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RTA, CTA, Metra and Pace present budgets to Cook County Board Transportation Committee

11/21/2020

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Cook County Board Committee Meetings - November 18, 2020
9:30 am to 1:15 pm


Items of interest: 

Transportation Committee
RTA, CTA, Metra, and Pace presented their annual budgets for fiscal year 2021 to the Cook County Board of Commissioners. RTA and the three service Boards CTA, Metra, and Pace presented their budgets as required per statue. (20-4646).  
  • Presenters reported that this year has been a challenging year for transportation, due to COVID-19 and the stay-at-home order. There has been a 70% decrease in ridership in all public transportation. Loss of revenue because of decrease in ridership and the extra cost of providing extra sanitizing to trains and buses which  was expensive. There is currently a $500M shortfall.  All stated that transportation is critical especially during this time for Chicago and suburban areas. RTA and the other transit agencies have received some money from the federal government through Federal CARES Act and hope to receive more. To view the RTA Budget, go to www.rtachicago.org and you can go to the CTA, Metra and Pace websites. 
  • Commissioners commended the RTA, CTA, Metra and Pace for all of their hard work to make transportation run as smoothly as possible during these challenging times. Commissioners asked few questions about the budget but voiced concerns from their constituents about using the transportation system.  

Rules Committee:
  • Proposed Ordinance Amendment Juneteenth recognized as a Cook County Holiday (Agenda Item 20-3460). This item was deferred back to the Rules committee as Commissioner Deer was unable to attend the meeting today (an excused absence). Commissioner Daley did not state when it would be back on the agenda.


Technology Committee:
  • Thomas Lynch, Chief Information Officer Bureau of Technology gave two reports the Semi-Annual Report and IT Major Projects Report (Agenda Items 20-4380 and 20-4679).  Mr. Lynch reported that with IT Major Projects there are four current projects: (1) Unified Communication, (2) Tyler IS World- online appeals for assessor, (3) Justice Exchange, and (4) Integrated Revenue Tax System. 
  • Commissioner Sean Morrison wanted to make it clear that they needed full cooperation  from all elected officials especially from the Cook County Clerk of the Circuit Court, Chief Judge and Sheriff’s office with the Bureau of Technology.  Commissioner S. Morrison stated that this has been an issue for a while, and it needs to be dealt with. 
Observer - Nancy Marcus
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Cook County Board Makes Changes to Consent Calendar Meetings

5/29/2019

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Cook County Board of Commissioners Meeting - May 23, 2019
                     
Commissioners Absent - Silvestri and Gainer
What did the Board Decide:
  • The Board approved several changes to the Consent Calendar meetings of the Board including changing the time of the meeting from 9am to 1pm on the scheduled days for the remainder of 2019: allowing each Commissioner and the President to recognize up to two resolutions which will be summarized and not read in their entirety during the meeting - additional resolutions will be entered into the record; and photos will be taken prior to the meeting whenever possible. It is hoped that these changes will allow for more timely honoring of individuals and groups during the meeting and allowing for better scheduling of the other committee meetings.  (Agenda Items 19-3601 and 19-3604)
  • The Board approved an ordinance creating the Good Faith Effort Transparency Reporting that will require more accurate documentation of reasons that contractors or others doing business with the County get waivers from complying with the MBE and WBE requirements in a contract. (Agenda Item 19-2297)
  • The Board approved a resolution urging the Illinois Legislature to support HB2495, the Reproductive Health Act. (Agenda Item 19-3758)
  • The Board approved two Professional Services contract extensions with consultants to the Juvenile Temporary Detention Center. Questions were raised concerning why these sole source contracts were being renewed. A scope of work was requested for these contracts. (Agenda Items 19-3413 and 19-3458)
  • The Complete Count Census Commission was approved to educate the community about the need for participation in the upcoming Census. (Agenda Item 19-3176) Members of the Commission were also appointed..
  • An ordinance urging the Illinois Congressional Delegation to support HR96, Veteran’s Dental Care, was referred to the Veterans Committee.

