Cook County Board Finance Committee Departmental Budget Meeting
Friday, November 6, Morning Session

State’s Attorney Budget:
$176,585,418 (2021)-$161,837,454(2020) = increase of $14,747,964
1,401.4 FTE’s (2021)-1,362.2 FTE’s (2020) = an increase of 39.2

Cook County Clerk Budget:
$58.590M (2021)- $58.070 M (2020-includes Recorder’s Budget from 2020) =increase of $520,000
350 FTE’s (2021)- 386.8(2020- includes Recorder’s FTEs from 2020) =decrease of 36.8

Chicago Board of Elections Budget (note: the City of Chicago provides a large portion of the monies for this Board’s operation during even years, and all but the cost of the 4 FTEs during odd-numbered years):
$1,248,144 (2021)-$22,770,124 (2020) =decrease of $21,521,980
FTE’S 4.0 (2021)-4.0 FTE’s (2020) =no difference

Highlights of the State’s Attorney Budget Meeting:
Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx highlighted work done in fiscal year 2020:

• There were 38,6900 offenders charged in felony cases
• 33,990 were charge but not yet disposed meaning their cases are still making their way through the system
• 1/3 of the cases or 35% were charges for unlawful use of guns
• Of those cases 90% conviction rate.

The reason for slowdown in convictions was due to COVID-19 as the State’s Attorney office shifted the way they work to working remotely - in addition the Courts are virtual. They are working slowly but steadily to catch up. 
The State’s Attorney’s office is well aware of the budget restraints during these difficult times and they are working to prioritize prosecuting violent crimes especially unlawful use of guns. 
The Commissioners did not ask many questions about the budget. Commissioner K. Morrison wanted to know why there was a nine-person reduction of personnel in the Felony Review Unit (this Unit works with law enforcement agencies to review felonies cases.) Kim Foxx stated that they went from a two shift 12-hour seven day a week to three shifts. They found that they did not need as many personnel in each shift as they did when it was a 12-hour shift, so they were able to cut positions but not the effectiveness of the Unit. Commissioner Degnen commended the State’s Attorney’s office for a well-organized budget. She questioned the increase in operating funds. Kim Foxx stated that this was due to Grants they received for programs. 

Commissioners Aguilar, Suffredin and Degnen  questioned the expungement of marijuana cases. Foxx stated that due to COVID there has been a slowdown of these cases. But they are making progress.  To date they are working to process 300 cases, working twice a week. 
Commissioner Sims wanted to know about the issue concerning retail theft and whether people are being prosecuted. Foxx is trying to work with local municipalities to handle some of these cases as it takes a lot of time for the Assistant State’s Attorneys to prosecute and sometimes the defendants do not show up in court.  She emphasized they are being prosecuted despite what was heard in the news. Foxx stated they would rather focus on gun cases.

Commissioners Suffredin and Britton both praised the Civil Division of the States Attorney ‘s office. They both said it does not get noticed like the Criminal Division.

Of interest Foxx stated that Cook County Attorney’s office is the second largest office in the US, LA County being the largest. LA only handles felonies. Cook County handles Felonies, misdemeanors, Civil cases, child support cases and Juvenile Delinquent cases. A big case load to handle.

Highlights of the Cook County Clerk’s Budget Meeting
This was a challenging year for the Election. Despite COVID-19, Clerk Karen Yarbrough reported that her  office worked tirelessly to make sure this election went well. Clerk Yarbrough thanked Toni Preckwinkle  and the Procurement staff for all of their help to make sure there was PPE and equipment available at all polling places. This was a record-breaking election. Yarbrough divided her discussion into two parts:  the Election and the Assumption of the Recorder of Deeds’ duties into the Cook County Clerk’s office.
Election

• 570,000 VBM ballots were processed and mailed out, 50,000-70,000 ballots mailed daily. This is in comparison to the last elections where only 96,000 were sent
• 430,000 VBM ballots were received and processed. They processed 25,000 to 50,000 per day at the Election Operation Center in Cicero
• 20% increase in Early voting from the previous election
• 7 supersites were created for suburban use including a super site at Union Station
• Ballots and election materials were translated into 12 languages
• All election Judges will be invited to a virtual meeting to discuss the election

Assumption of the Recorder of Deeds’ duties into the Cook County Clerk Office.

