Ethics Amendment Referred to Committee
The meeting was called to order by President Preckwinkle at 10:00 am.
An amendment to the Ethics Ordinance was introduced by Commissioner Earlean Collins. Co-sponsors were Commissioners John Fritchey, Bridget Gainer, Peter Silvestri, Larry Suffredin, and Jeff Tobolski. The amendment stated that no official or employee shall participate in making any county governmental decision with respect to matters in which the official or employee or his or her spouse, dependent, or domestic partner has a stake. Any official or employee who has a conflict of interest must advise her supervisor of the conflict potential in writing addressed to the Cook County Board as soon as the employee is aware of the potential conflict. If an employee or official has an economic interest conflict in regard to property the County might purchase, they are notify the Cook County Board of Commissioners as soon as they are aware of the conflict. There was also a section of the amendment that addressed the hiring of relatives.
Commissionor Collins stated that the amendment would be an economic advantage to the County because it would be helpful in ruling out conflict of interest and violations of the law.
Much of the discussion centered on the lack of information that commissioners received regarding the amendment. They expressed that they did not feel confident in amending the Ordinance because of a lack of understanding. The amendment was referred to committee for study and presentation at a later date.
The meeting was adjourned at 11:45
--Submitted by Velda Erie
Friday, February 25, 2011
Friday, February 18, 2011
More Cook County Budget Hearings
Bureau of Technology - Feb. 3 Hearing
Greg Wass, the newly appointed Chief of Technology, provided a handout to the Commissioners and reviewed his vision for changes needed to streamline the organizational structure of technology within the county. At the present time 20% of IT spending is within the Bureau. He stated that while there may be enough money allocated for IT it is not well managed since central oversight for spending or coordination of IT services is lacking. Purchase of the county's main frame computer from IBM (for $400,000) was listed as one of his initiatives with the long term goal of getting off the main frame. He would like 2011 to be focused on the planning phase for IT across the county with execution of their plan following in 2012 and beyond.
Commissioners raised concerns about the amount of money that they have approved for technology over the years. Contractual issues of changing vendors were raised. A big concern was expressed by several commissioners about cell phone use - who gets cell phones paid for by the county and who pays the bills for those phones. Department Heads make the determination of who gets phones and who pays for them but there does not seem to be a consistent policy. Some phones are paid for from a central account but Comm. Gainer questioned why cell phone bills were not allocated to the departments. Sharing of IT systems and having separate IT systems in different departments that don't communicate were also raised as issues as they are every year. Comm. Daley stated that they may need an ordinance that would require the elected officials to participate in whatever system changes are made. He further stated that savings can only come from the cooperation among all elected officials and departments.
Public Administrator - Feb. 3 Hearing
Nicholas Crapsas serves as the Public Administrator for Cook County. He is appointed by the state to provide services to those persons who die in Illinois without a will or have no one to administer their estate. His $56,000 part time salary is paid by the state and his office has a budget request for $1.172m. Revenue generated by this office was $4.2m this past year. This hearing was brief with few questions asked. Comm. Gainer did ask how the law firms were chosen with which the office contracts for services and Mr. Crapsas stated that a request for qualifications had been issued and the office selects from those firms that have met the qualifications.
Auditor - Feb. 3 Hearing
Laura Burman is the head of the Internal Audit Dept. of Cook County. She stated she has complied with the requested budget cuts but instead of doing lay offs she will use furlough days (19 for each FTE) in her department. She stated that future audits will focus on revenue generating departments and they are doing a more risk based approach in their audits. Comm. Gainer stated that making cuts in this department could reduce their ability to catch problems. This also was a brief hearing with few questions asked.
States Attorney - Feb. 8 Hearing
Anita Alvarez came into the hearing after holding a press conference in the hall outside the President's office. In her prepared statements she discussed what a difficult year 2010 had been for law enforcement citing the challenges presented by increased gun violence. She stated that she had negotiated with President Preckwinkle about the cuts to her budget and if she made the requested 10% cuts she would have to cut 58 states attorney positions and 100 support staff and such cuts would greatly impact the services her office would be able to provide.
In discussion with the commissioners it was revealed that the President had requested the 16% cut and the States Attorney had submitted a budget with a 5.5% cut. Further discussion between the President and SA had resulted in a compromise cut of about 10% but there still seemed to be some unresolved issues. Comm. Suffredin asked about whether she was able to use any Special Purpose Funds that were collected by the courts and she said that those belonged to the Chief Judge and her office did not share in any of those funds. She stated that she needs to be fully staffed on the criminal side which is not where her office can generate income. Thus if cuts are made to her civil case staffing her ability to generate increased revenue will be compromised. Comm. Beavers asked his usual question about minority representation on the staff in her office. Ms. Alvarez was prepared for the question and provided the following statistics: her professional staff is 9.62% African American, 7.24% Hispanic, and 4% Asian with 43% of the staff being women. Observer left before the hearing was over.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Cook County Budget Hearings--February 15, 2011
Four county departments presented their budgets today--Cook County Clerk, Human Resources, Public Defender, Treasurer. All county departments were originally asked to cut 16% from last year's budget.
County Clerk--David Orr presented an 18% cut due to a "strategic plan of technology improvements, cross training, and not filling vacancies." Also mentioned were efficiencies in the vital records area and an increase in marriage and civil union licenses which are/will become money-makers for the department. One commissioner questioned why the entire administration in this office is grade 24 (highest level and pay grade) and it was mentioned that there is a large disparity in grade 24 salaries throughout county departments.
With regard to elections, early voting and absentee voting increases should lessen crowding in voting precincts. Orr mentioned that his office would like to take over the jobs of local electoral boards--and do so more efficiently--since petition challenges are now often inconsistently and capriciously decided.
Human Resources--Jonathan Rothstein stated there will be a slight reduction in staff (14) in this department. Comm. Daley asked about furlough days, pay freeze, unpaid holidays, unpaid lunch for county employees as part of cost-saving measures. Meetings are being held this week with union leaders and Rothstein will update the board as negotiation talks proceed. Commissioners expressed concern over Shakman compliance and the large numbers of employees out on disability and family leave. The TOLEO computer system for automated job applications and a new compliance position along with a better hiring plan will bring Human Resources into "substantial compliance with Shakman" by mid-year. A desk audit is being done and the risk management department will work on better methods for getting employees out on disability back to work in a timely manner.
