I arrived late to the meeting at 11:30am and Mary Robinson, the Shakman Compliance Administrator for Cook County, was presenting her report which had been submitted to the commissioners in writing. In response to questions from Comm. Peraica she indicated that to date the County has spent $3.4M on the Compliance office and $3M settling claims investigated by the office. In responding to a question from President Stroger she stated that things don't change over night. She stated that systems are able to be manipulated and it is her job to work towards a system that does not allow that to happen. When she stated that her office still does not know who is "clouted" President Stroger assured her that no one was. He then asked her if Joe Sowa, the Director of Human Resources, was running his office and she responded that in some aspects he is and in others he is not. President Stroger told Ms. Robinson that she has access directly to him to report anything that needs reporting and she does not need to go through other people to get to him.
Comm. Gainer then asked if she has the ability to change things. Ms. Robinson stated that she has the ability to report her findings to those she thinks appropriate. Ms. Robinson also stated in response to further questioning that there seem to still be insurmountable obstacles in Human Resources. Mr. Sowa did not appear to be present for questions about HR since Laura Lechowitz-Fellicione answered a question directed to him. Ms. Robinson had to leave at noon for another appointment but indicated she was willing to meet with any commissioners that still had questions. (I presume her report will be posted on the Shakman Compliance Administrator website although it is not posted as of yet.)
During the Finance Committee Report Comm. Peraica raised a question about payments on a court case, Fairly, et al v. Andrews, et al. He thought the case had been closed. Comm. Silvestri stated that these bills were approved by the Litigation Committee in May and he thought these were the last bills to be paid. Mr. Driscoll from the State's Attorney's office said that when the bills were approved it was thought that they were the last but since then a petition for a rehearing has been filed so the case is not yet closed. So far $2.2M has been spent.
Again there was discussion of the problem with billing errors in the hospitals. A recent review of billing apparently revealed a 60% error rate in coding for Medicaide reimbursement which was resulting in denial of payment. The role of outside billing vendors and county employees was rehashed with Comm. Beavers and Comm. Simms wanting to know who was supposed to be training the county employees to do coding and why were contracts being awarded to companies that were not located in Cook County. This discussion occurs quite regularly at meetings but there does not seem to be a possible resolution for the problems with billing. Comm. Daley indicated that there were issues with union contracts that resulted in difficulties in terminating employees for incompetence.
Comm. Gorman introduced an amendment to the CC Code of Ethical Conduct that outlines disclosure requirements for family members of elected officials, lobbyists, and entities contracting with the county. There was minimal discussion and Comm. Gorman stated this was an issue of transparency in government and that Cook County could be a leader in this area. It was approved.
The Zoning and Building Committee meeting lasted for 30 minutes - the longest meeting Comm. Moreno said he had seen in 30 years. The issue being discussed was 2 amendments to the Cook County Zoning Ordinance introduced by Comm. Murphy concerning parking of commercial vehicles, trailers, recreational vehicles, and boats in residential districts. Comm. Murphy stated that the amendments were intended to alleviate restrictions on these vehicles in residential areas in unincorporated Cook County and the amendment was written so that Townships could chose whether to utilize the amendment or not. Both amendments were passed but Comm. Goslin pointed out that the 4 commissioners voting against the amendment (Gorman, Goslin, Peraica, Schneider) represented 95% of unincorporated Cook County.
The meeting was adjourned at 1:30pm.
Cynthia Schilsky
LWVCC Observer
