAD Clerks from the LEAD System who will help those seeking Orders of Protection complete the necessary forms and help expedite these orders.  The goal is to provide an Order of Protection to anyone in Cook County who feels they are in a dangerous situation.  The Sheriff’s office may provide some financial support for this amendment. A Committee  was formed in July with Judges and Commissioners Daley, Suffredin, Sims, Deer and Anaya out of concern for how the County is dealing with Domestic Violence.
• The second amendment is to raise the salary of Jurors from $17.20 to $35.00 per day.    Part 2 of this amendment is to increase the hourly rates paid to private attorneys needed to represent indigent people when Public Defenders are not able to represent them due to conflicts of interest. The rate is currently $75 per hour for in Court work and $55 per hour for outside Court Work. Chief Judge would like to double those rates.
• The Commissioners seem to be in favor of the above amendments

Land Bank Authority presented by Eleanor Gorski, Executive Director
Proposed 2022 Budget: 15,020,440            2021 Budget: 15,232,149
Proposed FTEs: 13                        2021 FTES: 12

The Cook County Land Bank Authority (CCLBA) will acquire, hold, and transfer interest in real property throughout Cook County to promote redevelopment and reuse of vacant, abandoned, foreclosed, or tax delinquent properties, and support targeted efforts to stabilize neighborhoods.

Executive Director Gorski began her job in August of 2021.

• This is a self-sustaining Authority. No taxpayer subsidy is used to accomplish their mission.
• 408 properties sold in 2021 and 408 properties were acquired
• 1,000 rehabilitated units have been sold with no public financing as affordable housing since 2013 when the CCLBA was established, 218 units rehab so far in 2021. 
• There was one change in their budget. Grant money was reduced from 4.8M to $550,000 due to a MWRD Grant that ended.

CCLBA Outlook for 2022 that will keep administrative costs flat. Some of the highlights include:

• Leverage with partnerships for an increase in economic development
• Scale up affordable housing with focus planning
• Streamline and update Landbank community engagement and public information efforts
• Work smarter with the resources they have
• To provide more transparency there will be an Annual Review that will be posted on their website, www.cookcountylandbank.org 

Commissioner Gainer spoke of the success of the Landbank and was pleased that they reached a milestone of 1,000 units since its inception. 

Observer: Nancy Marcus

Cook County Board Finance Committee
Budget Meetings
Oct. 27 

Sheriff Budget presented by Sheriff Tom Dart

Proposed 2022 Budget:  $619,404,166    2021 Budget:  $593,629,147
Proposed 2022 FTEs:  5,826        2021 FTEs:  5,647

The Sheriff has the following departments:  the Office of the Sheriff, Administration & Human Resources, Office of professional Review and Professional Integrity Special Investigations, Information Technology, Court Services Division (staffing the courts), Police Department (covering unincorporated areas, but also providing police services under intergovt. agreements to a number of different suburbs and Chicago), Community Corrections Department (responsible for Electronic Monitoring), Department of Corrections (staffing the jail and providing services during and after release from jail), and Sheriff’s Merit Board (responsible for vetting potential new hires and promotions and conducting disciplinary hearings).  While overall there is a large increase in FTEs proposed (+179), there is a reduction in the Department of Corrections (-57).

Some key points from the meeting:
Policing:

• Assisting Chicago police in Chatham on the south side and Austin on the west side, as well as doing some patrolling downtown within Chicago.
• Ever-expanding police services to many suburbs which cannot afford to do it themselves.
• Providing evidence technicians as needed throughout the County.
• Regularly patrolling on the highways as the State police are having to spend more time with shootings.
• Have confiscated over 700 illegal guns thus far this year - already a record!
• Participating in Chicago’s task force for carjackings.  Have created a data base (before there was none) to keep track of where happening and where cars are being recovered and how quickly.  Helps to decide where to deploy resources.  Now recovering cars at a higher rate (+41%) and cut in half the recovery time.  This prevents such cars from being used in other crimes.
• Working on a dashboard for highway shootings.  Finding that use of helicopters helpful in making arrests without high-speed chases.

