Category: Tax Incentives

Cook County Board Approves Ordinance Calling for an End to "Zero Tolerance" Policy of U. S. President

7/5/2018

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Cook County Board of Commissioners Meeting - June 27, 2018

Board decisions:

Commissioner Garcia introduced and the Board unanimously passed Resolution #18-4466 addressing the harmful effects of family and immigrant children detention and calling on the U.S. Attorney General, Congress, and the Executive Branch to rescind the "Zero Tolerance" policy. Seven public speakers, including psychologists and immigration specialists, testified to the harmful effects on children's brains from family separation. The resolution further called on the U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services and Homeland Security to retract their Memorandum of Agreement that allows the Office for Refugee Resettlement to share data on minors and potential sponsors with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and to keep the work of these agencies separate.
The Finance Committee and Board passed Resolution 18-3651 amending the Cook County Medical Examiner's Ordinance to give the agency "discretion" about whether to go to the scene of deaths. According to President Preckwinkle, the Examiner's office would need a yearly budget of $35 million to send an investigator out to all suspicious deaths in Cook County & Chicago. Its current budget is $14 million, and next year's county-wide budget is facing a big shortfall. In response to editorial criticism, the Chief Medical Examiner said that the department knows of no cases in which not going to the scene of a death compromised an investigation.
The Finance Committee and Board passed Resolution 18-4201 which amends Section 74-63 Assessment Classes to allow a municipality or the Cook County Board to declare a property "abandoned" specifically for the CEERM Program [Critical Emergency Employee Retention Modification]. At least 250 positions must be retained in order to obtain this determination of special circumstances. There are several other requirements that must also be met.

Two Good News items:

Commissioner Daley, reported that on Tuesday, June 26, 2018, the U.S. District Court freed Cermak Health Services from an eight-year consent decree. In 2010 the Department of Justice cited "the failure to protect inmates from harm by fellow inmates, inadequate medical and mental health care, and a lack of adequate fire safety and sanitation."
Commissioner Schneider reported that, because of its participation, the County received a check for $1.9 million from a class-action law suit covering faulty flat-panel TV screens. No other information was provided, but kuddos were given to the staff that quickly responded when the opportunity to participate arose.

The following Resolutions were referred to Committee:

18-4552: Request for up to $175 million in sales tax revenue bonds was sent to the Finance Committee.
18-4330: Request to accept over $18 million in three HUD grants was sent to the Workforce Housing and Community Development Committee.
18-4541: Request to set up a small business commission was sent to the Contract Compliance Committee.
18-4528: All commissioners signed on this resolution opposing the reduction of air and water pollution standards in Wisconsin for the proposed Foxconn fabrication plant which will manufacture ICD glass panels and will require the drawing of massive amounts of water from Lake Michigan and the disposal of such into the Des Plains River with concerns about pollution and flooding. Sent to the Legislation and Intergovernmental Relations Committee.
18-4102: Request to approve a ten-year cable franchise agreement with Comcast was sent to the Finance Committee.
18-4461: Request to create a Sheriff's operations state asset forfeiture and money laundering state asset forfeiture funds to allow the county to better track these funds was sent to the Finance Committee.

Items to watch for in the future:

18-4207: Requiring a fiscal impact note for pending legislation was deferred to allow more time for legal review. Commissioners and the Administration both support but need more time.
18-2073: Establishing a Consensus Revenue Forecasting Commission for Cook County was also deferred as it does not have the votes to pass at this time.

Observer - Diane Edmundson Length of Meeting - 2 hours

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Public Testimony on Prevailing Wage Amendment Dominates Cook County Board Meeting

4/3/2018

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Cook County Board of Commissioners Meeting- March 14, 2018

Significant Topics Discussed:

