Final Day of Cook County Board Finance Committee 2025 Proposed Budget Hearings

Cook County Board of Commissioners Finance Committee
2025 Proposed Budget Hearings
October 31, 2024 

Cook County Public Defender – Sharone R. Mitchell, Jr.
    Proposed 2025 Budget:  $109,801,418
    2025 Proposed FTEs:          823

Presentation by Sharonne Mitchell
Training (he is most proud of):          

• In 2009 training was ½ day
• 2024 - training is one month and has been modernized 
• Includes trial/court training and visiting the jail
• Training for investigators

Technology:

• Aging laptop change out from 6 years to 4 years
• Moving all discovery to digital which allows people to access files

Personnel:

• Rand workload study is ongoing 
• Need 149 more staff based on national standards
• Need to decrease current workloads

Questions:

• Daley:    # of vacancies ? PD – 149 includes attorneys and support staff 
• Stamps: Can AI support the department?  PD  - perhaps research. It can be a tool in the toolbox. Concern about ethics and using it a responsible way.  May partner with other groups doing this work 
• Trevor: Question about staff loss due to ARPA funds going away. PD - Making adjustments
• Trevor: Question about lack of space. PD - Now have enough money to serve. Space/building improvements in Maywood building
• Britton: Question/comments about technology and need to look long term regarding cloud storage 
• Anaya: Question regarding time to hire. PD -  currently improving. Have communicated with HR. Working with law schools for an attorney pipeline.  Bigger problem with specialities such as interpreters.  Working on retention. Costs more to train so they need to retain. 
• Anaya: Question regarding the immigration division. PD - will maintain at current strength 
• Degnen: Question/comments on Juvenile Criminal Justice and a team working on reimagining with Chapin Hall leadership.  Received a Dept of Justice grant and mentioned the importance of the Grant Management post.
• Aguilar: Question/comments regarding vacancies and retentions. PD - increasing training and morale
• Quezada: Comments about the importance of the immigration division.
• Gainer: Comment on length of hiring
• Lowry: Positive comment on engagement with law schools to recruit lawyers 

Cook County State’s Attorney – Kimberly Foxx
    2025 Proposed Budget:  $221,319,618
    2025 Proposed FTEs:           1,452.0

State’s Attorney Fox spent about 20 minutes talking about the changes and outcomes of her leadership. Big thank you to the commissioners.  Goal was to have a fair and just criminal justice system evidenced by:

• Abolishing cash bail
• Legalizing marijuana
• Importance of dashboard data on the SA website (many commissioners thanked her for this)
• Hundreds of wrongful convictions overturned

With the SA change coming up, SA Fox is working on a smooth transition.

Questions regarding staff and caseloads – Answer:

• Need more administration staff - need to restructure staff 
• 4 more paralegals
• 4 techs
• 1 investigator 

SA Fox believes the wrongful conviction department, diversion and expungement must continue.
SA Fox talked about the importance of the grant manager in her office and that many grants are renewable. She talked about the needs regarding gender-based violence and partnering with universities.

• Currently, the office handles 30,000 to 35,000 new felonies a year, but twice that amount for misdemeanors.  SA Foxx said that the Office does a review and determines when to charge a felony.  The police officers, however, can file misdemeanor charges themselves.  SA Foxx said that the issue of the large number of misdemeanors needs to be tackled in the future.
• Comm. Degnen said she would like to see more cases referred to the alternative justice courts and programs and asked whether the criteria should be reviewed to allow that.  SA Foxx said that there is a gun diversion program out of the Bridgeport Courthouse for those who have been charged with unlawful possession, but who have not used a gun in the commission of another crime – for example, having a gun without a permit.  The issue of more diversions is related to what the public will tolerate.  
• There are currently 17 paralegals and 4 more will be hired.  This position did not exist in the office 8 years ago.  SA Foxx said there is a need for more, along with more administrative support positions, to relieve the attorneys who have been doing far too much administrative work.
• There is a possibility that the Assistant State’s Attorneys in the office may be unionizing, so some additional money was budgeted for outside legal services to advise on labor matters.
• In response to a question from Comm. Kevin Morrison, the reduction in the number of attorneys listed for felony cases is due to those positions now being covered by grants, so there is no actual reduction.  Comm. Morrison also commented on the number of brand new Asst. State’s Attorneys assigned to the Domestic Violence Court.  SA Foxx explained that new Asst. State’s Attorneys are assigned where they are needed, but In all situations, the supervisory attorneys are very experienced and knowledgeable about applicable law.  Further, in the case of the Domestic Violence Court, the new attorneys there had previously been interns in that area.

Observer:  Laura Davis

The Finance Committee meetings to review the Executive Budget proposed by the President ended on the afternoon of October 31 with one last meeting.  Commissioners have until 12 noon on November 7 to propose amendments to the budget, which will be reviewed by the Budget Department.  Any amendments presented to the Committee for consideration must maintain a balanced budget.  It is expected that the full Board will vote on the 2025 budget, as it may be amended, on November 21.  The 2025 fiscal year begins on December 1, 2024.

Secretary of the Board of the Cook County Commissioners:  Lynne Turner
    2025 Proposed Budget:  $2,341,193
    2025 Proposed FTEs:         13

This office provides legislative support and related information so items can be presented for consideration and so the legislative process will be efficient, effective, open, and transparent.  The office also maintains the County Archives and Records Office.

• Secretary Turner noted that at last year’s budget meeting, the department had 5 of the 13 positions vacant; for the mid-year budget meeting this summer, there were 4 vacancies; but as of now, there are only 2:  the Manager of Archives and the Legal Counsel.  The Secretary expects to start scheduling interviews for those positions shortly.
• The Legal Counsel position was approved as an amendment to last year’s budget.  Comm. Degnen inquired why there is still a vacancy.  The Secretary said the position was just posted this summer and initially there was not much interest.  The Secretary will be reviewing the 3 current applications.
• In response to a concern about the number of “new agendas” being posted during Board meetings, Secretary Turner suggested there be a discussion with the Board about setting a hard deadline for submission of new items.  
• There were many tributes for the Secretary and her employees from the Commissioners.

Observer:  Priscilla Mims​