Public Defender--Judge Abashi Cunningham referred to on-going discussions with President Preckwinkle regarding budget cuts in his department. The President wants a 10% decrease and Cunningham would only go as far as 6.1%. He was unclear as to where this was going. Cunningham was also not clear on how these cuts would effect the public defender's office--but presumably by cases taking longer to process and try in the courts. Some Commissioners are concerned about the large number ( and cost--over $4.2 million per year) of outside attorneys hired for cases where there is a perceived conflict of interest--such as parent and child opposing on a case. Cunningham blamed the judges in these cases, as they have the discretion to require outside attorneys. He indicated this would need to be changed by state law.
Grants are not sought by this department, as there is no one in the office who can write grant applications. At any rate, most grants go for law enforcement and not for defense of indigents.
Treasurer--Maria Pappas presented a very professional and thorough report of the Treasurer's office. She decreased her budget by 33% from 2010. This was done through increased revenues, reductions in staff (6), a scavenger sale, and especially increased efficiencies through technology use. Satellite offices have been closed, e-mails can now answer most taxpayer questions, mortgage companies are able to pay property taxes on-line and there are "stops" incorporated to prevent taxpayers from over-paying or double-paying. This office is modeling technology for other departments in the county and throughout the country. A job/desk audit will be done this year to more effectively describe duties and requirements of jobs in this department. This is an issue common throughout the county, as many jobs are incorrectly listed and described.
Pappas has also begun an on-line site showing all 2,000 local governments' pension obligations. She cannot force governments to do this, but counts on taxpayers to pressure their local government entities to provide this information. A new special purpose fund has been added to the Treasurer's office. The 534 fund uses fees to pay employee pensions in this department.
Much of this presentation was rather contentious--especially between Comm. Fritchey and Pappas. Questions about the high salaries of Pappas' grade 24 employees (30% higher than other elected officials'), and a recent news item about high cleaning person and bodyguard/driver salaries caused an uncomfortable silence in the room.
Friday, February 11, 2011
Finance Committee Budget Hearings – Feb. 10, 2011
Exploring ways to reduce the number of layoffs.
The first public hearing on the proposed budget where members of the public could testify was held the evening before at the Maybrook Court House in Maywood. Employees who are union members turned out in force to protest the layoffs called for in this proposed budget. Commissioners were clearly affected by what they heard the prior evening. Finance Committee Chairman Daley brought Jonathan Rothstein, interim director of Human Relations, to this budget review meeting to update Commissioners on talks with unions about the possibility of unions accepting furloughs or other ideas to reduce the number of layoffs necessary. Mr. Rothstein indicated that no firm proposal had been put on the table, but when the subject had been brought up with at least some of the unions, it was indicated that this was not worth pursuing. However, Chairman Daley urged both Mr. Rothstein and the President's office and the unions to talk again to explore any and all ideas, including pay freezes and unpaid holidays. Commissioner Reyes stated that he was going to introduce an amendment to the budget that would reduce the salaries of department heads by 10% in order to free up money to reduce the number of layoffs.
Bureau of Administration
This Bureau is composed of a great variety of departments, the largest being the Highway Department, but also including the Office of the Chief Administrative Officer (which works on projects that often cut across departmental lines), the Department of Environmental Control, the Zoning Board of Appeals, the Medical Examiner (i.e., the county coroner), the Office of Adoption and Child Custody Advocacy, the Veteran's Assistance Commission, the Animal Control Department, and the Cook County Law Library.
The majority of the questioning was directed to the budget of the Highway Department which calls for a net decrease of 74 FTEs, many of them union positions. An additional 36 positions were saved by transferring their costs to the Special Purpose Fund MFT Illinois First, which gets money from the State for the design, construction, maintenance, and operation of highways. In response to Commissioner questions, the Superintendent of the Department confirmed that he had conferred with the Illinois Dept. of Transportation to make sure the employees transferred qualified under this Special Purpose Fund.
As the Commissioners had done with the Facilities Department earlier in the week, several Commissioners pressed the Superintendent as to whether there were sufficient positions in the budget to be able to do the necessary work of the department, particularly during times like the recent blizzard. He said that there were, but also said that the department would be at a bare bone level, and he would prefer to have a cushion of 2 or 3 more positions in most of the areas. The Superintendent also said they were looking at how they can improve operations by working across the 5 districts of the department. Commissioner Gainer pressed the superintendent to look at closing down District 3 during the non-winter months (and moving the employees to the other districts) since it sounded like it might only need to be open for the purpose of salting. Several Commissioners brought up the idea of whether employees who were losing positions and were close to retirement could "buy out" in order to bridge their service and benefits.
There was also concern about the staffing of the Medical Examiner's area, and Dr. Jones said that she does not see how she can live with only the $60,000 budgeted for overtime. She also mentioned that several maintenance projects in her department were on hold because of the pending layoffs in the Facilities Department.
The one department that is adding people is Environmental Control, which is adding 2 inspectors and 1 administrative assistant. On average, each inspector brings in about 3 – 4 times his/her salary due to fines levied for violations. In the budget, about $300,000 more in revenues are projected as a result of the proposed addition of inspectors.
-- submitted by Priscilla Mims
The first public hearing on the proposed budget where members of the public could testify was held the evening before at the Maybrook Court House in Maywood. Employees who are union members turned out in force to protest the layoffs called for in this proposed budget. Commissioners were clearly affected by what they heard the prior evening. Finance Committee Chairman Daley brought Jonathan Rothstein, interim director of Human Relations, to this budget review meeting to update Commissioners on talks with unions about the possibility of unions accepting furloughs or other ideas to reduce the number of layoffs necessary. Mr. Rothstein indicated that no firm proposal had been put on the table, but when the subject had been brought up with at least some of the unions, it was indicated that this was not worth pursuing. However, Chairman Daley urged both Mr. Rothstein and the President's office and the unions to talk again to explore any and all ideas, including pay freezes and unpaid holidays. Commissioner Reyes stated that he was going to introduce an amendment to the budget that would reduce the salaries of department heads by 10% in order to free up money to reduce the number of layoffs.
Bureau of Administration
This Bureau is composed of a great variety of departments, the largest being the Highway Department, but also including the Office of the Chief Administrative Officer (which works on projects that often cut across departmental lines), the Department of Environmental Control, the Zoning Board of Appeals, the Medical Examiner (i.e., the county coroner), the Office of Adoption and Child Custody Advocacy, the Veteran's Assistance Commission, the Animal Control Department, and the Cook County Law Library.
