Cook County Board Finance Subcommittee on Litigation
February 25, 2020

The Court-Appointed Compliance Administrators and representatives from the 3 offices under court supervision pursuant to the Shakman settlements updated the Litigation Subcommittee on Feb. 25.  The 3 offices are the Recorder of Deeds, the Assessor, and the Clerk of the Court.

• Shakman provides that, with just a few exceptions, decisions regarding hiring, firing, promotion, and salaries are to be made free of political considerations.  The Recorder’s office has been under court supervision since 2010, the Assessor’s office since 2012, and the Clerk of the Court’s office since August 2018.  The Litigation Subcommittee began asking for quarterly updates with the goal of encouraging faster compliance, as recommended by the League.
• The Recorder’s office has some serious challenges to coming into substantial compliance by December 2020 due to loss of most of the staff in the Human Resources area, as well as other issues.  Commissioner Degnen urged the Recorder to talk to the Clerk about that office providing help with Human Resources since the two offices are to merge in December.  The Court-Appointed Administrator does not know what impact the case may have on the Clerk’s office (not currently under court-supervision) once the merger occurs.
• While progress has been made in the Assessor’s office, and no new complaints have been filed since the current Assessor took over at the end of 2016, it is likely that substantial compliance will not be reached this year because performance evaluations will not be able to be conducted before the end of this year/early next year.  The Assessor’s representative explained that the Assessor needs to complete the property assessments by the end of November, and so it would be difficult to start the evaluations before then.
• The Clerk of the Court is making good progress, but is still in the early stages and has much to do before that office can be found in substantial compliance.

Priscilla Mims - Observer

Cook County Board of Commissioners Committee Meetings 
Nov 20, 2019

Highlights from the meetings:

Finance Committee
Commissioner Silvestri stated that at the Litigation Subcommittee meeting on Nov 19, the compliance administrators gave a positive report that the Assessor's office is moving quickly, the Clerk of the Court's pace has picked up and the Recorder of Deeds is at a good point in achieving compliance with the Shakman decrees.  The next status update to the Litigation Subcommittee will be Feb 2020.  It was hoped compliance would be achieved for the Recorder of Deeds before its merger with the Clerk's office, Dec 1, 2020.

Legislation and Intergovernmental Relations Committee
Representatives from the Recorder of Deeds and Clerk's office presented a status update on their merger (agenda item 19-6178).  Agreements have been made between the two regarding open dialog/communications and information sharing.  Work groups have been established.  Areas of early consolidation discussed were procurement and financial (merging bank accounts). Commissioner Suffredin suggested that the Recorder of Deeds and Clerk meet with the League of Women Voters as he said this outside group has continued to send questions regarding the merger process and were involved in the Nov 2016 referendum.

Rules and Administration Committee
The Just Housing Amendment, that Cook County's housing providers do not discriminate against individuals with a criminal history/convictions when they apply for housing, was passed spring 2019 by the Cook County Board of Commissioners.  Interpretive rules for this Just Housing Amendment have been worked out over the past months.  The Proposed Second Substitute to agenda item # 19-4770 on file (regarding the Just Housing Amendment Interpretive Rules) was adopted.  The motion to receive and file the adopted Proposed Second Substitute 19-4770 was passed which sends the rules to the full Cook County board of Commissioners for final approval.  There were many groups at the committee meeting presenting views on affordable and fair housing, criminal justice, disabilities and racial discrimination since historically individuals with a criminal history/convictions have a history of not obtaining safe and stable housing.

Observed by Michele Niccolai

Cook County Board of Commissioners Committee Meetings - Oct. 23, 2019
Board Meeting - October 24, 2019

The Cook County Board quickly passed an ordinance creating a name change for CC’s Homeland Security Department.  The new name is: Department of Emergency Management and Regional Security.  The renaming occurred after a CC Homeland Security vehicle created alarm among attendees at an Evanston street fair because they did not differentiate between the Cook County and the US Immigration Homeland Security vehicle signage and therefore were concerned that US ICE Agents were there to round up people with potential immigration issues.  

Other Agenda items Passed:

• 19-5620, Ordinance requiring ballots to be printed in additional languages in time for the 2020 elections.  Requires the County Clerk to determine by March 1, 2020, and at least every 3 years thereafter, limited-English-proficient populations of 13,000 or more Cook County residents and then produce special language ballots.
  
• 19-5845, The creation of the “Assessor GIS Fund” with language stating that the revenue collected for the Assessor by other County offices from providing GIS data shall go into this new fund.  The County Board retains appropriation authority.
  
• 19-6117, The renewal of a Springfield lobbying contract.  Commissioner Lowery asked for the lobbyist to come to a board meeting or hearing.  Commissioner Suffredin responded that a meeting will be scheduled after the IL General Assembly veto session is over.
  
• 19-6389, The Human Relations Committee requested a hearing to discuss the final report from the CC Committee on addressing bias, equity, and cultural competency.
  
• 19-5830,  A review of County policies as well as holding and incarceration practices in light of the recommendations from the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Global Study on children who are confined, jailed, and/or jailed in adult facilities.  

Items Referred to Committee:

To Business & Economic Development Committee:

• 19-6176, Requesting approval to enter into an Interagency Agreement to provide funding to launch and operationalize the Southland Development Authority for large scale and long term economic development in the South Suburbs.  Initial amount of $300,000 used to hire an Executive Director for the SDA and based on the SDA’s ability to secure additional material funding.
  
• 19-5333, Resolution to establish an enterprise zone in a 15 contiguous square miles of a depressed area including the City of Chicago Heights and several more.  Intergovernmental agreements will be required.
  
• 19-5632, The Bureau of Economic Development recommends the investment of $4 million in Community Development Block Grant Section 108 funds for low interest financing to support the long term redevelopment of two Housing Authority of Cook County (HACC) high rise properties with 226 units of affordable senior housing in the Village of Wheeling and the City of Niles.

To Legislative & Intergovernmental Affairs Committee:

• 19-6194, Amendment to the Ethics Ordinance that adds calendars, vehicles, and equipment to the list of items that may not have a name or image of an elected official paid for with public funds during an election year if that official is running for re-election.
  
• 19-5979, the proposed ordinance to dissolve the Injury Compensation Committee and Advisory Board as it is no longer needed.  Appears to be an effort to clean up the Code to eliminate provisions that are no longer relevant.
  
• 19-6158, the 3rd quarter report from the Recorders office on its consolidation with the Clerk’s office.  Commissioner Suffredin stated that a hearing will be scheduled.  
  

To Rules Committee:

• 19-4770, Another Just Housing Amendment to a  previously passed ordinance defining “demonstrable risk” and  requiring landlords to rent to individuals with criminal records after a 5 year period of time with a clean record [sex offenders are not eligible].  Because landlords are very unhappy with the original ordinance, Commissioners continue to work on compromises.

Other Items of Interest: 

• Although approved without discussion, four public speakers attended the board meeting and asked the commissioners not to appoint Alderman, George Cardenas, to the Environment Committee.  Mr. Cardenas was selected by Mayor Lightfoot to represent the City. 
  
• The States Attorney’s office received multiple grants from the US Department of Justice to add staff for specific purposes including investigating cold cases older than 3 years; hiring an intellectual property crime attorney and clerk; and increased trauma support for sexual assault victims.
  
• The Justice Advisory Council received a 4 year $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Justice to create a regional coordinated system for returning citizens to receive the appropriate pre and post release (from prison) services.  Goal:  to reduce recidivism.   #19-6162
  

Observed by:    Diane Edmundson

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