Demolition of Cook County Facilities and Upgrading of Others Discussed in Cook County Capital Budget Hearing

Cook County Board of Commissioners Finance Committee - Departmental Budget Hearings
November 2, 2017 - 9AM

Capital Budget

Commissioners Present from the beginning at 9AM until the end at 11AM Daley, Morrison, Suffredin,Silvestri, Garcia, Boykin, Gainer, Schneider  Commissioners Present only for the Q and A : Arroyo, Deer, Simms, Moore
Commissioners Absent:Tobolski,Fritchey,Butler, Goslin, Moody

The Capital budget is mostly about big, long-term projects. Their overriding principle guiding this department has to do with assessing the county’s needs and matching each project with the necessary funding. They must decide between short-term and long-term financing. Short term financing mostly deals with their operating fund, while long term financing deals with funding through debt. Amman Rizki, as head of the department, gave the main presentation., Ann Kalayil also spoke as Assets Manager. And John Yonan spoke for the transportation issues. All three (and their staffers) answered questions.

Some Highlights from their presentations include:

1. They have achieved an 11% reduction in debt since 2011.
   
2.  Major credit rating agencies have rated them highly.
   
3. They can cut $20 million from their budget. This includes transferring $8 million from operating funds over to the debt side and cutting $12 million (from operating funds) by reprioritizing projects and spending less on vehicles and computers.
   
4. They manage over 19 million square feet of real estate.
   
5. They will be freeing up 3 full floors of real estate for outside rentals in the Dunne Building (69 W. Washington). (This was also discussed later in the afternoon under “Asset Management” presentation.)
   
6. They will be demolishing Fantus Clinic (part of the Health and Hospitals Complex) and several sections of CC Jail (DOC)
   
7. Highway projects planned include widening Lake-Cook Road in Buffalo Grove and the Elgin-O’Hare expressway along Touhy Ave.
   
8. Working with the state legislature to get more money for transportation.

Question and Answer:

1. Comm. Morrison asked about the possibility of transferring more funds from operating to debt. Comm. Daley said that there might be some legal problems with this. Not all projects and repairs can be funded through debt. He also asked about putting off some projects and/or repairs. Ann K. said that many repairs could not wait. Comm. Morrison then expressed hope that all of the commissioners could engage in a long vs. short term budget discussion  among themselves, given the fact that they now had to come up with $200 million in savings. 
   
2. Comm. Suffredin asked about the necessity of an upgrade to the current county building as well as upgrades to the 3 vacated floors at 69 W. Washington. Ann K. said that the current building needed to be totally ADA accessible. 69 W. Washington needed upgrades to become attractive to potential tenants.
   
3. Garcia asked about a master plan for Cook County Jail. Ann K. said that divisions 3 and 17 were already demolished while 1 and 1a will be gone soon. Div. 2 may be next. He also asked about the closing of Hawthorne Warehouse. Several staffers mentioned that this was a priority of President Preckwinkle.
   
4. Comm. Boykin asked about leasing possibilities. Various advertising strategies were discussed.
   
5. Comm. Gainer asked about the auditing of county contracts. A report on this will be forthcoming.
   
6. Comm. Schneider asked about the actual savings from closing some of the county’s branch courts. He said figures hand been “out there” between  $5 and $9 million. He wanted some precise answers on this. A report on this would be forthcoming, said several in the dept.  

Comm. Daley said that numbers from some of the elected (Chief Judge Evans, Clerk Brown, etc.) were needed in order to assess the cost of moving personnel and equipment from the branch courts to 26th and California.
(At this point there was a break in the discussion. I was seated behind Comm. Suffredin and asked him about the branch court closings. He said that the most underutilized branch was located at Belmont and Western. If closed, those proceedings would move to Grand and Central. Talk of closing a  court like Bridgeview was a whole different matter, he said. Bridgeview represents a whole judicial district, not a branch.)

There was much discussion at the end about the Oak Forest Hospital complex. Many commissioners weighed in on what to do with the 340 acres and 60 buildings, plus a church and a cemetery. Department officials admitted that a feasibility study was needed and one is being planned. Questions remained about how much could actually be saved, given the enormity of closing this complex and planning for the future.

Observer - Jan Goldberg