Cook County Board Meeting June 15, 2010

The Finance Committee meeting began at 11:50 and started with a discussion of Shackman oversight by the Duty of Compliance Administrator, overseen by Judge Wayne Anderson. The amount allotted ($1,923,000) was questioned by Commissioner Collins. C. Daley responded that the funds go to the administrators. He explained that there are 15 monitors who ensure compliance with the decree. The item was unanimously approved. All bills and claims were approved and passed. C. Peraica questioned the tax bills sent by certified mail. C. Daley explained that they were delinquent notices.

All Workman's Comp. claims were approved, as were all subrogation claims.

Revenue Report: The Comptroller reported a negative $10.6 million. County sales tax increased slightly. Alcohol tax was negative $1 million. Reports were given from Provident Hospital revealing a loss of Medicaid revenue. Their CFO said that payments were 86% below expected level. Oak Forest Hospital reported a loss of 56%. It is expected that the percentage of decline will continue for the rest of the year. New rates begin July 1, 2010. The cause of underpayments is a drop in the number of Medicaid patients. It was also reported that Med Assets would be replaced by Price Waterhouse, and that the scope of their oversight would be broadened. Forty percent of patients are undocumented; that is, they do not provide sufficient information; and as a result, $48 million is lost.

Red Light Violation Contracts: Less money was collected than anticipated. (A further discussion of this item took place as an item on the Board of Commissioners agenda.)

All Highway bills were approved, as were Zoning and Building, and Roads and Bridges.

Cook County Board of Commissioners Agenda - Proposed Ordinance Amendments, and other items:

The meeting was chaired by C. Moreno, President pro-temp. President Stroger returned towards the end of the meeting.

The meeting began with the reading of a long list of clerical mistakes on the items submitted for the agenda. There was an equally lengthy discussion about the number of mistakes. C. Beavers suggested that everyone responsible for the mistakes should be fired. C. Murphy suggested that if an item has a mistake, they should vote no. Item 2 was withdrawn, and Item 4, requiring all personnel activity (hires, resignations, reclassifications, transfers), be reported to the Board of Commissioners, passed.

Item 5, establishment of an automated red light traffic safety system, was discussed at length. The amendment allows municipalities to "opt out" of the installation and maintenance of the cameras. Apparently, the Commissioners had been contacted by numerous town and village presidents and mayors who were not if favor of the monitors. Rupert Graham (Highways), stated that the top 30 intersections for serious accidents were identified and thus selected to have the cameras installed. C. Murphy said that she does not believe that the municipalities are aware of this, and she requested that Mr. Graham provide statistics of traffic fatalities. C. Daley said that there had been "communication problems" between the county and the towns. The issue was further politicised by the fact that the contract was with a company from Arizona. At the end of the discussion, the amendment was passed, so that towns will be able to opt out.

Items 6 and 7 passed regarding additional filing fees and the installation of blue hospitality signs along the county highways.

Item 8, regarding a committee of two, (C. Sims, Chairman, and C. Goslin) be established to oversee the use of federal funds in suburban Cook County for Homeland Security. C. Sims stated that the committee would oversee the use of federal funds, and nothing more. There was some discussion about the small size of the committee, and C. Sims responded that they would report back to the board. The amendment was passed.

Item 9 , consent calendar, and Item 11, regarding the use of credit cards for bail, were passed. The cost to the county is nil. Items 13 - 15 passed, 16 and 17 were moved to Environmental Control, 26 - 31 were moved to Construction. Three items were withdrawn, and the rest were passed without discussion.

There was a discussion at the end of the meeting regarding the federal employee who is currently in charge of the Juvenile Detention Center, Mr. Delaney. C. Beavers was unreserved and outspoken regarding his disdain for this individual, and said he had asked Judge Evans to "get rid of him". Mr. D., defended himself by saying that all the people he had hired were minorities, although no one had accused him of racism. Mr. Stroger admonished Mr. D. for speaking, saying that this was his turf, and that Mr. D. could not speak. C. Murphy said that the conditions at the detention center had improved vastly under his supervision. The motion passed, and the meeting was adjourned.

Cook County Board Meeting June 1--Two Big Issues

First on the agenda was deciding whether to make the Health and Hospital System (HHS) independent board a permanent one. Although the nurses and SEICU unions spoke against making the board permanently independent, and many commissioners had concerns about the large raises given to administrators of the HHS, this was passed. The vote was 13 in favor, 3 against (Commissioners Beavers, Murphy and Sims) and 1 absent (Comm. Steele).

The next hour of the meeting was taken up by memorials, recognitions, etc. After 12:00 pm, the business portion of the meeting was addressed again.

A resolution to boycott Arizona and its businesses was proposed by Comms. Reyes, Moreno, and Murphy. This was intended as a protest to the new immigration law in Arizona to go into effect later this summer. The discussion among the commissioners was quite heated, with some mentioning that Arizona businesses who employ minorities would be hurt; others mentioned racial profiling; and some that the federal government should be addressing this issue. The boycott resolution passed 10 to 6 with Commissioners Daley, Gorman, Goslin, Peraica, Schneider and Silvestri voting against. Comm. Steele was absent.It should be noted that the resolution as stated in the agenda was not the resolution voted on. A last-minute set of major changes was made and this observer and the others in the audience did not have access to the new wording.

Sometime after this vote, the Board voted to award a red-light camera contract to Arizona-based American Traffic Solutions.

Although the Board meeting continued for a very long time, this observer left at 1:15.