Cook County Board Meeting --Jan. 19, 2011

A Long Wait to Begin Cook County Board Meeting Business.

As so often occurred under the previous administration, the business part of the Board meeting did not begin until after 11:30, 1 and 1/2 hours late. This was due to a Forest Preserve Real Estate Meeting running late and especially 3 resolutions honoring Cook County police, a heroic citizen, and the victims of the Tucson shooting.

Several new staff members, departments, and committees were introduced during this meeting. The elimination of Educational Service Regions by state law (due to mismanagement and redundancy in that office), has taken Cook County government out of the education business. These duties will be administered by the Intermediate Service Regions, which have long existed. A list of newly hired Grade 24 staff in the President's Office was presented. These include Chief Information Officer Greg Wass, Chief Administrative Officer Robin Kelly, Director of POET Karin Norington-Reaves, and Community Outreach Liaison Carina Sanchez. Other new staff are Purchasing Agent Lourdes Koss and Chief Financial Officer Tariq Malhance.

There is a big concern among the Board of Commissioners regarding Grade 24 hires and the adjustments to their salaries at the County Hospital System (HHS). Many commissioners feel those salaries are too high compared to other public and private hospitals. Comm. Gainer stated that benefits such as health care, pensions and vacation time are much better at HHS than private hospitals and need to be taken into account when comparing salaries. CEO of HHS William Foley defended the salaries and raises, but indicated that in the future this would be looked at more closely. There was also concern about the effect of overtime and comp time in the hospital system. Both need to be curtailed in order to stay within the new budget guidelines. Comm. Beavers pointed out that the 2-3 hour wait times to get prescription drugs at Oak Forest Hospital is very bad service. CEO Foley called this "unacceptable" and will look into it.

Another concern by many commissioners is the issue of contract extensions rather than going out for new bids. Comm. Tobolski would like a listing of when contracts are due so there would be enough time to re-bid them. It seems that during the past administration, the Compliance Department was not always accurate in approving vendors according to the Minority & Women Business Enterprise Ordinance and their ability to fulfill the contract.

President Preckwinkle announced her new Performance Management System ordinance which would connect outcomes, budgets, and performance for better services and efficiencies within the county. Other areas targeted for efficiency and cost reduction include printing services. This would consolidate the printing being done by all elected officials in the County government; not all officials are on-board with this new procedure. At a previous meeting, consolidation of vehicle purchases was announced.

A proposed resolution was presented by Pres. Preckwinkle called the Cook County Frontline Award. This would encourage Cook County employees to develop "innovative, high impact initiatives that will help achieve fiscal responsibility, innovative leadership, transparency, accountability and improved services." This will be an annual award; the winner getting public recognition and lunch with Pres. Preckwinkle. The intent is to get the county's finances under control in this tough budgetary climate. A 16% reduction of the budget (21% for the rest of this fiscal year) has been mandated by Pres. Preckwinkle; this is for all elected officials and departments in the county.

Cook County Forest Preserve District Meeting Jan 5 2011

All commissioners were present when the 45 minute meeting was opened, on time.

Comm. Liz Gorman reported on the great success of the Orland Grassland’s restoration project. An award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Chicago Wilderness will be presented to the District January 29, 2011.

A resolution honoring retiring Director of Resource Management Richard D. Newhard was on the agenda. All commissioners congratulated Mr. Newhard on his many accomplishments in the 39 years with the District.


Pres. Toni Preckwinkle good naturedly spoke of being the first President to join the Forest Preserve’s annual New Years Day canoe trip on the North Branch of the Chicago river and the first to fall in the freezing water.

Meeting adjourned at 10:45.

Mary Ann Tate, January 8, 2011

Cook County Board Meeting

January 4, 2011

The board meeting was preceded by a Legislation and Intergovernmental Relations Committee meeting to review the appointment of Ms. Robin Kelly as the Chief Administrative Officer. In her presentation to the committee she indicated that she would be overseeing a reorganization of the Administrative Bureau that is overseen by the Cook County President. The committee approved her appointment.

The Board Meeting was called to order promptly at 10am by President Preckwinkle. Comm. Fritchey and Comm. Reyes were absent. After spending 30 minutes devoted to a resolution recognizing Organ Donor Awareness Day in Cook County, the meeting was recessed for committee meetings.

During the Finance Committee Meeting the following issues were discussed:

• Comm. Gainer again requested that the Chief Judge's Office provide a rundown of the grant money spent in the Mortgage Foreclosure Mediation Program that his office has been conducting for the past several months. Comm. Collins stated that she did not understand why the county had to give the Illinois Housing Development Authority (IHDA) money to do housing counseling in this mediation program when there are plenty of other agencies that provide this service and get funding from other sources.


• Comm. Daley asked Comm. Silvestri if the Litigation Subcommittee would be providing the information on remedial action taken in the civil rights cases that come before the board. A request was previously made to obtain information from the Sheriff's Office concerning action taken against employees that were named in law suits. Comm. Silvestri stated that the information would be supplied in a confidential manner that is in accordance with the law on disclosing such information. Comm. Gainer reported that the Sheriff's Office is working on a tracking system for incidents that occur in an effort to decrease the outflow of money in settlements.


• The comptroller's preliminary Revenue Report for fiscal year 2010 indicates a shortfall of $30.2m. The amount of revenue from the home rule taxes was down but the comptroller stated that was in line with what the state and the city also saw and was not unique to the county. The revenue from patient fees was under by $2m. Mr. Ayres, CCHHS CFO, stated that $40m in claims have been submitted to the state in medicaide claims that are waiting to be processed.


• Comm. Daley asked Mr Ayres if the issues with the billing for physicians services had been rectified. Mr. Ayres stated that there was an ongoing training for physicians to correct the billing procedures. This billing has been done incorrectly for several years and changing the process requires retraining and adjustment to the system which should be completed by the end of the summer.


• Mr Ayres was asked if the $500m revenue estimate provided in the HHS 2011 budget is realistic. He stated that it would be difficult to reach but possible depending on medicaide changes at the state. Further discussion revealed that the county has attempted to make an arrangement with the state to provide some financial resources to expedite the processing of the $40m in medicaide claims for the county so that payment on qualified claims would be forthcoming soon. Mr. Ayres also indicated that the contract with Med Assets, the company with the contract for medicaide qualification, was bought out, and Price, Waterhouse, Coopers is now doing this service.

The Board Meeting resumed at 11:45am amd most items on the board agenda were referred to committee so there was minimal discussion during the meeting.

• There was a notification to the board of the salaries of some Grade 24 employees. Comm. Collins wanted to know again why the board had to be notified about these salaries. Comm. Daley explained that the reason was that they board needed to be aware of new Grade 24 hires or salary adjustments since these are Shakman exempt positions.


• Comm. Suffredin introduced an ordinance amendment based on a new state statute that requires all public bodies to approve the minutes of their meetings within 30 days. He stated that the journals of the CC Board Meetings have not been approved since 1998. Based on this new law there will now be a standing Rules Committee Meeting at 9:45am prior to each board meeting to approve the corrected journals of the previous meeting.

The meeting was adjourned at 12:35pm.

Cook County Board Meeting