Community Policing Model

• Looking for opportunities to improve relations with community, such as delivering 80,000 meals on wheels.
• For those dealing with opioid addiction, working to get them off the street and into treatment.
• His Community Resource Center is to offer or connect those leaving the jail with needed services.  So far, 3,000 have been serviced.

Cook County Jail

• Population is and has been consistently around 5,700.
• Currently 14 COVID cases – all of whom walked in with COVID, which is true for about 70%-80% of all cases.  Sheriff cannot force prisoners to be vaccinated.  Usually about 65% are.  Just under 80% of the Sheriff’s employees are.
• Illinois Department of Corrections still refusing to take the bulk of the population at the jail who have been convicted and should be transferred to the State.  Now have about 650.  Noted that while 11% of the total jail population, these people commit almost 50% of the violence in the jail.  Cost is $240/d per person (if don’t get involved in fights resulting in need for medical treatment).  So far, total cost has been $70 M since start of pandemic.
• If State would take all the convicted prisoners, Sheriff could close the building now housing them and significantly reduce overtime costs and the wear and tear on his employees.  

Mental Health Issues

• Has a new program now being used in Oak Lawn showing great promise.  Officers are trained to use a tablet when called to a situation involving mental health issues.  On the other end of the tablet is a mental health specialist.  The tablet is handed to the person or a family member to help calm the person down and get him to agree to treatment.
• At intake at the jail, identify issues and then work to get them into programs and follow-up after they leave jail.
• Currently just under 50% of those in jail have mental health issues, which is much higher than in the past.  Sheriff says he has been told that this is likely a fallout from the pandemic.
• Comm. Morrison urged the Sheriff to use his lobbyists in Springfield in coordination with other County lobbyists to get the State to resume providing mental health services.
• Commissioner Deer said that Commissioners now getting quarterly reports from County officials on what mental health services being provided.  Next step is to bring everyone together to develop a coordinated approach.  Sheriff committed to supporting.

Electronic Monitoring (EM)

• Population Sheriff is monitoring is down to about 2900 in recent months.  He does not know why, but it has been down long enough that he does not believe this is a blip.
• He confirmed that the judges order EM and Sheriff has no say.  
• There are 3 separate EM programs run by (1) Illinois Dept. of Corrections for those who have been convicted, (2) the Chief Judge – and Sheriff says he does not know much about that other than that he believes there are periods during the day when the people are not monitored, and (3) the Sheriff, and his dept is monitoring 24 hours a day.  Different people have different times when they can move about, which complicates the monitoring.
• While the State EM will have to remain separate, Sheriff would like to see all those he is monitoring to be under the Chief Judge’s program, except for those who the Sheriff has in programs.
• Some on EM lose their housing.  Sheriff tries to help finding housing.  Consistently have about 100 without housing.
• Confirmed that in contrast to some jurisdictions in the country, there is no charge to people for being on EM.

Prescription Drug Take-back:  Sheriff’s program is #1 in the country in terms of amount collected!

Observer:  Priscilla Mims

Cook County Board Finance Committee
Departmental Budget Hearings: Day 2
October 26, 2021

Cook County Public Defender - presented by Sharone Mitchell and staff
Proposed 2022 Budget - $84,102,421                        2021 Budget - $80,839,889
              (Both include General Funds, Special Purpose Funds and Grant Funds)
Proposed 2022 - 750 FTEs                 2021 - 700 FTEs
Presentation by Sharone Mitchell focused on 4 Challenges within the office.
1. Caseloads/Workloads

• Office continues to have caseloads that are too high compared to other PD offices and also according to national standards
• Office handles misdemeanor as well as felony cases
• Adding an additional 50 positions that will include an additional 20 attorney positions

2. Records Maintenance and Retention

• Current system is antiquated. Showed a slide of boxes of files wrapped in plastic that are stored in warehouse and date back to the 1970’s. 
• Legally mandated to maintain records for a certain period of time - ie homicide records need to be kept for 20 years after completion of sentence
• Building a team that will address the current issues and work towards digitization - 7 new positions in budget  

