Departmental Budget Hearings of Cook County Board Finance Committee

Cook County Board Finance Committee Departmental Budget Hearings
October 25, 2023  - morning session

​Clerk Of The Court—Iris Martinez
2024 Total:  $135,144,132                          2023:  $127,821,336
2024 FTEs:  1,429                                        2023:  1,509

​Following are some key items from this meeting:

• there is a reduction in staffing even though 200 new employees were hired
• following requirements of Shakman decree and are out from court supervision
• evictions, expungements, and victims of violence categories are all up in workload
• Odyssey technology program which allows easier access to information by users, more efficiency was completed in August 2023
• customer service center is very “efficient” and took more than 106,000 calls since June
• developed a domestic violence safe space area for victims to meet with advocates—Markham location for mostly the southern parts of county
• 189 vacancies
• continuances of court cases are tracked, but the coding for why these cases are not completed is very complex.  Pre-trial Fairness Act codes are also being added—will be done in 4-6 weeks
• Commissioners wanted to know reasons for continuances and why technology wasn’t being used by the judges  (input on computers rather than handwritten notes by the judge which can’t always be read clearly, thus mistakes) 

Secretary To The Board—Lynne Turner
2024 TOTAL:  $2,155,000                            2023:  $2,045,000
2024 FTEs:  12                                                    2023:  12

Following are some key items from this meeting:

• 5 positions vacant; only have 7 current employees
• budget increase due to salary increases
• Comm. Degnen wants a legal advisor for the Board and will bring an amendment forward to add this position  (NOTE: this issue was brought up years ago and then never followed up on)
• new Board room will be ready Dec., 2024 with ADA compliance, language translation services, all new equipment
• two improvements are use of QRC code to access agendas (less paper) and closed caption on screens by the end of 2023

Sheriff—Tom Dart
2024 Total:  $708,458,429                                 2023: $674,966,716
2024 FTEs:  5,744   (a decrease)                      2023:  5,839 

Following are some key items from this meeting:   

• budget increases due to parental leave, salary increases, overtime, COLA
• Sheriff office still policing or aiding several towns and parts of Chicago—full time in Ford Hts. and Austin neighborhood
• in River North of Chicago—retail theft work, 
• 1,000 guns taken off the street, go after revocations of Firearm Owner Identification Cards (“FOIDs”)  but doesn’t have the staff (only 8) to do this completely (38,000 revoked FOIDs in Cook County with 30,000 not in compliance)
• working with FBI on carjackings and car stealing which is the worst in the country; only 20% of carjackers are arrested and 60% of those are juveniles; many repeat offenders
• Sheriff has developed many special programs to help detainees with mental, drug and behavioral issues; job help, etc.
• jail programming is high but if defendants are released, there is no service for them; those on electronic monitoring also don’t get these services
• currently 4,860 detainees in jail and 1,800 on Electronic Monitoring (“EM”)
• state law requires EM defendants to have 2 days per week unmonitored.  5% of EM people (166 this year) commit additional crimes on these unsupervised days;  0% on fully monitored days
• has difficulty filling correctional worker positions; has full staffing (35-40) of social workers
• every commissioner who spoke praised Sheriff for his programs and advancements that are one-of-a-kind in the country
• Sheriff is also concerned about the delays in trials, causes problems in the jail too.  It is up to the judiciary to fix this.

Karin Hribar, Observer