• Final stage of the assumption. Yarbrough stated that this will be completed by December 7, on schedule
• Cook County Clerk will provide  4 key services

1. Elections
2. Tax Services
3. Vital Records
4. Recording 

• The Vital Records office will be moved to the First Floor of the Cook County Building and will share space with the Recording function to better serve the community. 
• Projected saving of the merger equals $1.4 M per year with $6.7M projected savings over the next years
• Increase in Budget is due to the merger
• All of the Commissioners present commended Karen Yarbrough and staff on the election. Especially on the fact that ballots and election material were available in 12 languages
• Commissioners Britton, Moore K. Morrison, Sims, Anaya, and Aguilar all were concerned about the hiring and/re-hiring of former employees of the Recorder of Deeds. They hoped that former employees could keep their job as institutional knowledge would be helpful. They were also concerned that if hired they might not be hired at the same salary or rank. The County Clerk’s office said that those re-hired will not lose rank, salary or benefits.
• A number of Commissioners were concerned about the backlog of documents at the Recorder of Deeds office. Commissioner Suffredin stated that they are especially concerned about the backlog of Transfer of Death forms and Mechanical Liens that were presented and not filed.  County Clerk’s office said that they are working on this. The Recorder of Deeds office is not open to the public and employees are working from home. This has caused a problem. Relators have also voiced a concern. 
• Commissioner Degnen mentioned the League of Women Voters Questions that were sent to the Clerk’s office and to all of the Commissioners. Chairman Daley asked that the Clerk’s office respond in writing to these questions. 
• Commissioner Suffredin stated that at the next Board meeting proposed item 20-4415 will be on the agenda. This amends the Cook County Code to replace the name of Recorder of Deeds to Cook County Clerk
• Commissioner Suffredin also stated that he had constituents call his office concerned that their ballots were not received at the Election Center due to the tracking system not operating correctly. Deputy Clerk Michalowski stated that they used a third-party contractor for this process, there were glitches, and they are being worked out. Suffredin also asked if the Clerk’s office is prepared for the next election since it is a Consolidated Election, local elections and many different ballots would have to be printed for each municipality. Michalowski said they would be ready. Suffredin commented that the program to use lawyers in the city and suburbs at polling places worked well and they should consider using lawyers again.

Highlights of The Chicago Board of Elections Budget Meeting
It was announced that Lane Gough, Executive Director of the Board of Elections will be retiring. His assistant, Charles Holiday will be replacing him. All commissioners wished him well.
Marisol Hernandez, Chair of the Board of Elections reported the following:

• 13,500 Chicagoans served as Election Judges for this election; that is 2,000 more than served in 2016
• 425,000 Vote by Mail Ballots were returned either by mail or by placing in secure drop boxes
• 370,000 Chicagoans voted early
• 800,000 ballots were received before the election
• 51 drop off boxes were available to voters through November 3

Looking ahead for 2021

• The Board of Elections will maintain voter registration
• Work includes the canvasing and remapping of wards precincts, and Congressional districts etc., once the census numbers are available and redistricting occurs 
• Handle objections for petitions for the 2022 election.

Commissioner Daley wanted to know if in the future the results from Chicago and Cook County could be combined. It was stated that this is a possibility.
Commissioner Degnen questioned a line item, Contingencies & special Purposes page B-4 of the budget. It shows $900,000-line item taken out of the budget. Executive Director Gough stated that he believed this was a Grant that is finished but he will get back to the Board.

Observer: Nancy Marcus

Cook County Board of Commissioners Finance Committee
Mid-Year Budget Hearings - July 28, 2020

State’s Attorney 

​General Information
Revenues - Revenue was $238,000; that is down $178,667 which is a 42.3% variance.  
Expenses - Actual expenses were $59,343,256 which is variance of 4.3% ($2.7 Million)
Holdback Target - Holdback target achieved 

Other information of interest:

• State’s Attorney’s Office (SAO) fees consist entirely of certain fees for felony and misdemeanor convictions in the Circuit Court and imposed by judges.  Revenue has historically begun to decrease. The trend points to a continued decline; court closures due to Covid19 has exacerbated the decline.
• Most hiring for attorneys occurs after the July bar exam so vacancies are carried in the first half of a fiscal year which represent the variance. Prior to mandated FY2020 appropriation reduction due to Covid19, the office rescinded 43 attorney offers that were tentatively planned to occur between Aug-Sept., and negotiated 75 delayed hiring of vacant positions to meet target reductions due to Covid19. Less expenditure payment requests associated with case activity, supplies, operations and delayed maintenance has resulted in decreased expenses until normal operations resume.
• The SAO Case Management System is in the review stage; expectation is that the proposal will come before the Board in FY2020.
• Holdback target was met by delayed hiring on open positions, non-personnel reductions, and estimated savings from furloughs. 
• SAO piloted Paperless Digital First project during the office closures; Its success has resulted in rolling out the approach to the entire criminal and special protection bureaus so that information can move throughout the supply and information chain without paper and those underlying costs.