The majority of the questioning was directed to the budget of the Highway Department which calls for a net decrease of 74 FTEs, many of them union positions. An additional 36 positions were saved by transferring their costs to the Special Purpose Fund MFT Illinois First, which gets money from the State for the design, construction, maintenance, and operation of highways. In response to Commissioner questions, the Superintendent of the Department confirmed that he had conferred with the Illinois Dept. of Transportation to make sure the employees transferred qualified under this Special Purpose Fund.
As the Commissioners had done with the Facilities Department earlier in the week, several Commissioners pressed the Superintendent as to whether there were sufficient positions in the budget to be able to do the necessary work of the department, particularly during times like the recent blizzard. He said that there were, but also said that the department would be at a bare bone level, and he would prefer to have a cushion of 2 or 3 more positions in most of the areas. The Superintendent also said they were looking at how they can improve operations by working across the 5 districts of the department. Commissioner Gainer pressed the superintendent to look at closing down District 3 during the non-winter months (and moving the employees to the other districts) since it sounded like it might only need to be open for the purpose of salting. Several Commissioners brought up the idea of whether employees who were losing positions and were close to retirement could "buy out" in order to bridge their service and benefits.
There was also concern about the staffing of the Medical Examiner's area, and Dr. Jones said that she does not see how she can live with only the $60,000 budgeted for overtime. She also mentioned that several maintenance projects in her department were on hold because of the pending layoffs in the Facilities Department.
The one department that is adding people is Environmental Control, which is adding 2 inspectors and 1 administrative assistant. On average, each inspector brings in about 3 – 4 times his/her salary due to fines levied for violations. In the budget, about $300,000 more in revenues are projected as a result of the proposed addition of inspectors.
-- submitted by Priscilla Mims
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Finance Committee Budget Hearings – Feb. 9, 2011
Assessor, Recorder of Deeds, Board of Review, and Department of Administrative Hearings
Assessor (Joseph Berrios)
Met 16% cut requested by President ($22 million vs. $25 million in 2010; 337.6 FTEs vs. 397 in 2010). Assessor Berrios said that he fired 13 people who had worked for his predecessor and hired new people. For this budget reduction, he told Commissioner Beavers that he did have to eliminate 59 positions that were filled. A number of these positions are held by union people, so there is "bumping" going on now and he won't know exactly who will be walking out the door until this procedure is completed.
Separately, Mr. Berrios stated that he was going to lobby the state legislature to change the newly enacted law which requires seniors to re-apply every year for the senior exemption for property taxes. He feels that he has the necessary tools to catch any fraud. This law has the effect of his office incurring additional costs in sending out the exemption applications and then processing them when returned.
Recorder of Deeds (Eugene Moore)
Also complied with the 16% budget cut ($11.96 million vs. $11.43 million in 2010; 206 vs. 221 FTEs). Recorder Moore was able to cut FTE positions without having to lay off anyone because he had 15 unfilled slots. By drawing down on the Recorder's Special Purpose Fund, he was able to transfer 20 people to that Fund. In response to Commissioner Schneider's question, however, unless revenues improve, it will likely be difficult to maintain all these positions in future years since the balance in the Special Purpose Fund has been depleted this year. Commissioner Daley suggested that the County should be getting more than $1 from the $10 Rental Housing fee that the Comptroller charges under State Law that has $9 going to the State.
Commissioner Gorman stated that there were political activities being run out of Mr. Moore's office and that she would meet with him privately to discuss so he could put a stop to them.
Board of Review – (Larry Rogers, Dan Patlak, and Michael Cabonargi)
The President's recommendation is to cut an additional $280,119 from the budget requested by the Board. The difference relates to overtime that was paid last year with approval from the then President's office, but which was over and above what was in last year's budget. The Board of Review hopes that the Cook County Board will offer amendments to put this additional amount back into the budget, but first the additional money would have to be found.
Michael Cabonargi was introduced as the new Board of Review Commissioner for the 2nd District, having been appointed by the Chief Judge to take the position vacated by Joseph Berrios upon being elected Assessor. Mr. Cabonargi has been an attorney with the Security and Exchange Commission.
Department of Administrative Hearings
This department was created 2 years ago pursuant to an authorizing state statute which permitted the County to establish an administrative hearing procedure for alleged violations of the County code, such as alleged failure to pay required home rule taxes (cigarette, sales, liquor taxes, etc.), building and zoning code violations, animal control violations, etc. These administrative hearings provide for a quicker and less expensive way to resolve alleged violations as opposed to going to the circuit court and help relieve some of the burden on the courts. The hearing officers for these proceedings are volunteer lawyers who are appointed by the Director of this Department.
The Department met the 16% budget reduction without having to reduce its current 7 FTE slots. Last year the Department handled 5,000 cases and it expects to expand that 5 fold to 30,000 this year. That could mean $12 to $15 million more revenues to the County. At yesterday's budget review meeting, however, State's Attorney Anita Alvarez said that she would withdraw all support for Administrative Hearings if she was forced to cut her budget by 10%. The Director said that the administrative cases would be stalled without the support of the State's Attorney. The Department would like to hold hearings in each of the suburban court houses, but has been unable to get the approval of the Chief Judge for space at Markham.
The Commissioners clearly see the value in expanding the work of this Department in future years.
--submitted by Priscilla Mims
Assessor (Joseph Berrios)
Met 16% cut requested by President ($22 million vs. $25 million in 2010; 337.6 FTEs vs. 397 in 2010). Assessor Berrios said that he fired 13 people who had worked for his predecessor and hired new people. For this budget reduction, he told Commissioner Beavers that he did have to eliminate 59 positions that were filled. A number of these positions are held by union people, so there is "bumping" going on now and he won't know exactly who will be walking out the door until this procedure is completed.
Separately, Mr. Berrios stated that he was going to lobby the state legislature to change the newly enacted law which requires seniors to re-apply every year for the senior exemption for property taxes. He feels that he has the necessary tools to catch any fraud. This law has the effect of his office incurring additional costs in sending out the exemption applications and then processing them when returned.