3. Professional Development

• “Nutshell” training provided yearly - 3 days of training on many topics - attorney staff attends every other year
• Have focused on attorney training in the past but would like to address professional development for other employees
• Increasing budget by $50K for professional development and adding one new position

4. Technology

• Technology needs are changing for how office operates not only in maintaining and storing files but also in technology needs at trial and the need for investigators to have laptops etc.
• Funds included in budget request to conduct a technology audit 
• Funds also included in budget request for computer refresh and to accommodate investigation needs - 2 new FTEs included for technology

Questions from Commissioners

• Comm. Anaya asked about the new Immigration Unit. It is not up and running yet as the 2 attorney and 1 case worker positions did not receive qualified applicants and had to be reposted
• Comm Degnan asked about the decrease in grant funding. Mr. Mitchell and staff indicated that 2 grants have been extended and the budget will be revised to show that and also the office has applied for more grants that are not included now but probably will be received. Comm. Degnan also asked about the possibility of state funding for PD offices. Mr. Mitchell said there is a report entitled “Right to Council in Illinois” that he helped with from the Supreme Court of Illinois. He is concerned that if the state gets involved in funding there will be unfunded mandates. He also said the idea of a statewide PD office that would exclude Cook County has been looked into as many PD offices have difficulty with funding. She also asked about the position of Mitigation Specialist (MS). 5 new MS positions are included in the budget. Mr. Mitchell explained that these Specialists help the PD attorneys by investigating a clients background to help with any plea bargains or in sentencing to ensure that clients are treated fairly 
• Comm. Arroyo asked about the percentage of Latino attorneys. Mr. Mitchell stated that it is 4% and they are making efforts to increase that percentage.   

Cook County Clerk - presented by Karen Yarborough
Proposed 2022 Budget - $76,502,087                      2021 Budget - $56,472,352
           (Includes Corporate Funds, Election Fund, Special Purpose Funds, Grant Funds)
2022 includes $8,823,854 allocated from the American Rescue Plan Special Purpose Fund
Proposed 2022 - 348 FTEs          2021 - 350 FTEs

Highlights of Presentation by Clerk Yarborough
Elections

• Election equipment and the voter registration process have been upgraded and modernized.
• Money is included in the budget to continue with this process in particular to deal with the increase in mail-in ballots.
• She hopes to acquire a new touch free e-polling system using American Rescue Plan funds.
• The office is gearing up for the challenges of the pending redistricting.

Recorder Functions

• The e-recording system is now operational for the recording of documents.  
• The 80,000 document backlog present when the Clerk took over the Recorder function has been eliminated.
• In 2020 a new cashiering system was also implemented.

Questions from Commissioners

• Comm. Daley asked about accessibility of polling sites and was assured that accessibility is not a problem for suburban polling sites. 
• By December precinct consolidation should be known once the mapping has been done using new census data. The need for adding any additional languages based on census numbers is yet to be determined. 

Clerk of Circuit Court of Cook County - Presented by Iris Martinez and Staff
Proposed 2022 Budget - $125,285,335                   2021 Budget - $120,480,906
                   (Includes General Funds, Special Purpose Funds and Grants)
2022 budget includes $4,345,794 allocated from the American Rescue Plan SP Fund
Proposed 2022 - 1479 FTEs            2021 Budget - 1386 FTEs
2022 includes 25 FTEs under the American Rescue Plan

Highlights of Presentation by Iris Martinez

• Technology and Transparency have been her focus since she took over the office in December.
• Her office collects funds from the courts and distributes them to various entities. $2.87M has not been allocated to local governments and they hope to have them distributed by the end of 2021.
• The office had 218 vacant positions and they have been working on filling those positions.
• Changing the culture in the office is important and Shakman compliance is a focus. The office is moving towards compliance probably by the 1st quarter of 2022.
• Implementation of the Odyssey system for document storage was halted and is being implemented again after making changes. In July 2021 Domestic Violence Courts started implementation and Civil and Traffic Courts should be implemented by the end of 2021.
• A Call Center for questions about the Court System is being developed that will be able to answer questions in 200 languages. 

