Cook County Board Finance Committee Mid Year Budget Hearings
July 20, 2021
Presentations - Cook County State’s Attorney, County Clerk, and Board of Review

Cook County State’s Attorney, Kimberly Fox

• Currently under budget by $4.7 M for 2021.  Has 109 vacancies (50 of which are attorneys) out of the budgeted positions of 1,241.
• Ms. Fox reviewed the office’s progress on the alternative prosecution program, the gun crime strategies unit and how they dealt with the pandemic.  The trial work will increase substantially now that the courts are opening.
• The commissioners’ questions focused on the current crime problems.   Commissioner Deer asked how much do mental health issues contribute.   Ms. Fox said a good proportion of the people arrested are dealing with mental health issues.   She would like to see more local sources for help such as the local mental health clinics that were closed several years ago.   
• Commissioner Aguilar asked about recent reports about repeat offenders being on bond and involved in shootings.   Ms. Fox explained how the bail process works and how it is the judge’s decision.   She said that the elimination of cash bail will help the problem, because many repeat offenders have enough money for bail.   
• Commissioner Degnen asked if the video hearings would continue for gender-based violence hearings.   The victims feel safer in that mode.   Ms. Fox said they were reviewing that.
• Commissioner Kevin Morrison asked about the attrition in the department.   There has been an uptick in retirements and other attrition.   They are getting applicants, but most are recent graduates.   Ms. Fox said they are also working on maintaining a level of expertise by recruiting experienced prosecutors from outside.  Commissioner Daley asked Ms. Fox to let the Commissioners know what they could do to help with HR recruiting and onboarding new staff.
• Commissioner Sims asked what would Ms. Fox wish for in the next budget.   She would like to have a full complement of employees for the criminal court, increased staff in the wrongful conviction unit and civil court, and improve the department’s technology in remote access and integration of data.   She would  like to expand the gun crime unit into the suburbs. It would help her attorneys if the court rooms had more up to date technology.
• Commissioner Sean Morrison asked if the department kept statistics on citizenship of offenders.   They do not.   The department has developed a Data Dashboard to track cases and they have most of the information on the felony cases captured.  The dashboard can be viewed on the office’s website.

Cook County Clerk’s Office, presented by Chief Deputy Clerk Cedric Giles

• Mr. Giles described the work that was done to incorporate the Recorder of Deeds office into the Clerk’s.   When they took over, there was an 800,000-document backlog.  Now there is only a 7 day’s delay in recording documents. The office worked with a third party on indexing.   He also reviewed the work on the spring election and gave statistics on the increase in vote by mail ( 487%) and early voting (20%) from the 2019 election. 
• Commissioner Degnen noted that the Clerk’s office  is above on revenue due to the housing market increase.   A staff person from the Clerk’s finance office said they are below on expenses.

Board of Review, presented by Commissioner Larry Rogers, with Commissioners Michael Cabonargi and Tammy Wendt  

• Currently is under budget by $284,941.
• Over the last 6 months, the BoR has handled 223,000 appeals.  They received appeals between October and December and finished by June 21.   They instituted a digital approval process.   They have BOR staff attend the PTAB (the state agency where tax payers appeal assessments) meetings to object to the further appeals.   They saved local taxing bodies $138 M in refunds as a result in successfully defending the County’s assessments at PTAB.
• The BOR generated $80,000 in revenue from a “Data Subscription Service” provided to high volume users at the BOR. The product is a compiled data package of BOR appeal decisions which allows users to digitally organize their filings and results.
• Commissioner Rogers addressed the reported alleged bribery scheme of a BOR employee.   The employee has been placed on administrative leave and the BoR has contracted with outside counsel to investigate.  Commissioner Rogers and Cabonargi stated that this person was an exception and that most of the BOR employees are hard workers.    Both stated that the employee had not been selected by any commissioner for their  staff.   He had been employed since 1995 and had been cross-trained on the appeals process.
• Commissioner Daley mentioned that the BOR needed to respond to the IG report.