Recorder of Deeds (Eugene Moore)
Also complied with the 16% budget cut ($11.96 million vs. $11.43 million in 2010; 206 vs. 221 FTEs). Recorder Moore was able to cut FTE positions without having to lay off anyone because he had 15 unfilled slots. By drawing down on the Recorder's Special Purpose Fund, he was able to transfer 20 people to that Fund. In response to Commissioner Schneider's question, however, unless revenues improve, it will likely be difficult to maintain all these positions in future years since the balance in the Special Purpose Fund has been depleted this year. Commissioner Daley suggested that the County should be getting more than $1 from the $10 Rental Housing fee that the Comptroller charges under State Law that has $9 going to the State.
Commissioner Gorman stated that there were political activities being run out of Mr. Moore's office and that she would meet with him privately to discuss so he could put a stop to them.
Board of Review – (Larry Rogers, Dan Patlak, and Michael Cabonargi)
The President's recommendation is to cut an additional $280,119 from the budget requested by the Board. The difference relates to overtime that was paid last year with approval from the then President's office, but which was over and above what was in last year's budget. The Board of Review hopes that the Cook County Board will offer amendments to put this additional amount back into the budget, but first the additional money would have to be found.
Michael Cabonargi was introduced as the new Board of Review Commissioner for the 2nd District, having been appointed by the Chief Judge to take the position vacated by Joseph Berrios upon being elected Assessor. Mr. Cabonargi has been an attorney with the Security and Exchange Commission.
Department of Administrative Hearings
This department was created 2 years ago pursuant to an authorizing state statute which permitted the County to establish an administrative hearing procedure for alleged violations of the County code, such as alleged failure to pay required home rule taxes (cigarette, sales, liquor taxes, etc.), building and zoning code violations, animal control violations, etc. These administrative hearings provide for a quicker and less expensive way to resolve alleged violations as opposed to going to the circuit court and help relieve some of the burden on the courts. The hearing officers for these proceedings are volunteer lawyers who are appointed by the Director of this Department.
The Department met the 16% budget reduction without having to reduce its current 7 FTE slots. Last year the Department handled 5,000 cases and it expects to expand that 5 fold to 30,000 this year. That could mean $12 to $15 million more revenues to the County. At yesterday's budget review meeting, however, State's Attorney Anita Alvarez said that she would withdraw all support for Administrative Hearings if she was forced to cut her budget by 10%. The Director said that the administrative cases would be stalled without the support of the State's Attorney. The Department would like to hold hearings in each of the suburban court houses, but has been unable to get the approval of the Chief Judge for space at Markham.
The Commissioners clearly see the value in expanding the work of this Department in future years.
--submitted by Priscilla Mims
Finance Committee Budget Hearings – Feb. 7, 2011
Offices under the President, Clerk of the Circuit Court, Inspector General, Sheriff, Chief Judge, & Juvenile Temporary Detention Center
During the course of these meetings a number of questions are raised by Commissioners that will be responded to outside the public forum in private meetings between the departments and individual Commissioners or in writing in response to written questions from the Commissioners that are shared with all Commissioners. Also, many of these questions and those that are answered in the public forum do not directly relate to the budget, but to the workings of the department.
Offices under the President
Composed of the Office of the President; Department of Human Rights, Ethics, Women's Issues; Judicial Advisory Council; and Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.
As a totality, the budgets of these offices decreased by 17% from the General Funds, though individual areas may have increased. There were a number of questions about the entire budget, and it is clear that some Commissioners are still trying to understand why the cuts are necessary. Commissioner Sims pointed out that the County has not raised the property tax levy at all since the early 1990's. If the County were to levy the normal increase that most taxing bodies follow with regard to the growth in the CPI for this coming year, that would generate about $10.8 million more.
Despite the impression that some Commissioners had, the President's Chief of Staff state that all the new employees under the President are at salaries at or below their predecessors.
Commissioner Fritchey asked about possible overlap between the Dept. of Human Rights, Ethics, Women's Issues and the Independent Inspector General. Commissioner Gainer raised the issue of whether the Judiciary Advisory Council (a volunteer board) should have someone with experience in juvenile justice issues with the expectation that the Juvenile Temporary Detention Center is expected to move from federal court supervision to the Chief Judge and a new director will be needed. With regard to the Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, several Commissioners expressed concern that the department is located downtown, where the City's and Federal equivalent departments are also located. There was talk of possibly re-locating to the Oak Forest county campus along with the Highway Dept.
Clerk of the Circuit Court (Dorothy Brown)
While the budget reflects only a small reduction of FTEs under the General Funds (and an overall increase of 85 FTEs when also considering Special Purpose Funds and Grants), the Clerk of the Circuit Court, Dorothy Brown, stated that under this budget 45 to 160 current employees would lose their jobs. The range is due to the fact that she is negotiating with the unions as to whether reductions in costs through furlough days or other means could be done in lieu of cutting positions. Commissioner Suffredin explained to this observer later that some of the FTE positions in the budget are funded at $1, meaning that those positions would not be filled unless money becomes available.
The Clerk stated that there is about a 1 to 4 ratio of supervisory personnel to workers, which tracks the number of non-union to union personnel.
Currently, electronic court filings are done only for commercial litigation, but the IL Supreme Court has approved expansion to all areas, which the Clerk expects to implement over the next 18 to 24 months. However, the IL Supreme Court continues to require the Clerk of the Court to print out one paper copy of each pleading. Thus, document storage will continue to be necessary. The Clerk is working with 17 other municipalities to implement electronic traffic citations that could be paid online. The Clerk provided the Commissioner with handouts containing ideas for revenue initiatives and cost savings initiatives, but these were not made available to the public.
Independent Inspector General (Patrick Blanchard)
The President proposes to increase this budget by $375,786 and add 2.9 FTE positions, including 6 new investigators (other positions are being dropped to net to the 2.9 FTEs) to deal with the issues being raised and in order to provide sufficient oversight of the county's compliance with the Shakman decree which is one of the pre-requisites in order that the county could come out from under federal court supervision. The cost of these additional investigators is far less than the costs the county is currently paying to cover the costs of the court-appointed Shakman overseer. Commissioner Fritchey asked about the Clerk of the Court having an inspector general in her office (with 20 FTEs and a $1 million budget) and whether it would make sense to merge that function with the Independent Inspector General (who said he thought it could be done).
Sheriff (Tom Dart)
Has cut his budget 12%, which includes a reduction of FTEs in all areas exception correctional officers at jail, where he is under court order to increase number. These budget cuts will result in the elimination of the graffiti unit and K9 drug unit that are used by suburban municipalities. There will also be fewer deputies assigned to provide security to the court rooms and to patrol the unincorporated areas, which concerns the Sheriff. About 100 current employees will be let go under this budget.
