First Day of 2024 Budget Meetings with Departments

Cook County Board of Commissioners Finance Committee Budget Hearing
October 24, 2023

Cook County Public Defender  (Sharone R. Michell, Jr.)

2024 Total:        $102.3 M        2023:  $96.6 M
   General Funds:    $  86.0 M        2023:  $81.8 M
   Special Purpose:    $  15.7 M        2023:  $13.5 M
   Restricted (Grants):    $    0.6 M        2023:  $  1.3 M
2024 Total FTEs:    831            2023:    810
   General Funds:    823            2023:    791
   Special Purpose:        5            2023:       6
   Restricted (Grants)      3            2023:      13

Following are some key items from this meeting:

• Mr. Mitchell shared a slide showing that currently the average caseload per asst. public defender is 486.  The current national standard is 400.  However, that slide also showed that if the Board had not approved the increase in the budget for 2023 that allowed for more hiring, the average would have been 650 cases.  
• In response to questions from Comm. Gainer, Mr. Mitchell said that the time it takes to hire has improved, though still needs to get better.  But he said the bigger issue now is not the time it takes to hire, but the need to expand the pool of applicants.  The office has been visiting local and national law schools to raise the profile of the office to do that.  Mr. Mitchell could not tell Comm. Gainer how long it does take to hire, but said he would provide that information. 
• The office currently has 99 vacancies out of 698 positions, though there are either offers out or offers going out for 10 of those vacancies.  Mr. Mitchell sees that it is going to be a multi-year effort to fill all positions.  This year the office has hired 77 people, 55 of those being attorneys.  
• Mr. Mitchell said that currently retention is solid, and the office has not had the problems that other public defender offices have had elsewhere.  But his office is talking to Human Relations about participating in retention bonuses.
• Comm. K. Morrison discovered during questioning that while Volume II of the Budget Book shows that the department budget request equaled the President’s recommendation, the original department request was higher, and the request amount shown in the book is what the department ultimately agreed to.  Comm. Morrison said that the Commissioners need and want to know what the actual requests were.
• In response to a question from Comm. Stamps, Mr. Mitchell said that implementation of the Safe-T Act that prohibits monetary bail has been going well. 

Observer:  Priscilla Mims