Questions from Commissioners

• Comm. Daley asked about filling the vacant positions since other departments have indicated difficulty in filling positions. The HR person stated that 60 new FTEs had onboarded in July and another 40 are in process. They have budgeted for an additional 138. They initiated a very aggressive outreach plan in which they posted 6 different types of positions and received 5000 applications of which 4000 could be processed. 
• Comm. Anaya asked about any concerns with the proposed 24/7 hours of operation for the  Domestic Violence Court. The Clerk’s office is working with the Chief Judge and the advocates to come up with a model that will work and they can staff. 

Board of Review - Commissioners Larry Rogers, Michael Cabonargi, and Tammy Wendt
Proposed 2022 Budget - $15,686,657                      2021 Budget - $14,072,527
2022 budget includes $1,064,256 allocated from the American Rescue Plan SP Fund
Proposed 2022 - 151 FTEs                  2021 Budget - 142 FTEs
2022 includes 9 FTEs under the American Rescue Plan

Highlights of Presentation by Larry Rogers

• The review of assessments by the Board of Review (BoR) depends on the Assessor and that office has not yet made the data available for review from the Chicago reassessments that occurred this year. 
• The BoR office had converted to an online review system in 2015 so they had no difficulty going to a total remote environment in 2021
• The defense efforts of the BoR saved all taxing bodies within Cook County from having to make refunds of $32 M, including $10.4 M just for Cook County government.
• When they get the information from the Assessor they expect to see an increase in appeals from the city and have budgeted for overtime for their staff so they can get the appeals done in a timely way.
• The office continues with its outreach efforts to make taxpayers aware of the appeal process.

After his presentation Comm. Wendt expressed her disagreement with the budget as presented and stated that she was not included in the development of the budget as the other 2 commissioners did not meet in an open meeting and she thought it was a violation of the Open Meetings Act so would not meet with them. She also expressed several other concerns with the operation of the office as well as her feeling that there was not equity in the distribution of staff among the 3 Commissioners who are separately elected and run separate offices - yet have one budget. 

Questions/Comments from the Cook County Board Commissioners

• Comm. Degnan stated she had reached out to the offices of each of the BoR Commissioners with her questions prior to this meeting but had not received response from any of them. She wanted to know why the budget for Professional Development had increased fourfold. Comm. Rogers said that more of their staff needs to be certified as Assessment Officers. She also wanted to know why there seemed to be different sets of information that are used by the Assessor’s office and the BoR. If they had the same information would that not make for fewer appeals. The standard of review is different as the BoR gets more information to determine if an adjustment is necessary. Comm. Degnan further said she also could not tell from their salary distribution chart what positions there were and she was not comfortable having to vote on their budget.
• Comm. Daley suggested that since there was disagreement among the BoR Commissioners about their budget perhaps they needed to meet with the Budget Director to come up with a budget they can agree on. He also stated that perhaps in the future each Commissioner should submit their own budget as the commissioners operate their own offices independently. 
• Comm. Anaya said her office does outreach for the BoR as do many of the other commissioners. She said they had asked before for data and it would be useful to them to know what the data on the numbers of commercial and the number of residential appeals/district as well as the % of appeals that result in a decrease in the assessment. Comm. Rogers said that was a great suggestion and they would try to include that data in their next Annual Report. 

Item of Note:

• Comm. Daley said that he was referring the video of the Board of Review portion of this meeting to both the Inspector General and the Board of Ethics because of the issues raised.  

Observer: Cynthia Schilsky    

Cook County Board Finance Committee
Departmental Budget Hearings
October 25, 2021, Part Two
​
Public Administrator presented by Louis G. Apostal
Proposed 2022 Budget:  $1,505,785         2021 Budget:  $1,412,029
Proposed 2022 FTEs:  15              2021 FTEs:  15
Presentation Highlights:

• Almost a self-supporting agency, since most collected fees go into the county treasury. 
• Is a quasi-state agency since it is overseen by the circuit court system. 
• Deals mainly with probate, selling of property, etc.