Observer - Carolyn Cosentino

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

Cook County Board of Commissioners Finance Committee Departmental Budget Hearings
October 24, 2018

State’s Attorney

Commissioners Absent: Butler, Fritchey, Goslin, Gainer and Garcia.

State's Attorney (SA) Kim Fox stated that: 

• Her department inherited over $2 million debt and has paid down 1/2 of that debt so far.  
• Her strong focus is on data and evidence, integrity and transparency. 
• The Cook County prosecutor office is second in the country, after LA. 
• They have a Conviction Integrity Unit and referenced 50 people wrongly convicted.  She mentioned the importance of rebuilding trust. 
• They have an 85% conviction rate in gun cases (up from 50%).  Her focus is on violent crime. Misdemeanor cases are being looked at as there is a high number.
• Best practice is 400 cases per Assistant State's Attorney (ASA)   Cook County ASA’s have about 3000 cases. Further, about 50% end in dismissal. A lot has to do with the need for victims to show up in court.  There is no mechanism to screen out dismissal cases.  
• About 250,000 cases come from suburbs.  

Com. Daley and Silvestri asked about Electronic Monitoring (EM). SA Fox said that she has no position regarding consolidating or what the difference is between EM from the Judges or Sheriffs departments. 

There was a question regarding the money spent on outside counsel, which is significantly different between inside or outside counsel. SA Fox asked for money to hire 16 attorneys (the number that was lost previously). This would allow her to decrease outside counsel and save money. Request is for $945,000 up to $1.3 million for FTE’s.

SA Fox discussed a felony review guidebook for Chicago Police Department with the goal to have consistency with charging. 

Suffredin asked about the revenue generated from civil diversion: Narcotic forfeiture fund (modeled after New York) and the Records automation fund where money comes from the state.  More money is not being generated because they don’t have enough resources.

SA Fox discussed community justice centers for the south and west sides. Idea is to invest resource in prosecutorial engagement. Prosecutor office is involved at the end of the process rather than front end. SA Fox wants more money for resources to put in crime reduction investment and prevention. 

Observer - Laura Davis

Cook County Board Finance Committee - July 24, 2018 
Midyear Budget Hearing - Day 2 - Morning Session

 I arrived right at 9AM for the hearings and there were 2 commissioners present (Suffredin and Morrison) other than Chariman Daley. Seven more arrived by 9:30AM and 3 more by 11AM. Absent for the entire morning session were Commissioners Goslin, Gainer, Butler, and Fritchey.  Commissioner Sims asked everyone the core mission of his or her department and if there was any waste to cut. She did this even when both questions were answered in the original presentation. Commissioner Morrison asked everyone what new taxes they would propose, if any. Most took no stand on this issue.

Board of Review (BoR): I came in just as their presentation was wrapping up, but  I heard all of the questions.

• Their budget is only 1% of the whole county’s budget so any increase in personnel should be considered, according to the 3 BoR Commissioners present (Patlak, Rogers, and Cabonargi).
• Their biggest problem was losing experienced analysts in the past year. They would like 11 new ones.
• Their staff picked up 16,00 extra overtime hours in the past year and were not given more money for this. This was equal to 13 FTE’s.
• Most of the hearing was about community events called workshops in which the tax appeals  process was explained to the public. Many commissioners participated in these events. Also the B of R said it was a good way for staff to see the properties that were being discussed. More appeals are to be expected this year.

The Assessor: This presentation and Q and A session was extremely short. It lasted maybe 15 minutes.

• Assessor Berrios said he would have no trouble keeping within his budget this year due to new technology. This has helped to eliminate positions that became unnecessary.
• Commissioners seemed focused on Senior exemptions and the process that it entails. Ways of simplifying the process were mentioned.