There was over 3 ½ hours of public testimony regarding the Property Tax Incentive – prevailing wage amendment. The Board had passed a requirement that unless expressly waived by the County Board, any Employer occupying a property that receives a property tax incentive for Class 6b industrial property, Class 8 industrial property, or Class 9 multifamily residential property shall pay not less than the Living Wage. The vast majority of those speaking were opposed to the requirement, yet were emphatic in stating that they were not opposed to unions nor to apprenticeship programs, but did not think that this approach to pay equity was viable for regions that compete with other states. The Commissioners discussed the issue and voted 12-4 to delay implementation until September, 2018 but still passed the ordinance. The Board plans to further study the ordinance for possible improvements. (Agenda Item 18 – 1604)
Only one item received significant discussion, the decision to defer Agenda Item 18 – 1277 which would give indemnification to Northwestern University for medical malpractice consequences. Northwestern has received a contract to provide mental health services for minors at the Juvenile Temporary Detention Center. The bulk of the discussion focused on who was at fault for not addressing the issue of indemnification in the original contract, the County or Northwestern. It was voted to defer a decision until legal advice could be provided to the Board. The fact that a decision had been made on February 7, 2018 to put the item on hold until legal language was cleared up, was not addressed.
There was brief, but pointed, discussion of Agenda Item 18 – 2379 that called for representatives from the State’s Attorney’s Office, the Public Defender’s Office, the Chief Judge’s Office, and the Sheriff’s Office to appear before the Criminal Justice Committee to investigate the issue of violent offenders being released on electronic monitoring. There were two public witnesses from the Chicago Community Bond Fund who supported passage and gave evidence of Sheriff Dart’s delay in releasing individuals on electronic monitoring for whom that had been mandated. After the testimony of one of the representatives of the Bond Fund, President Preckwinkle stated that she hoped that the Fund would sue Sheriff Dart for his lack of compliance. The matter was referred to the Criminal Justice Task Force for further consideration.

Significant Decisions Made:

All contracts were passed without discussion.
Approved a collective bargaining agreement for the period of December 1, 2017 through November 30, 2020 between the County of Cook/Sheriff of Cook County and the Fraternal Order of Police for wage increases and healthcare. Effective December 1, entry rate for all job classifications shall be reduced by 10%, and pay rates for all job classifications shall be frozen. All bargaining unit members shall receive a $600 payment upon ratification of the agreement, and receive the same on June 1, 2018. Pay rates for all job classifications shall be increased by 2% June 1, 2019, and June 1, 2020. (Agenda Item 18-2440)I

Items to Watch in the Future:

Given the time constraints, most items were referred to committee for further study and later action.
A call upon Washington D.C. and the State of Illinois to pass comprehensive gun control legislation was referred to the Criminal Justice Committee. (Agenda item 18-2672)
Call to establish a foundation for the benefit of the Sheriff’s office of Cook County was referred to the Finance Committee. The Foundation would focus on providing services and programming to individuals in the custody of the Cook County Department of Corrections and alternative sentencing programs and supporting additional policy initiatives within the Sheriff’s mandate. (Agenda Item 18-2671)
The results of further study of the property tax incentive – living wage amendment will be forthcoming (Agenda Item 18- 1604)
A call on the Illinois General Assembly to create an Indiana border tax and regional economic development strategy was referred to the Legislative Committee. (Agenda Item 18-2648)
Legal counsel regarding the contract with Northwestern University and legal indemnification. (Agenda Item 18-1277)
Follow-up action from Criminal Justice Committee regarding study of electronic monitoring of violent offenders. (Agenda Item 18-2379)

Other Observations:

Since the bulk of the meeting was spent in hearing testimony from the public on the tax-incentive – living wage ordinance, all other items were grouped together and passed without discussion. There were 24 contracts and contract amendments passed, 8 interagency agreements, and 6 reports, all received without comment or discussion.

Observer – Sharon Welch

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Unanimous Approval by Cook County Board for Union Contract with Sheriff's Employees

1/26/2018

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Cook County Board of Commissioners Meetings - January 17, 2018

Meeting Length: Board Meeting 1.5 hours
Board Committee Meetings embedded within, and preceding from 9:15 ending at 3:15pm
Commissioners Absent: Butler
Significant Decisions Made:
Board Meeting:

Velisha Haddox of Human Resources announced a labor agreement with the majority of Cook County Sheriff employees’ union. It involves a 2% increase in pay in the first two years with no increases in later years and a larger co-pay for healthcare by the employees.
The Sheriff has not signed the agreement - his representative said management’s issue was over absenteeism, not over the economics of the union agreement.
All the commissioners commended Velisha Haddox on a good job negotiating the contract and the agreement was approved unanimously, as their vote was purely on the economics of the contract.