The Sheriff will also no longer be responsible for custodial duties in the courthouses. This function will be transferred to Facilities Management.
Sheriff Dart explained that while the average daily population of the jail has gone down considerably since he took office (due to such alternatives as electronic monitoring), the average stay of those incarcerated has increased by 1.9 days, which amounts to an extra $21 million, showing how important it is to speed up the court process and pursue alternatives to incarceration when safely possible for those awaiting trial.
Other ideas for cost savings that the Sheriff has suggested in prior years, which have not been implemented, include closing the suburban bond courts on weekends (freeing up about 50 Sheriff deputies for duties elsewhere that will cut down on overtime, as well as saving the costs of operating the building), using closed circuit television in lieu of transporting prisoners to court for routine appearances, imposing fees for electronic monitoring, instituting a fee on inmates who can afford it for doctor's visits, consolidation of the Forest Preserve police unit with the Sheriff, and providing video visits rather than personal visits to people in the jail (other than visits by attorneys).
The Chief Judge is going to provide the Sheriff with the means to increase revenues to the county by allowing the Sheriff to oversee about 1/3 of the foreclosed home sales (which are currently all done by private entities that get the revenues for handling the sales).
Commissioner Fritchey told Sheriff Dart that Facilities Management would like to charge back to the Sheriff the costs of repairing damage caused by vandalism inside the jail (see the Feb. 4 report). Sheriff Dart said that since most of the vandalism takes place inside the cells and the guards are not there, he does not believe there is anything he can do to prevent the vandalism, and he cannot absorb those costs.
The Sheriff is partnering with the President's office to look at ways to reduce the number of employees on family and medical leave, utilizing more sophisticated computer tools to alert of possible abuse. Having employees on leave, for whatever reason, raises the overtime needed. Commissioner Suffredin asked whether there could be any cost savings in this budget year that could be used to offset some of the cuts. The Commissioner also suggested the possibility of an ordinance allowing the county to "buy back" vacation and sick leave from employees who are retiring. This would mean the positions of these retiring employees would be vacated sooner, allowing the positions to be filled sooner and reducing overtime.
Commissioner Silvestri said he would like to explore having the suburban municipalities fund the graffiti unit in order to maintain it. Commissioners Murphy and Gorman stated they were against merging the Forest Preserve police into the Sheriff's department. Sheriff Dart said that if there weren't considerable cost savings, then he would not be interested in doing. Commissioner Garcia said he was concerned about reports that federal immigration service personnel were coming into the jail and holding and then deporting undocumented immigrants who were charged with minor offenses. Sheriff Dart said that his department was not working with the immigration personnel and they were not coming into the jail, but they were in the Criminal Courts building. Commissioner Reyes asked about the Boot Camp, an alternative to the State prison system for those convicted, and the Sheriff confirmed the recidivist rate is a relatively low 20%. The Sheriff would like to get additional funds from the State to expand it.
Chief Judge (Timothy Evans)
Judge Evans stated he had cut the budget by a greater amount than is shown in the proposed budget, and that 100 positions have been eliminated. He also said that by maxing out the Special Purpose Funds, he has provided the county with $17 million. However, it is not clear how this can be so.
The Chief Judge said that electronic monitoring has increased by 26%, and he is encouraging the judges to utilize this wherever appropriate since it saves the county about $147/day. He has pledged to work with the President to make sure that judges are imposing the maximum fees. He also said that he is willing to consider the Sheriff's suggestion to close suburban courts on weekends if the Sheriff can ensure that those arrested will be transported to 26th and California for bond hearings on the weekend. He is concerned about using closed circuit television in lieu of prisoners being physically present in the court rooms for "routine appearances," since he is not sure what is meant by "routine."
Judge Evans discussed a plan to create a new Diversion Program with the State's Attorney that would include a new court division to review bond amounts and consider electronic monitoring.
Juvenile Temporary Detention Center (Earl Dunlap)
This is still under federal court supervision, and it is the court which sets the budget, which is slightly higher ($10,000 more) than in 2010 with 1 less FTE. Mr. Dunlap said that he hoped to have the staffing plan fully implemented by June. He said the Board should consider feasibility and needs assessment for the physical plant. Mr. Dunlap stated that the existing building is not appropriate. Further, the county is getting very little return on its investment in the JTDC. It would be better to put the money into the community to prevent the need for a JTDC. On the plus side, the county has some good alternatives to the JTDC, which is evidenced by the relatively low population of around 340. However, 98% of the young people housed at the JTDC are African American or Latino. The observer left at 6:30 pm, prior to the completion of the questioning by Commissioners.
-- submitted by Priscilla Mims
During the course of these meetings a number of questions are raised by Commissioners that will be responded to outside the public forum in private meetings between the departments and individual Commissioners or in writing in response to written questions from the Commissioners that are shared with all Commissioners. Also, many of these questions and those that are answered in the public forum do not directly relate to the budget, but to the workings of the department.
Offices under the President
Composed of the Office of the President; Department of Human Rights, Ethics, Women's Issues; Judicial Advisory Council; and Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.
As a totality, the budgets of these offices decreased by 17% from the General Funds, though individual areas may have increased. There were a number of questions about the entire budget, and it is clear that some Commissioners are still trying to understand why the cuts are necessary. Commissioner Sims pointed out that the County has not raised the property tax levy at all since the early 1990's. If the County were to levy the normal increase that most taxing bodies follow with regard to the growth in the CPI for this coming year, that would generate about $10.8 million more.
Despite the impression that some Commissioners had, the President's Chief of Staff state that all the new employees under the President are at salaries at or below their predecessors.
Commissioner Fritchey asked about possible overlap between the Dept. of Human Rights, Ethics, Women's Issues and the Independent Inspector General. Commissioner Gainer raised the issue of whether the Judiciary Advisory Council (a volunteer board) should have someone with experience in juvenile justice issues with the expectation that the Juvenile Temporary Detention Center is expected to move from federal court supervision to the Chief Judge and a new director will be needed. With regard to the Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, several Commissioners expressed concern that the department is located downtown, where the City's and Federal equivalent departments are also located. There was talk of possibly re-locating to the Oak Forest county campus along with the Highway Dept.