Other Items of Interest

  • The meeting began with 16 public speakers - several speaking in favor of the Good Faith Effort Transparency Reporting ordinance and several others speaking in favor of the ordinance supporting the Reproductive Health Act.
  • Assessor Kaegi presented the Practices and Procedures Audit of the Cook County Assessor’s Office  - a report from the audit done on his office by the International Association of Assessing Officers (IAAO). The main findings in the report for modernizing the office were summarized by representatives from the audit group and presented in four critical areas.
  1. Staffing and staff development - the office has about 1/4 of the staff necessary to carry out the work necessary.
  2. Adapt Technology - with technology integrated into the GIS info they can increase the rate of assessments and can use technology to offset their personnel shortage.
  3.  Data Quality - at present data quality is poor but with more staff and upgraded technology data should improve.
  4. Evaluation Methods - can improve methods with improved data quality that will demystify their assessment process.
The report was received and filed and can be found HERE at the Cook County Assessors Website.
Observer - Cynthia Schilsky       Meeting Length: 2 and 1/2 hours

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Cook County Board Holds First Ever Mid-Year Budget Hearings

7/27/2018

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Cook County Board Finance Committee - July 23, 2018 
Mid-Year Budget Hearings  

The Finance Committee held Mid-Year Budget Hearings in connection with the Preliminary Budget Forecast for fiscal year 2019, Item 18-4447, beginning on July 23 to meet with all areas of County government.  This is the first time such a process has been conducted.  During the opening public comment period, the League of Women Voters of Cook County commended the Committee, noting that during last year’s meetings on the 2018 budget, a number of ideas to reduce costs were proposed, but there was not enough time to explore these ideas in order for them to be implemented during 2018.  The League expressed its hope that having these mid-year hearings would allow time for any such ideas to be put forward and properly considered for the 2019 budget.  The League also
  • Said it looked forward to the follow-up from last year’s ideas, such as the court utilization study and the report from the Chief Information Officer on opportunities to consolidate and centralize information technology
  • Urged that the Commissioners do all they can to see that on-going Shakman court-ordered oversight be concluded in the offices of the County, Assessor, Recorder of Deeds, and Clerk of the Court

Highlights from the hearings:
  • Chief Financial Officer Ammar Rizki and Budget Director Tanya Anthony
    • Recapped the 2018 $5.2 billion budget
    • Provided the preliminary 2018 year-end projections that there would be a $600,000 surplus in the total Operating Funds
    • Presented the 2019 preliminary budget forecast which has a projected $81.8 million deficit; the Budget Department will be working with all the departments to close that gap, which is the smallest projected deficit over the past 9 years
    • Departments have been asked to submit proposed 2019 budgets no greater than 2% over 2018
  • Comm. Gainer and Morrison both questioned the proposal to decrease the County’s supplemental (over and above the statutory limit) contribution to the pension funds in 2019.  The Pension Board has asked for less, but Comm. Morrison in particular asked whether it would not be better to keep the payment at the same level which would either allow full funding to be achieved sooner or make up for any future reduced payments necessitated by a fall in sales tax receipts (the source of these supplemental payments).
  • County Clerk David Orr expressed his disappointment that his office’s proposal to purchase new voting equipment was not on the agenda for the Board meeting on July 25.  He said that the office wanted to purchase this equipment as soon as possible to allow sufficient testing prior to its use during the 2020 primary and general elections.  Clerk Orr stated that the vendor selected had the best equipment and lowest bid, along with a good reputation.  
  • Representatives of Sheriff Dart said that the reduction in the jail population has resulted in reduced overtime costs, and the Sheriff expects to have $100,000 less in expenditures than budgeted for 2018.  Labor costs for 2019 will exceed 2018 by $10 million due to Board approved labor contracts, but the Sheriff will look to reduce the impact through less overtime, streamlining the records division, and delaying hiring.
  • Comm. Deere asked the Sheriff to consider whether his area could partner with the Probation Department (under the Chief Judge) in such a way that both costs and recidivism could be reduced.