Significant Topics Discussed

Finance Committee:

Meeting with the Cook County Assessor was deferred as he did not attend.
The Cook County Health and Hospital System (CCHHS) presented the methodology for accounts receivables collection. Although there were $426 million in receivables for 2017, the real amount that is collectable is closer to $90 million. There are 315 people in the Receivables department and 15 in Payables. Commissioner Deere asked if they sent collectables out to a third party agency. Commissioner Gainer suggested that CCHHS needed to be careful choosing the right collection agency to not over-squeeze the people who couldn’t pay.

Business and Economic Development Committee:

Mike Jasso, Chief of Economic Development Bureau is currently completely revising the tax incentive rules for Cook County so there will no longer be a need in the future for the Board to vote on exceptions, waivers and amendments for tax incentives.
Cook County needs uniform tax incentives to compete with the surrounding four lower cost counties.
Agenda Item Item 1799-77 suspends affidavits for two years while the county does a complete upgrade on tax incentives. Industrial properties still must pay the Cook County living wage, but they need not submit the paperwork each year to prove it. Retail and commercial spaces are not required to pay the living wage.

Homeland Security Committee:

Com. Schneider presiding, will have the Court Utilization Study completed by May 2018. There are 333 courtrooms in Cook County but there has been a 48.9% decline in usage, with Civil hearings down 34%, criminal hearings down, 57%. Downsizing must occur in a rational, informed manner.
There is a new Chief of Cook County Homeland Security, Bill Barnes. This office and its operation appears well-funded by Federal grant monies for training, Narcan purchases, and personnel.
Commissioners Suffredin and Sims want to make sure there is sufficient coordination with local agencies including the Forest Preserve, municipalities, and the Sheriff.

Other Observations: There were two public speakers in addition to George Blakemore.

Mark Armstrong of the Fine Arts Council spoke about the need for easier to understand budget to present to citizens so they could better critique it.
Val Zimnicki, Director of Outreach for Taxpayers United spoke at the Finance Committee about the need to reform Cook County pensions to address the $1.7Billion pension deficit for 22,000 Cook County workers, and stated that 80% of Cook County tax bills go to sustaining pensions. He suggested one change in policy could be a switch to 401K programs for new hires at Cook County.

Observer – Amy Little

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Marijuana Referendum, Sexual Harassment Policy, Public Testimony Decorum Passed Unanimously at County Board Meeting

12/18/2017

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Cook County Board of Commissioners Committees and Board Meeting
December 13, 2017

Meeting Length: Committees—3 hours 40 minutes, Board meeting—1 hour 40 minutes
Commissioners Absent: Butler, Schneider, Silvestri

Significant Decisions Made:

An advisory referendum on whether the State of Illinois should legalize, regulate and tax recreational marijuana for adults 21 and over will now be on the March, 2018 Cook County primary ballot for voters to weigh in. Because this is only advisory to the state government, any marijuana laws would still need to be passed by the Legislature. Several commissioners voted for this to allow voter input, even though they personally may be against recreational marijuana use. (Agenda Item 17-6208)
An ordinance amendment to require sexual harassment prevention training of all Cook County employees and appointed officials was passed. (Agenda Item 17-6302)
An amendment to the rules covering public testimony requiring order and decorum of speakers along with repercussions if public speakers do not act appropriately was passed. (Agenda Item 17-6195)

Significant Topics Discussed and/or referred to committee:
Technology reports presented updates and progress on various technology projects.

The Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) project on time and attendance has seen time card problems rectified and is now tracking leave cases (FMLA) which number 11,000 cases by computer. With regard to invoices and purchasing, there are now quicker payments made. (Agenda Item 17-6014)
The Automated Criminal Justice (BUS) System still requires more money and integration to be effective. CIO Rollinson stated the current plan “is not sustainable.” The Public Defender’s office has been on this since September; the Clerk and Sheriff (E-minimus system) are to go on-line December 18. Reminder calls of court dates to released defendants are now being made with text reminders to go into effect in January, 2018. There is better control now of which defendants should be released or not. (Agenda Item 17-6095)
The Clerk of the Court Case Management system through Tyler Technologies is progressing as well as the Integrated Property Tax and Mass Appraisal System through the same company. With some dissent, a new contract with Clarity Partners to maintain these projects was passed.

