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

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