Priscilla Mims, observer
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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 Treasurer Demonstrates Value of Technology and Offers to Show Others

11/2/2017

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Cook County Board of Commissioners Finance Committee - Departmental Budget Hearings
October 30, 2017  (afternoon sessions that started at 1 pm)

Recorder of Deeds
Treasurer
 

Commissioners absent for all or most of the meetings:  Arroyo, Butler, Fritchey (watching from home), Goslin, Moody
Commissioners present:  Boykin, Daley, Deer, Gainer, Garcia, Moore (arrived 1:50), Morrison, Schneider, Silvestri, Sims, Suffredin (arrived 2:55), Tobolski (there for Treasurer)


Items of Interest:
  • Treasurer Maria Pappas provided the Commissioners with a BOOKLET full of information showing the value that has been realized by all the automation projects in her office since 1998 when she was first elected Treasurer:
    • Improved services
    • Fewer employees
    • Reduced Costs 
  • In addition, the booklet contains comparisons of 1998 to 2018 of
    • Salaries of grades 11 thru 23 after the “cost of living adjustments (COLAs)” given by the County to employees.  The increase has been 116%.  P. 73.
    • The list of the percentage COLAs actually given.  P. 74
    • The value of fringe benefits:  $7,955 in 1998 and $22,198 in 2018, a 179% increase in the average cost.  (The average salary in her department for 2018 is $67,000 in response to a question by Comm. Schneider.)  The majority of the 2018 benefit costs are for medical (excluding dental) of $12, 526 and for pension of $7,578.
  • The Treasurer was making the point that salaries and benefits for Cook County employees have gone up tremendously over the years, which the County Board has approved through its votes.  However, there was no information as to how employees in other governmental entities or in the private sector compare or how the COLAs compare to the increase in the Consumer Price Index.  
    • Comm. Morrison stated that his office has calculated an average COLA of 3% each year since 2000, while the growth in average household income for that period was 2.2%.  His office calculates that if the County had held salary growth to the average nationwide, it would have saved the County $1.22 billion.  
    • Another point the Treasurer made was that by 2022, if salaries and benefits continue to rise as they have, her office, which currently provides the County more revenues than it costs, will no longer have such a surplus.
  • Treasurer Pappas also discussed the negatives to the County and property owners resulting from moving the sales of property for unpaid taxes (the “tax sale”) from 13 months after the taxes became past due to 9 months.  The County loses $6 million each month, or $36 million per the Treasurer.  The Treasurer highlighted how many of the tax sales are because of unpaid taxes of less than $1,000.  The Treasurer has done a lot of outreach to notify property owners of the impending sale, and, in 2017 the number of tax sales was the lowest since the automation of the sale 10 years ago.  Comm. Boykin is working on creating a loan program for these property owners who owe so little so they can avoid having their property sold.
  • Treasurer Pappas said that her office was going to start holding seminars every two weeks for other departments to learn how that office has utilized technology to achieve such positive results.
  • Both the Treasurer and the Recorder have more than met the request for a 10% cut (or equivalent through an increase in revenues).
  • Upon questioning by Comm. Boykin, Recorder Karen Yarbrough stated that she did not feel merging her human resources (4 employees) or information technology (5 employees) with those of the County would result in much of a savings.  
  • Recorder Yarbrough said that she and Clerk Orr have thus far had only 1 meeting about the merger of the Recorder of Deeds and the County Clerk offices in 2020,  but sees no reason why the merger should not be smooth, and she expects that most of it will in effect be done prior to the 2020 date.  However, she questions whether the projected savings of $1 million/year will be realized.
  • As a result of a complaint prior to Recorder Yarbrough being elected in 2012, the office is under court oversight to come into compliance with the Shakman case, which prohibits either favoritism or penalties for political reasons.  The Recorder said she hopes the office will be found in compliance, and out from under court oversight, in 2018.