Clerk of the Circuit Court (Dorothy Brown)
While the budget reflects only a small reduction of FTEs under the General Funds (and an overall increase of 85 FTEs when also considering Special Purpose Funds and Grants), the Clerk of the Circuit Court, Dorothy Brown, stated that under this budget 45 to 160 current employees would lose their jobs. The range is due to the fact that she is negotiating with the unions as to whether reductions in costs through furlough days or other means could be done in lieu of cutting positions. Commissioner Suffredin explained to this observer later that some of the FTE positions in the budget are funded at $1, meaning that those positions would not be filled unless money becomes available.
The Clerk stated that there is about a 1 to 4 ratio of supervisory personnel to workers, which tracks the number of non-union to union personnel.
Currently, electronic court filings are done only for commercial litigation, but the IL Supreme Court has approved expansion to all areas, which the Clerk expects to implement over the next 18 to 24 months. However, the IL Supreme Court continues to require the Clerk of the Court to print out one paper copy of each pleading. Thus, document storage will continue to be necessary. The Clerk is working with 17 other municipalities to implement electronic traffic citations that could be paid online. The Clerk provided the Commissioner with handouts containing ideas for revenue initiatives and cost savings initiatives, but these were not made available to the public.
Independent Inspector General (Patrick Blanchard)
The President proposes to increase this budget by $375,786 and add 2.9 FTE positions, including 6 new investigators (other positions are being dropped to net to the 2.9 FTEs) to deal with the issues being raised and in order to provide sufficient oversight of the county's compliance with the Shakman decree which is one of the pre-requisites in order that the county could come out from under federal court supervision. The cost of these additional investigators is far less than the costs the county is currently paying to cover the costs of the court-appointed Shakman overseer. Commissioner Fritchey asked about the Clerk of the Court having an inspector general in her office (with 20 FTEs and a $1 million budget) and whether it would make sense to merge that function with the Independent Inspector General (who said he thought it could be done).
Sheriff (Tom Dart)
Has cut his budget 12%, which includes a reduction of FTEs in all areas exception correctional officers at jail, where he is under court order to increase number. These budget cuts will result in the elimination of the graffiti unit and K9 drug unit that are used by suburban municipalities. There will also be fewer deputies assigned to provide security to the court rooms and to patrol the unincorporated areas, which concerns the Sheriff. About 100 current employees will be let go under this budget.
The Sheriff will also no longer be responsible for custodial duties in the courthouses. This function will be transferred to Facilities Management.
Sheriff Dart explained that while the average daily population of the jail has gone down considerably since he took office (due to such alternatives as electronic monitoring), the average stay of those incarcerated has increased by 1.9 days, which amounts to an extra $21 million, showing how important it is to speed up the court process and pursue alternatives to incarceration when safely possible for those awaiting trial.
Other ideas for cost savings that the Sheriff has suggested in prior years, which have not been implemented, include closing the suburban bond courts on weekends (freeing up about 50 Sheriff deputies for duties elsewhere that will cut down on overtime, as well as saving the costs of operating the building), using closed circuit television in lieu of transporting prisoners to court for routine appearances, imposing fees for electronic monitoring, instituting a fee on inmates who can afford it for doctor's visits, consolidation of the Forest Preserve police unit with the Sheriff, and providing video visits rather than personal visits to people in the jail (other than visits by attorneys).
The Chief Judge is going to provide the Sheriff with the means to increase revenues to the county by allowing the Sheriff to oversee about 1/3 of the foreclosed home sales (which are currently all done by private entities that get the revenues for handling the sales).
Commissioner Fritchey told Sheriff Dart that Facilities Management would like to charge back to the Sheriff the costs of repairing damage caused by vandalism inside the jail (see the Feb. 4 report). Sheriff Dart said that since most of the vandalism takes place inside the cells and the guards are not there, he does not believe there is anything he can do to prevent the vandalism, and he cannot absorb those costs.
The Sheriff is partnering with the President's office to look at ways to reduce the number of employees on family and medical leave, utilizing more sophisticated computer tools to alert of possible abuse. Having employees on leave, for whatever reason, raises the overtime needed. Commissioner Suffredin asked whether there could be any cost savings in this budget year that could be used to offset some of the cuts. The Commissioner also suggested the possibility of an ordinance allowing the county to "buy back" vacation and sick leave from employees who are retiring. This would mean the positions of these retiring employees would be vacated sooner, allowing the positions to be filled sooner and reducing overtime.
Commissioner Silvestri said he would like to explore having the suburban municipalities fund the graffiti unit in order to maintain it. Commissioners Murphy and Gorman stated they were against merging the Forest Preserve police into the Sheriff's department. Sheriff Dart said that if there weren't considerable cost savings, then he would not be interested in doing. Commissioner Garcia said he was concerned about reports that federal immigration service personnel were coming into the jail and holding and then deporting undocumented immigrants who were charged with minor offenses. Sheriff Dart said that his department was not working with the immigration personnel and they were not coming into the jail, but they were in the Criminal Courts building. Commissioner Reyes asked about the Boot Camp, an alternative to the State prison system for those convicted, and the Sheriff confirmed the recidivist rate is a relatively low 20%. The Sheriff would like to get additional funds from the State to expand it.
Chief Judge (Timothy Evans)
Judge Evans stated he had cut the budget by a greater amount than is shown in the proposed budget, and that 100 positions have been eliminated. He also said that by maxing out the Special Purpose Funds, he has provided the county with $17 million. However, it is not clear how this can be so.
The Chief Judge said that electronic monitoring has increased by 26%, and he is encouraging the judges to utilize this wherever appropriate since it saves the county about $147/day. He has pledged to work with the President to make sure that judges are imposing the maximum fees. He also said that he is willing to consider the Sheriff's suggestion to close suburban courts on weekends if the Sheriff can ensure that those arrested will be transported to 26th and California for bond hearings on the weekend. He is concerned about using closed circuit television in lieu of prisoners being physically present in the court rooms for "routine appearances," since he is not sure what is meant by "routine."
Judge Evans discussed a plan to create a new Diversion Program with the State's Attorney that would include a new court division to review bond amounts and consider electronic monitoring.
Juvenile Temporary Detention Center (Earl Dunlap)
This is still under federal court supervision, and it is the court which sets the budget, which is slightly higher ($10,000 more) than in 2010 with 1 less FTE. Mr. Dunlap said that he hoped to have the staffing plan fully implemented by June. He said the Board should consider feasibility and needs assessment for the physical plant. Mr. Dunlap stated that the existing building is not appropriate. Further, the county is getting very little return on its investment in the JTDC. It would be better to put the money into the community to prevent the need for a JTDC. On the plus side, the county has some good alternatives to the JTDC, which is evidenced by the relatively low population of around 340. However, 98% of the young people housed at the JTDC are African American or Latino. The observer left at 6:30 pm, prior to the completion of the questioning by Commissioners.