Cook County Health and Hospitals System (CCHHS): A short report was given to each commissioner.

• Dr. Shannon said that no new revenues would be requested this year or for FY 2019. They will live within their budget mainly due to the fact that they now have 330,000 new patients enrolled in County Care (up from 270,000). Most new patients come with Medicaid funds which includes federal reimbursement for now.
• They have been able to solve any deficit spending by renegotiating contracts with vendors.
• Some of their proudest achievements other than the above include getting Cermak hospital out from under its consent decree (this is the jail hospital at Cook County Jail), a technology award for having all patient records electronically filed, and for expanding its charity care (care to those with no insurance at all). 
• In addition, the future looks to be one of 5-6% growth for a number of reasons. They expect more community centered clinics, especially those that deal with dialysis and dental care, and they have taken on the mental health services for kids in the JTDC (juvenile detention).
• They also hope to get to the underlying causes of bad health such as poor diet, housing and lack of job opportunity. He did not say exactly how a health care system would manage those issues, but he is working to obtain grants to study these issues.
• He is working on a better system of bill collection to alleviate previous problems.
• Comm. Boykin asked about the issue of gun violence as a health epidemic and what CCHHS was doing about it. Dr. Shannon listed many solutions. He said that he agreed with the commissioner and cited last weekend’s shooting statistics: 20 of 35 shooting victims were taken to Stroger.
• He said that in the case of a juvenile detainee, CCHHS was linking services he was getting while incarcerated with those out in the community once he was released.
• CCHHS is expanding its care under Mental and Behavioral issues in order to treat the whole person. This would include linking that patient with substance abuse programs and programs for depression or anxiety.
• CCHHS is working with Westside United and Rush Hospital in order to improve health in several west side neighborhoods.

At one point the hearing got a bit controversial as Commissioner Moore asked about a lawsuit against a doctor in a malpractice case. States Attorney Kim Foxx, who was on deck to speak next, answered that this matter was in litigation and could not be discussed in open hearing. Chairman Daley stifled any more conversation on this issue.

State’s Attorney:  Presentation was given by Cook County States Attorney Kim Foxx.

• Ms. Foxx said that this past year has been tough because last summer she missed an entire hiring cycle. Most of her new hires come in the summer after new grads finish law school and the bar exam. She was down in staff since her office did not have enough money to hire last summer. This summer is better and she is trying to live within her current budget.
• In FY 2019 she would like $1.97M more to hire 20 FTE’s.
• On civil cases she needs more experienced lawyers since she represents every county employee who needs defending. The conviction integrity unit has only 5 attorneys and 268 new cases came in this year. Her attorneys have 2-4x the amount of cases recommended by the American Bar Association.
• The SA Office also has attorneys working with the Chicago Police Department (CPD)  on intelligence gathering in the Englewood and Harrison districts in order to solve gun crimes. Training CPD and suburban police chiefs in how to gather evidence can save money if there are less faulty convictions.
• Comm. Suffredin commended her for doing a good job. 
• Ms. Foxx appealed to simple math often. Hiring outside counsel, she said would cost anywhere from $300 to $500 per hour on civil cases. Her attorneys cost about $90 per hour.

The Public Defender (PD): Presentation given by Cook County Public Defender Amy Campanell. She put up a big poster board with her core mission and with a list of some of the duties performed by her office.

• Ms. Campanelli  said that in FY2018 positions that were vacant for a long time were slowly being filled and that she was on target to live within her current budget.
• She wanted more staff in FY 2019  especially to start a mental health unit, but did not give a specific price tag unless asked.  She said that she had asked for this several years in a row . She now had a business plan worked up in which she would use student interns who were psychology or social work majors at local universities to help. Their assistance would be at no cost to the county. Early psych evaluations can also speed up the disposition of many cases. Comm. Deer asked her how much a mental health unit would cost the county. She said that she could do it for a mere $225,000. This would save money at trial since many psych professionals testify at a cost of $500 per hour.
• She also noted that now the PD is on call for arrestees in every police district in Chicago. She even gave out the PD phone number several times. A recent survey of 120 arrestees showed that 22 were released because the arrests should never have happened. This saves the county money. PD’s helped this to happen.
• She has also asked for more grant money to employ social workers and more lawyers to work with detainees awaiting trial who might be in danger of losing custody of their children.

Observer - Jan Goldberg