Cook County Board Approves $4.4B Amended FY17 Budget on Party Lines after a Sometimes Heated Meeting

Cook County Board of Commissioners - Finance Committee and Board Meeting
November 15, 2016

Approving the budget (11):  Arroyo, Boykin, Butler, Daley, Fritchey, Gainer, Garcia, Moore, Sims, Suffredin, and Tobolski.
Voting no were the 4 Republicans:  Goslin, Morrison (stated reason was because he was against the sweetened beverage tax), Schneider (noted the budget was $3 billion in 2010 and believes more cost-cutting and efficiencies could have been realized for this budget), and Silvestri.
Absent:  Moody (in the hospital) and Steele (recovering). 

Twenty-seven amendments were filed and then posted the day before for consideration by the Finance Committee.  Commissioner Morrison complained a number of times that this did not provide him sufficient time to properly consider the merits and issues with each.  The League in the past has urged that there be more time provided for review of amendments by both the Commissioners and the public.  Probably because of the insufficient review time, there were 9 substitute amendments that were written during the meeting.  Most of these were not posted in time for this observer to see them during the discussion and vote by the Board.  

Several amendments were “technical” in nature, meaning that they had the approval of the appropriate departments and the Budget Department and simply moved money and positions from one area to another within that department.

The amendments generating the most discussion included:

• Amendment 9-S to require any contract for outside services for the Medical Examiner’s lab services to be approved by the Board, even if under the $150,000 threshold that normally does not require prior Board approval.  The issue here is the proposal to outsource the services provided by the Toxicology Lab, whose employees have received notices of termination by March 1.  The Medical Examiner again reiterated that outsourcing should both save $1 million and result in much faster results for both normal and comprehensive lab tests from an outside lab.  Commissioner Suffredin sponsored this Amendment in order to keep the Board involved in the process of obtaining the new contract with an outside lab, which he fears may not be in place by March 1.  Other Commissioners did not want to deviate from current procurement practices and Board approval requirements.  Failed.
• Amendment 10-S which drains the remaining amount in the Children’s Waiting Room Special Purpose Fund in order to fund the new and existing waiting rooms, which will now be at all 7 courthouses.  Commissioner Suffredin stressed that some additional funding mechanism will be needed beyond 2017.  Passed.
• Amendment 13-S-1:  Increases the Turnover Adjustment to be able to fund 4 interpreters for the Public Defender’s office.  Passed (after 2 substitutes needed for this to be correct).
• Amendment 14 which would have restored 7 of 9 cut investigators in the Public Defender’s Office and added an investigator to the Independent Inspector General’s office.  Failed because the money was coming from the Clerk of the Court’s office, to which she objected and argued the Board did not have the authority to do as it would mean that the Clerk could not carry out her duties.  There was a long discussion back and forth between the Commissioners and the representative from the Clerk of the Court and an Assistant State’s Attorney over the power of the Board.  Commissioner Boykin stated that Commissioners were going after the Clerk and race was involved.  This led Commissioner Fritchey to take offense and heated words were exchanged.  Ultimately, it appeared that this Amendment failed because there was not sufficient time to consider the ramifications if this passed.
• Amendment 17-S which would have set up a line item for income from any court order directing up to 90% of bail deposit money to be paid to the County for the work of the Public Defender.  Under existing Illinois law this can be done on motion by the State’s Attorney or Judge (and is regularly done for private attorneys), but the County doesn’t have a line item for this income so does not factor it in in the budget.  The Public Defender, who opposed this Amendment not wanting any money to be directed from the refundable bail, even to help fund her office, said that this year she estimates $70,000 will be collected.  Public speakers had also objected to this.  Failed.
• Amendments 4-S and 5-S which give each of the 16 Commissioners the same pot of money ($399,999, plus $50,000 more for the Finance Chair) which they are to identify how to allocate.  Commissioner Sims stated that she thinks that the longevity of the staff should be considered which would rightly result in some Commissioners (such as her) getting more money to pay higher salaries reflecting the longer service of the employees.  Nevertheless, this Passed.
• Amendments 19-S and 20-S which adds 5 positions to the Board of Review plus $150,000 for appraisals in order to better defend appeals of its decisions to the Illinois Board of Appeals.  When the Board of Review loses those appeals (generally involving well-funded commercial and high-rise residential properties), the County and all the other property taxing bodies (schools, villages, libraries, etc.) have to refund taxes.  So the concept is that by spending $500,000, the County might save up to $13 million, and the other taxing bodies much more.  Currently, the County has $34 million in potential liability and the other taxing bodies $500 million as a result of pending appeals. Passed.

​Observer - Priscilla Mims