Observer - Priscilla Mims

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​CCHHS PUSHED TO SAVE ALL COMMUNITIES FROM VIOLENCE

4/14/2017

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Cook County Board of Commissioners Board Meeting - April 12, 2017

At the end of the Finance Committee that preceded the Board Meeting, a report from the Cook County Health and Hospitals System (CCHHS) CFO stated that the state owes $45 million to the county for FY16.  There is a match that the county makes to the state that is required to meet the federal match and CCHHS makes expedited payments to the state in order to get the money back from the federal government. The money is actually driven down by the CFO and hand delivered to the state office in order to prevent the continued delay from the state regarding not yet receiving the match money from the county!  

Comm. Boykin asked Dr. Jay Shannon, CCHHS CEO, to explain the status of the gun violence reduction study being done by CCHHS.  Dr. Shannon said that the study continues, but preliminary results show major stresses on families and communities are similar to the stresses that researchers are finding with children in Syria!  Trauma Informed Care is showing that the trauma of living in a continued state of stress leads to chronic behavioral problems and ultimately to physical disease.  He described it as a cascading problem.  CCHHS is targeting community based care which will offer social and mental health support in the affected communities. The goal is for CCHHS to get into the community,  and better results will occur.  Comm. Steele suggested looking at mental health awareness.  Comm. Sims then offered her own experience of visiting with families and educating families about resources available.  Dr. Shannon explained that almost anything can be accomplished if the resources are available. Comm. Sims then said that she thought they all would agree to find a way and she suggested that the Dept of Human Services should take the lead. There are other models in the country where communities have put through referendums to tax the affected community in order to financially support the needed services. 

During Public Comment two women from the violence impacted communities provided emotional testimony and one stated that she was with the Warriors on the Watch. They described needed services and support for neighborhoods filled with liquor stores and abandoned houses. They expressed anger about guns and gangs and kids dying in the street. They asked for work “in our communities, so we don’t have to duck and die."  One called out Comm. Sims and said she is in the suburbs, not the west side.  Both were verbally supported by comments from Mr. George Blakemore.

Significant Issues Discussed and/or Action Taken:
  • The Administrative Office of IL Courts (AOIC) is paying the county for probation officers (including juvenile), but slowly. Cook County is owed over $30 million and  the costs are about $3.7 million/month. 
  • There was discussion from the interim director of Homeland Security (the last director was removed by Preckwinkle in November), regarding a grant from federal Homeland Security. Comm. Suffredin questioned the rules and budgeting of the grant.  He referred to a grant from last year, poorly managed, that resulted in the county having to come up with a significant amount of money to make the grant whole.  Homeland Security will monitor the new grant closely and will supply quarterly reports.
  • Monitoring of the merger of the offices of the County Clerk/Recorder of Deeds was moved to the legislative committee. 
  • Comm. Boykin’s resolution urging suburban-neighborhood innovation partnerships  is being expanded and will be reintroduced next month. (Agenda Item 17-2736)
  • John Yonan, Superintendent, Dept of Transportation and Highways, answered questions from Comm. Suffredin regarding the request for $1,120,000 for 1.1 miles of road in Palatine that divides the oldest Forest Preserve in Cook County.  As the original request dates back to 7/12/2005, Superintendent Yonan explained that the bid includes an environmental and engineering study, which were never done. As I live within 5 miles of this forest preserve and understand the sensitivity of the area, I was very interested in the discussion.  The forest preserve is in Comm. Goslin’s district. He asked no questions.
  • Approved a contract request from the Public Defender for the Safer Foundation that provides confirmation reports to judges that defendants are safe to be released.  Safer Foundation verifies information regarding defendants with low bonds and gives confidence to the judges. This is in collaboration with the MacArthur Foundation, the Justice Advisory Council and the Public Defender Office, to provide services for individuals with low bonds who have remained in jail for extended periods due to failure to post bond.
  • Approved as substituted the $36m technology contract for Office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County - Dorothy Brown’s office - that includes money for outside oversight of the contract. 
 
Observer - Laura Davis                                                              Meeting:   9:45 to 12:45
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