-- submitted by Priscilla Mims
Finance Committee Budget Hearings – Feb. 4, 2011
Understanding that budget cuts mean people cuts and other implications.
The Finance Committee, which is comprised of all Commissioners, began its series of meetings with all the departments and elected officials of Cook County government to review the proposed budget presented by President Preckwinkle on Feb. 1. Because of the change in Presidents, this proposed budget was presented much later than normal, but it still must be finalized by Feb. 28. As a result, the review is being severely compressed.
Note that one important change from past budget books is the inclusion of information pertaining to grants and full time equivalent (FTE) positions paid by grants under the appropriate departments. In the past, the grant information was segregated separately and FTE positions were not included in totals, making it much more difficult to review and consider. The League has raised this as a transparency issue with county personnel in the past, and so this change in presentation is welcomed.
Bureau of Finance
The County's new Chief Financial officer, Tariq Malhance, did a quick overview of the entire budget and then presented his budget.
Overall, there is a 2% reduction in operating costs from last year ($3.007 billion vs. $3.057 billion in 2010) and a reduction of 1,795 FTE (Full Time Equivalent employee) positions. Much of these reductions is driven by the reduction in the county's sales tax (a loss of $161 million) and a rise in the costs of salaries, pensions and benefits. There were a number of questions by Commissioner Collins trying to understand the underlying assumptions for the budget. In particular, she seemed to be questioning whether the projected revenues were too low.
In contrast to Facilities Management (see below), the Commissioners did not focus on the reduction of FTEs in the Bureau (down by 40, or about 1 in every 4.5 FTE positions). The Revenue area is restructuring to focus on delinquent payers, particularly the cigarette tax. The Comptroller talked about doing more with less, increasing the use of automation, and expects to be able to issue the 2010 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report by May 31, far earlier than has been done previously. Commissioner Suffredin suggested that if the county had the same definitions for the County amusement tax as are used for the Chicago tax, that might make it easier to partner with the city to do audits and eliminate some contested payments. Commissioner Silvestri suggested also looking at partnering with suburban communities.
Commissioner Gainer asked whether it would make sense to have a risk manager in the Sheriff's department. Lisa Walik, the Bureau's Risk Manager, said that having a risk manager at the Health & Hospitals System has worked well, so she thought having one in the Sheriff's department would also be a good idea.
Facilities Management
James D'Amico, the Director, said that his department had complied with the President's directive to cut the budget by 16%. As a result, the budget is $5.36 million less than in 2010 with 117.4 fewer FTEs, or more than 1 in 4 employees. Mr. D'Amico said that in order to reach the target % budget reduction, more employees have to be let go because of the increase in salaries for employees in that department approved by the Board last year.
Having fewer employees means that his department will no longer be able to rebuild spaces for departments, and he stated that his department can no longer bear the cost of repairing damage caused by vandalism in the County Jail or the Juvenile Temporary Detention Center. He also stated that he believes that if the costs of repairs (amounting to about $2.5 million) done by Facilities Management are borne by those areas, they would have the incentive to take steps to see that the vandalism was reduced. Mr. D'Amico also suggested a way for the County to obtain new revenues would be to charge for parking, as is done at the garage at the Juvenile Temporary Detention Center. There is a $2/day charge (or $25 for a monthly pass). He stated that charging at other County garages (such as at the Criminal Courts building) would produce $2.5 million. (If charge more than $2, the city tax of over $1 kicks in, which means that County would have to charge quite a bit more to get more than $2.)
Several Commissioners raised concerns about entire classes of employees being let go, such as Laborers and Pipe Coverers. There are plans to use outside contractors when needed, but the costs for them will likely be almost double that of employees. Mr. D'Amico said that he looked at areas where there would be less demand for services in the future, where performance was not at national standards, and where outside contractors where already being used. Commissioners continued to be concerned as to whether this budget has sufficient money for the entire fiscal year 2011.
Chicago Board of Elections
Because the only elections in 2011 under this Board's supervision are limited to city elections, the Chicago budget picks up all the costs this year except for the salaries of the three appointed members of the Board of Elections and the Executive Director, which are in this budget.
Bureau of Economic Development
This is a new bureau that is made up of Planning & Development, Capital Planning, Building & Zoning, and P.O.E.T. (the latter which is totally funded by the Federal Govt. and which has been in the news for problems). The capital budget (which last year was $519 million) is not being presented with this proposed operating budget. A complete review of capital projects is being undertaken, and the department expects to present a proposed capital budget in a couple of months. The Building and Zoning department covers unincorporated Cook County. P.O.E.T. has a new head and will be renamed and restructured to improve its effectiveness.
-- Submitted by Priscilla Mims
The Finance Committee, which is comprised of all Commissioners, began its series of meetings with all the departments and elected officials of Cook County government to review the proposed budget presented by President Preckwinkle on Feb. 1. Because of the change in Presidents, this proposed budget was presented much later than normal, but it still must be finalized by Feb. 28. As a result, the review is being severely compressed.
Note that one important change from past budget books is the inclusion of information pertaining to grants and full time equivalent (FTE) positions paid by grants under the appropriate departments. In the past, the grant information was segregated separately and FTE positions were not included in totals, making it much more difficult to review and consider. The League has raised this as a transparency issue with county personnel in the past, and so this change in presentation is welcomed.
Bureau of Finance
The County's new Chief Financial officer, Tariq Malhance, did a quick overview of the entire budget and then presented his budget.
Overall, there is a 2% reduction in operating costs from last year ($3.007 billion vs. $3.057 billion in 2010) and a reduction of 1,795 FTE (Full Time Equivalent employee) positions. Much of these reductions is driven by the reduction in the county's sales tax (a loss of $161 million) and a rise in the costs of salaries, pensions and benefits. There were a number of questions by Commissioner Collins trying to understand the underlying assumptions for the budget. In particular, she seemed to be questioning whether the projected revenues were too low.