Office of the Independent Inspector General presented by IG Patrick Blanchard

Proposed 2022 Budget:  $1,945,869     2021 Budget:  $1,874,663
Proposed 2022 FTEs:  19               2021 FTEs:  19
Presentation Highlights:

• Budget includes additional funds requested for certification training for the 5 new employees (investigators).
• # of complaints received is leveling off to about 795 per year—most from the county and forest preserve district; about 30 of these are from sub-contracted Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD).  
• MWRD contract expires in 2022, but will most likely be renewed.
• This year an ordinance passed giving the Litigation sub-committee authority to review the quarterly reports from the Inspector General—mostly when recommendations were not being followed by departments and agencies.  This is a positive for this office.

Cook County Treasurer presented by Maria Pappas

Proposed 2022 Budget:  $11,951,584 (decrease of about $36,000)    2021 Budget:  $11,987,500
Proposed 2022 FTEs:  72.5  (decrease of 5 FTEs)                 2021 FTEs:  77.5

Highlights of Presentation:

• Main purpose of this office is to collect property taxes ($16.1 billion) throughout Cook County and then distribute the collected money to the 2,200 local government units—various taxing bodies (municipalities, schools, etc).  Also invests the revenues and others public funds according to law.   Conducts tax sales of delinquent properties.
• Productive use of technology and automation has made this office more efficient and less expensive over the years.
• This office has an extensive user-friendly website that contains almost all information any taxpayer needs or is interested in regarding taxes:  www.cookcountytreasurer.com. 
• The web site also contains several studies done by this office, including Scavenger Sale Study, 20-year Property Tax History, Debt Study, and Tax Bill 2020 Analysis.
• This office has a strong outreach service to help taxpayers get exemptions, avoid overpayments, obtain refunds, etc.
• Treasurer Pappas has not been pleased with the roll-out of technology by Tyler Technologies, especially as it concerns other offices with whom she works (Assessor, Clerk, etc.)

Some interesting facts on website:

• $72 million has been overpaid by taxpayers in duplicate payments or overpayment
• $43 million in missing exemptions for seniors (they haven't applied for the exemption)
• Property taxes are up 99% in the last 20 years
• 50% of scavenger sales are vacant properties
• Since 2018, $82 million in automatic refunds has been paid out
• The 547 primary taxing agencies have a debt of $153.4 billion (mostly pensions)

Cook County Assessor presented by Fritz Kaegi

Proposed 2022 Budget:  $33,778,110             2021 Budget:  $31,120,615
(2022 includes $1,000,000 allocated from the American Rescue Plan (ARPA)
Both years include about $4,605,290 in Special Purpose Funds
Proposed 2022 FTEs:  276                              2021 FTEs:  276

Highlights of Presentation

• Assessor Kaegi praised Tyler Technologies as being less expensive than alternatives at this point.  The office is pleased with the roll-outs, with iasWorld going live soon.  
• Goals this coming year include:  strategic hiring and cost efficiencies,  improved customer service, technology and modernization investments.
• Having difficulty hiring for 40 vacant positions, since other businesses pay more or have better perks.  Many retirements and COVID fears have increased vacancies.
• Digitization has lowered costs and lowered error rates.  A consulting contract is being used for customer service improvement.  Best practices in this field are being followed, although Cook County has a very unusual system of assessment.
• Commissioner Miller was concerned about Southland communities and their assessments.  Small businesses have high rates when residential properties are lowered.  Concern about drawing businesses to the Southland with such high property taxes.
• There are a large number of appeals in Cook County (33% of properties are appealed).  The reason is distrust in assessment accuracy and fairness,  Assessor is working on more accurate, uniform, equitable assessments.  Interestingly, appeals have been down even though the process to appeal is easier now.  Kaegi feels it will take a few years to rectify/change the distrust in assessments by home-owners and commercial property owners.
• Within about a year, the process of updating inaccurate assessments will carry-over to the next assessment in 3 years hence.  So once rectified, this should be ”permanent.”
• TIF Districts can negatively affect assessments (will be higher since some areas will have a tax break).  ARPA funding this year will go towards measuring the incentives given to property owners -—are they working as intended. Kaegi is working to get some changes to assessment process at the state level—with new laws.

Karin Hribar - Observer