Cook County Board Committee Meetings

Cook County Board of Commissioners Committee Meetings
July 19, 2023

​Legislation & Intergovernmental Relations Committee

• Item 23-3320   Recommended for approval  The Committee approved an amendment to the Inspector General selection ordinance  which required a bipartisan committee of equal number of Commissioners from different parties.   Since there is only one Republican commissioner now, the ordinance had to be changed.    The change was that if there is not enough representation of both parties, the President can appoint another commissioner.  
• Item 23-3719  Recommended for approval   Amends the ordinance covering sick leave to add that it may be taken for mental health issues.

Finance Committee

• Item 23-3116  Deferred  The item was for the approval of the use of $20 M in ARPA funds to assist suburban Cook County residents pay water bills. Money could go to pay directly for a person’s water bill. The plan was to use  CEDA (The Community and Economic Development Association) as they currently help individuals with their water bills.    CEDA is about to lose its federal funding.   The funding would also go to help a municipality  with a high-water burden. That program is to be managed by Elevate, a private company.   Elevate would need to negotiate with the municipality to ensure that the funds would go to pay for water, that fees and rates would be modified for residents, and that resident water would not be turned off.  At this point it is not known which suburbs would participate and what the conditions would be.  Commissioner Daley asked what suburbs would be targeted and what reports would there be.  Commissioner Degnen suggested a smaller amount be authorized to initiate the programs and when more details were available, more money could be given.  Since there were so many unknowns the item was deferred.
• The second part of Item 23-2116 was authorization of $1.24M to implement a Community Information Exchange Program to share client profiles among healthcare and social services.   This would allow more holistic care to an individual and build connections among providers.

Transportation Committee

• Item 23-3259. Recommended for receiving and filing. This was a report on  a pilot program in South Cook, The Fair Transit Program, that is subsidizing fares on Metra and Pace to encourage the use of public transportation in the south region.   The Metra Electric has seen ridership return to pre-Covid levels.   The Commissioners approved the continuation of the pilot. 

Health & Hospitals Committee

• Behavioral Services Reports from CCH, Sheriff, Office of the Chief Judge, State’s Attorney, and Public Defender were reviewed.   The Committee recommended for receiving and filing.      
• Much of the conversation focused on substance abuse programs.  CCH is finding that recovery coaches who continue a relationship with a patient after they leave the hospital have shown to help the patient stay clean.    They are also implementing emergence naloxone vending machines in neighborhoods, where residents can get this to help with overdoses.  
• The Sheriff’s office reported that the jail does individual assessments on new inmates and it has its own substance abuse programs that are offered to the inmates.   They also give released prisoners naloxone if indicated.  

Asset Management Committee 

• Item 23-3313 Recommended for approval  This contract contained several capital projects. 
• Earl Manning, Director of the Office of Capital Planning and Policy ,  has established a pre-qualified program for small minority firms to make it easier for them to participate in smaller projects.    The businesses do not have to submit the paperwork for each potential job as in the past.

Contract Compliance Committee

• Item  23-0820 Recommended for receiving and filing.   This was the annual diversity report.    Nicole Mandeville, Director of Compliance, reported on the past 4 years of county spending on contracts.   32% of contracts in 2022 went to M/W/DBE  owned companies.

Audit Committee

• Items 23-3381 & 23-3378  Recommended for receiving and filing   Outside Audit of Cook County for fiscal year 2022.  The auditors did see errors in accounting entries for CC and CCH which required adjustments for the financial statements.  There were weaknesses in the controls on the Oracle accounting system such as not deleting terminated users. The auditor recommended allowing more time to close the books at year end to find needed corrections.  
• Item 23-3382  Recommended for receiving and filing   Report on Federal Awards There were  findings of non-compliance with Federal Grant Awards requirements.   Commissioners Degnen and Daley noted this was more than usual.     Commissioner Degnen will be meeting with the department to discuss improvements in process.

Observer - Kathleen Graffam