Consent Agenda Rules Changed by Cook County Board

Cook County Board of Commissioners
Committee Meetings 
February 5, 2025
Rules and Administration Committee
The Committee approved 2 amendments to their rules concerning the Consent Agenda aspect of their meetings. 

• The first amendment requires that the Consent Agenda be limited to 60 minutes and will be held prior to the regular board meeting. It will be separately noticed. (Agenda Item 25-0984) 
• The second amendment established the dates and times for the meetings to be held at 9am the same day as the regular board meeting. (Agenda Item 25-0986)

Commissioner comments: 

• Comm. Britton stated this would be a more efficient use of their time and while it is important to recognize people/groups perhaps doing it in district should be more frequently considered. 
• Comm. Miller wanted to know what other bodies restricted their Consent Agenda and Comm. Scott stated that the Chicago Board limits oral recognition to 3 at their meetings and has done so for several years. 
• Comm. Miller and Degnan were concerned about the process - how ordinances would be prioritized and who decides that. 
• Comm. Stamps and Anaya wanted to know how the picture taking with the President would be incorporated. 
• Comm. Britton stated that a quorum would be necessary so it behooves everyone to be there at 9am for the meetings. Comm. Britton also said that the issues raised by the commissioners were the issues that needed to be considered and discussed as they institute this change in the Consent Agenda procedure.

Finance Committee

• Analysis of Revenues and Expenses for the County were presented by the Comptroller and representatives from Cook County Health (CCH). Both revenue and expense variances were reported as negative with timing issues being the cause. 
• Comm. Gainer had questions regarding a report from CCH about salaries of contracted persons vs employees. She stated the report was thorough and transparent and wanted more clarity on the long term plans for addressing the discrepancies - whether training of employees would address filling the positions or the positions were too specialized and would continue to be contracted out.  
• Comm. Sean Morrison’s questioned whether CCH reports were based on an accrual basis or cash basis. CCH said they do their finances on an accrual basis but convert to a cash basis for reporting as part of the Cook County Budget. 
• The Market Survey Report on Elected Official Compensation (Agenda Item 25-0739) was received and filed without comment. 

Transportation Committee
Department of Transportation and Highways Superintendent Jennifer (Sis) Killen provided a presentation on the department’s ADA Transition Plan. Highlights of her presentation:

• The plan fulfills a Federal requirement relating to ADA ensuring that all the facilities and services in the public right-of-way along the roadways maintained by the County are compliant with the ADA standards. 
• The report focused on curb ramps, crosswalks and pedestrian signals and indicated the plan is to improve all assets over the next 25 years. 
• An ADA Coordinator has been named (Andrew Warner) to answer questions from the public and to oversee communication about the goals and progress of the plan.
• Commissioner concerns were about ongoing trainings for personnel and how it is determined who is responsible for payment for any construction or repairs. Response was the Federal government does do training. Installation is done by the entity responsible for maintaining the right-of-way which can be the County, the City or a municipality or township. All repairs must be made to the current standards.

Legislation and Intergovernmental Relations Committee
The Committee had a presentation of the annual report for the Board of Ethics for Fiscal Year 2024 (Agenda Item 25-0829). 
Highlights of presentation:

• Ethics Board is supposed to have 5 members - have 3 recently appointed members and 2 vacancies.
• Office has 12 staff and 1 dedicated Ethics Investigator.
• Now have a searchable data base for Campaign Contributions as well as an online form to file disclosures and requests. 
• Ethics investigations appear to focus on gifts and conflicts of interest.
• Comm. Anaya asked about some of the numbers presented but there was no further discussion of the report. 

Technology and Innovations Committee
The committee heard presentations on the Technology Strategic Plan Report (Agenda Item 25-0262) from the Bureau of Technology, and the offices of the Board of Review, the Assessor, the Treasurer, the Sheriff, the County Clerk, The Clerk of the Circuit Court, the Chief Judge, and the State’s Attorney.
Highlights from the reports:

• The Bureau of Technology has a dual role of providing IT support to the President’s office as well as maintaining IT throughout County government offices. 
• Retirement of the Main Frame is projected to be April of 2025. There are still 2 applications that utilize the Main Frame - Jury Administration under the Chief Judge and some parts of the Property Tax system - but all seem to have committed to getting off by April of 2025.
• Each office outlined their projects and goals for the next year and many are developing plans for incorporating AI into their work. 
• Almost all offices indicated a need for upgraded equipment and software - some thanking the commissioners for providing funds in their budgets to do this and others indicating they would need funds in the future.
• The Board of Review (BOR) and the Assessor seemed to indicate that they both will now have a new system IasWorld that will allow them to share data although the BOR did say that their public facing portal remains as a different system.
• Commissioner questions and comments centered on keeping to established timelines for implementing systems, holding vendors accountable to ensure that systems can be up and running by deadlines, and requesting that offices work together on implementing systems that need to communicate with each other. 

Observer - Cynthia Schilsky