Health and Hospital System (CCHHS) presentation:

Doug Elwell, CFO for CCHHS, was grilled on why only very few procurement contracts were with minority (African-American) companies—0% prime contracts and 2% secondary. Overall MWBE contracts are 20% at HHS. $165 millions per year is spent by CCHHS on procurement. Brought up was that very few minority firms were certified for medical supplies; compliance requirements are handled by the County, not CCHHS; and the CC Board did not want to pay for a “diversity company” to find and help more minority businesses be certified—this should be done within the current CCHHS staffing.
Secondly, Elwell was questioned on why CCHHS was so behind on paying firms for services and goods. A few payments were up to a year behind, with many 60-90 days late. Elwell stated that the new ERP system had problems and the staff was not very good at adapting to it. There were many errors in the bill-paying process.
The CC Board requested (Agenda Item 18-1139)—referred to Finance Committee— that the entire HHS Board come before it and answer these questions at the January, 17, 2018 Board meeting.

Juvenile Temporary Detention Center (JTDC) administrator Steve Smith requested another contract extension (Agenda Item 18-0877) to re-hire 30 private security personnel. This is about the 10th extension of this contract since 2008. Concern was expressed by the Board that this was not going out to bid and that late bidding requests came too often. The JTDC has 679 staff which is 2 1/2 staff per juvenile defendant. There are critical staffing issues at JTDC: high absence rate due to almost 40% of staff on FMLA (18% being absent everyday and 21% intermittent absence).

Unexpected Votes and Items to watch for in the Future:

Agenda Item 17-6196 calling for a Court Utilization Study—under Asset Management—(Schneider) was deferred.
Two seemingly routine property tax incentives were passed but with dissenting votes due to there not being a requirement of prevailing wage for the business. (Agenda Items 17-6085 and 17-6106)
An ordinance amendment supported by realtors and business developers was deferred for future discussion. (Agenda Item 17-9977) Referred to the Business and Economic Development committee.
A requirement of Assessor Berrios to appear before the Board to answer tax assessment issues was referred to the Finance Committee (Agenda Item 18-1081)

Other Observations:

There seems to be a significant increase in Board member research on and questioning of various departments and elected officials.
Even though there has been “significant progress”—Fritchey, technology issues remain for many departments and elected offices. This holds up efficiency, accuracy, and communication among departments and offices.

Observer - Karin Hribar

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Cook County Board Approves New Procedure for Public Comment at Meetings

7/27/2017

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Cook County Board of Commissioners Meeting – July 19, 2017

Significant Decisions Made:

A proposal by Commissioner Garcia to prohibit law firms handling property assessment appeals from contributing to election funds for any candidate for Assessor was referred to the Finance Committee. (Agenda Item 17-4188)
Passage of the new witness slip ordinance - Authorization to speak will only be granted to individuals who have submitted in writing their name, address, subject matter, etc. 24 hours in advance of the meeting. (Agenda Item 17-3293) Commissioner Suffredin publicly thanked the League of Women Voters and the Better Government Association for their support of this amendment to the rules of organization.
After extensive discussion and testimony of twenty south suburban mayors and presidents, seeking repeal of a requirement that all contractors working on Class 8 projects have a certified U. S. Department of Labor Apprenticeship Program, the revised ordinance passed with a 9 to 6 vote. The communities promised to work with the Board to revise the issue. (Agenda Item 17-4339)
An amendment to the Cook County Property Tax Assessment Classes returning small Bed & Breakfasts with no more than six rooms to Class 212. Two years ago the Assessor’s office had changed their classification to Commercial which dramatically increased their property taxes. Testimony indicated that owners live in all of the affected B&Bs as their personal homes. (Agenda Item 17-3303)

Significant topics discussed:

The Comptroller and his staff reported on some of the finances of the County. Sales tax receipts are down about $5m from projections and not likely to be recouped. This was attributed to online sales. The Clerk of the Court receipts are down about $1.4m due to a decrease in the number of tickets issued.
Comm. Boykin questioned Dr. Shannon, Cook County Health and Hospitals CEO, about increased costs to Stroger Hospital because of all the murders and gun violence. This was followed by a discussion of how Dr. Shannon made the ten percent cuts to his budget as ordered by President Preckwinkle. He indicated he cut 3 physicians, 21 nurses, and also cut contract usage and other related actions. He indicated that he had vacancies in other areas of the hospital and most of the laid off staff would be able to find other positions. This led to a discussion of vacant, funded positions that he still can use, and Commissioner Boykin questioning if all vacant position in the county are eliminated and all hiring is frozen “is there a need for a layoff”. The discussion ended there.
There was also a discussion questioning if the Comptroller’s staff still has to drive to Springfield to pick up the multi-million dollar checks from the State. He answered Yes, but they are still trying to achieve electronic transfer and eliminate the driving.