Observed by Kathleen Graffam

Cook County Board of Commissioners Meeting
May 13, 2021
Attendance: all 17 commissioners were present. Meeting led by President Preckwinkle
Public Speakers

• Congressman Robin Kelly spoke to the board about President Biden’s efforts to fight gun violence. He is proposing $5 Billion to fund community-based violence prevention programs. It includes job training and job opportunities.  The Justice Department would report on gun trafficking and  would establish model red flag laws for the states to use.   She also discussed separate bills that she is working on to fund community programs. She and other Congressmen have written to the Appropriations Committee to increase funding for these community- based initiatives.  Several commissioners spoke in support of these efforts.   Commissioner Lowry wants to work on a high school program on teaching conflict resolution.  Commissioner Daley said that he was proud of Cook County’s investment in violence prevention projects in minority areas. The Judicial Advisory Council receives quarterly reports on the outcomes of the investments. 
• There were two resolutions connected to gun violence.
• Commissioner Deer spoke in support of his resolution 21-2664 declaring gun violence a public health crisis. This was later approved
• 21-3157  A resolution supporting the Biden Harris Administration Gun Violence Prevention Plan.   Approved.
• Jacky Glass of Hargrove Hospital spoke in support of resolution 21-3123 recognizing May as Mental Health Awareness month. This resolution was approved.

Board Action 

• 21-2034  Inspector General’s report for first quarter 2021. There was no discussion.  It was received and filed. 
• 21-2894   Changes the  County Board meeting date from Sept 16 to Sept. 23.  Changes  the Rules and Finance Committees meetings from Sept 15 to Sept 22.  Approved.
• 21-3092   Report from the CFO on expenditures related to Coronavirus Relief Funds, the Federal Emergency Management Agency Public Assistance Grant, and Emergency Rental Assistance from March 1, 2020 through March 30, 2021.  There was no discussion.  It was received and filed.
• 21-3130  Ordinance amendment to add the Special State’s Attorneys’ reports to be submitted to the Litigation Subcommittee.   It provides that the State’s Attorney and Special State’s Attorney provide prior notice and justification to the Litigation Subcommittee prior to settling any matter in excess of $500,000.   They also must provide advance notice of any matter that they anticipate will be settling in excess of $500,000. Referred to the Finance Committee.
• 21-3131  Kevin Morrison  proposed the Cook County Information Technology Reporting Ordinance.  It requires that all separately elected officials funded by Cook County have to submit reports on IT projects. The purpose of the ordinance is to streamline IT reporting and to ensure regular updates on projects.   Referred to Technology and Innovation Committee
• 21=3145  Cook County’s Proclamation of Disaster was extended through June30.   There was no discussion, but Commissioners Degnen and Sean Morrison voted no.   
• 21-3149  Proposed resolution requesting a hearing into the policies and practices of the County and Forest Preserve to  protect the civil rights of immigrants,  BIPOC residents, and visitors within  Cook County.  This was referred to the Legislation and Intergovernmental Relations Committee.
• 21-3166   Proposed resolution for a racially equitable and thriving recovery, by investing the County’s allocation of the American Rescue Plan funding in public services in Black, Brown, and poor communities not administered by law enforcement.   Referred to the Finance Committee.  
• 21-3168  Authorizes the Bureau of Economic Development to enter into a grant agreement with the Friends of the Forest Preserve to support the COVID-19 Youth Conservation Corps summer employment program.  Approved.
• 21-3171  Proposed ordinance for COVID-19 vaccination rights for employees and employer obligations.   Provides that employees have the right to be vaccinated during work hours and employers cannot retaliate against them.     Referred to Legislation and Intergovernmental Relations Committee.

Other Items

• 21-2307  Approval of contract extension for the demolition of Division 1 at the jail.  Commissioner Miller questioned why there was an  extension.   Commissioner Anaya asked for the pause in the work because the residents of the Little Village neighborhood had concerns over the demolition.  The County held community meetings on how the process would work and installed air monitoring equipment. Commissioner Kevin Morrison asked  about preserving some of the historical pieces from the jail such as parts of the edifice and parts of Al Capone’s cell.  The County Archive managers is checking with the Chicago History Museum and others to see if they have any interest in such pieces.  Secretary De Leon said they were considering preserving a cell for historical context but they would need to find a place for it.
• 21-2555 Audit Grant Management Process Report Period March 2021. No discussion. Concurrence with report.  
  

Observed by: Kathi Graffam                      Meeting Length: 10am until 12:40 PM

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