Other observations:

The meeting lasted until 6:30 p.m. This observer left at four p.m. The actual Board Meeting with the pledge and prayer began about two thirty in the afternoon having been preceded by several committee meetings. It was a “survival of the fittest" meeting.

Observer - Syvia Tillman Meeting lasted: 9:30 a.m. until after 6:30 p.m.

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Impending Real Estate Delinquent Tax Sale Brings Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. to Cook County Board Meeting

3/23/2017

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Cook County Board of Commissioners Board Meeting - March 22, 2017

Significant Issue Discussed:

Real Estate Delinquent Tax Sale - Commissioners Gainer, Boykin, and Garcia along with Treasurer Maria Pappas brought the issue to Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr., who spoke at the CC Board meeting. He asked all commissioners to inform their constituents about Real Estate Tax Delinquency buyers:

50,000 Cook County citizens are in arrears on property taxes, of which 7,000 have never received the seven notices Treasurer Pappas has mailed them concerning their property’s impending tax sale.
The date for the sale has been moved up by the IL legislature from July to April 3.
Comm. Gainer says that tax delinquency buyers provide no service to Cook County and make between $25 million to $50 million each year, preying mostly on elderly home owners who must pay up to 18% interest on “loans” from these contract buyers, when loans from legitimate banks cost 4%.
Gainer claims most of this activity occurs in neighborhoods like Chatham, Gresham, and other parts of the city, where homeowners are able to scrape together money to pay off these “loans”. These tax buyers ignore much poorer parts of Cook County where they would end up owning the properties and the tax bills.
Both Republican and Democratic commissioners were upset with the practice and claim the reason it passed the legislature were strong lobbyists who profit from the practice.

Other items of interest discussed:

Cook County Health and Hospitals System (CCHHS)

The CC board is worried about CCHHS making its budget.
County Care enrollment is down for Affordable Care Act (ACA) adults, who tend to be more transient and not as involved in community services as families and women. More of these adult ACA enrollees have difficulty with mental illness and permanent addresses.
The proposed Trump healthcare overhaul requiring renewal of Medicaid every six months would most likely double the fall-off of enrollees. Dr. Jay Shannon projected there would be a smaller number of Medicaid plans operating in IL after this year.
In response to questions about poorly-rated dialysis treatment at County hospital, Dr. Shannon said they were investing in better equipment and a different model which relies on technicians rather than RNs for staffing. Stroger has recently hired 35 new nurses. Overtime costs are quite high in the Dialysis area due to “no-shows” and sick calls particularly for the night shift.

6B Tax Incentive

There was long discussion about revamping the “6B Tax Incentive” recommended by Cook County’s Dept of Economic Development. Michael Jasso, head of Econ. Development, has been working for 15 months on revamping the 6B designation to make revocation a possibility, and pushing responsibility down to the individual municipalities. (Agenda Item 17-0293)
The 6B Tax Incentive allows Cook County to compete with collar counties for jobs by equalizing tax rates. Without the 6B Incentive most employers would choose to locate outside of Cook County.
In the end the ordinance was passed with only Com. Schneider voting against.

Observer - Amy Little

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Cook County Board Approves Ordinance Calling for an End to "Zero Tolerance" Policy of U. S. President

Public Testimony on Prevailing Wage Amendment Dominates Cook County Board Meeting

Unanimous Approval by Cook County Board for Union Contract with Sheriff's Employees

Marijuana Referendum, Sexual Harassment Policy, Public Testimony Decorum Passed Unanimously at County Board Meeting

Cook County Board Approves New Procedure for Public Comment at Meetings

Impending Real Estate Delinquent Tax Sale Brings Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. to Cook County Board Meeting

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