In contrast to Facilities Management (see below), the Commissioners did not focus on the reduction of FTEs in the Bureau (down by 40, or about 1 in every 4.5 FTE positions). The Revenue area is restructuring to focus on delinquent payers, particularly the cigarette tax. The Comptroller talked about doing more with less, increasing the use of automation, and expects to be able to issue the 2010 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report by May 31, far earlier than has been done previously. Commissioner Suffredin suggested that if the county had the same definitions for the County amusement tax as are used for the Chicago tax, that might make it easier to partner with the city to do audits and eliminate some contested payments. Commissioner Silvestri suggested also looking at partnering with suburban communities.
Commissioner Gainer asked whether it would make sense to have a risk manager in the Sheriff's department. Lisa Walik, the Bureau's Risk Manager, said that having a risk manager at the Health & Hospitals System has worked well, so she thought having one in the Sheriff's department would also be a good idea.
Facilities Management
James D'Amico, the Director, said that his department had complied with the President's directive to cut the budget by 16%. As a result, the budget is $5.36 million less than in 2010 with 117.4 fewer FTEs, or more than 1 in 4 employees. Mr. D'Amico said that in order to reach the target % budget reduction, more employees have to be let go because of the increase in salaries for employees in that department approved by the Board last year.
Having fewer employees means that his department will no longer be able to rebuild spaces for departments, and he stated that his department can no longer bear the cost of repairing damage caused by vandalism in the County Jail or the Juvenile Temporary Detention Center. He also stated that he believes that if the costs of repairs (amounting to about $2.5 million) done by Facilities Management are borne by those areas, they would have the incentive to take steps to see that the vandalism was reduced. Mr. D'Amico also suggested a way for the County to obtain new revenues would be to charge for parking, as is done at the garage at the Juvenile Temporary Detention Center. There is a $2/day charge (or $25 for a monthly pass). He stated that charging at other County garages (such as at the Criminal Courts building) would produce $2.5 million. (If charge more than $2, the city tax of over $1 kicks in, which means that County would have to charge quite a bit more to get more than $2.)
Several Commissioners raised concerns about entire classes of employees being let go, such as Laborers and Pipe Coverers. There are plans to use outside contractors when needed, but the costs for them will likely be almost double that of employees. Mr. D'Amico said that he looked at areas where there would be less demand for services in the future, where performance was not at national standards, and where outside contractors where already being used. Commissioners continued to be concerned as to whether this budget has sufficient money for the entire fiscal year 2011.
Chicago Board of Elections
Because the only elections in 2011 under this Board's supervision are limited to city elections, the Chicago budget picks up all the costs this year except for the salaries of the three appointed members of the Board of Elections and the Executive Director, which are in this budget.
Bureau of Economic Development
This is a new bureau that is made up of Planning & Development, Capital Planning, Building & Zoning, and P.O.E.T. (the latter which is totally funded by the Federal Govt. and which has been in the news for problems). The capital budget (which last year was $519 million) is not being presented with this proposed operating budget. A complete review of capital projects is being undertaken, and the department expects to present a proposed capital budget in a couple of months. The Building and Zoning department covers unincorporated Cook County. P.O.E.T. has a new head and will be renamed and restructured to improve its effectiveness.
-- Submitted by Priscilla Mims
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Health and Hospitals System Board Meeting January 28, 2011
As usual the meeting began at 7:30am at Stroger Hospital with public comment. Five of the seven speakers were concerned with staff morale and 3 people specifically addressed concerns with nursing shortages at Stroger Hospital with one speaker stating the ratio of nurses to patients was 12 to 1 and another speaker indicating the ratio was 7:1, and both indicating that patient care was suffering due to nursing shortages. The meeting then continued with approval of minutes of previous meetings and committee reports.
During the report from the Quality and Patient Safety Committee, Director Ansell discussed a systemwide process (Quality Dashboard) that is being used to look at quality measures. He thought perhaps a presentation on the process would be useful to the HHS Board for looking at patient quality issues. This provoked an outburst from one of the public speakers who accused the board of not listening to how nursing shortages are resulting in inadequate patient care, and accused the Board of not wanting to take care of poor people. The Board seemed quite stunned by the outburst which continued until the speaker was escorted out of the meeting. Another of the directors stated that since specific allegations had been made by the public speakers (a patient dying due to lack of decubitus ulcer care, and patients not being cleaned for entire shifts) that she would like Mr. Foley to investigate these charges and get back to the board with information about the incidents. Director Ansell acknowledged that nurse staffing is an issue and that the parameters on the quality control scale he was presenting indicate problems with nursing. He further stated that communication between nursing management and labor needs to be improved.
Ros Lennon, Chief Clinical Officer, was asked to address the board concerning the nursing shortage. She stated that there are nurse staffing issues particularly at Stroger Hospital. They have not hired nurses externally in more than 18 months due to "displacement" - the union requirement that nurses from within be moved to positions before there are hires from outside. The closing of Oak Forest and Provident Hospitals have resulted in a number of displacements and the goal is to finish the process by the end of February. Vacancies must first be filled by qualified candidates from within the system and the displacement process stops nurse recruitment. When asked by the board what was taking so long for the process to be completed they were told that the vacancy list has been hard to complete.
Deb Tate, from Human Resources, was asked about the problems with the vacancy list. She stated that it has been difficult to verify that positions are actually vacant. An inaccurate list has apparently resulted in some volatile meetings with the nurses union so HR is now trying to be sure the list is correct before calling another meeting with the union. The difficulty in obtaining the list is that the data from the employee tracking system that has been used does not correspond with actuality. The HHS Board thought it would be okay to take the risk of presenting an inaccurate list to get the process moving but Deb stated that frankly HR does not have a relationship with the nurses union that allows for negotiation.
The Board continued to discuss this issue, at one point considering a motion to expedite the process, but finally decided that they would make a "recommendation" that the administration complete the displacement process as soon as possible so that staffing levels can be optimized. Director Ansell summarized some of the discussion by stating that the Board is going to need to address issues of capacity - they want to say they can do it all, but the money is not there to do everything. Director Carvalho stated that perhaps it would be a good idea to include data on nurse ratios on the Dashboard. He also said that they have to be cautious with the language they use. The HHS is providing as much care as the money they have allows. When their budget is cut they move from not meeting the health needs of Cook County residents to meeting less of the health needs of Cook County residents. They will never have enough money to meet all unmet need.
Human Resources Committee - A compensation audit has been completed and will be discussed in closed session. Mr. Foley stated that the report indicates that the CCHHS administrative compensation levels appear to be comparable with other large urban public hospitals. Director Carvalho stated that in the future they should have the comparative information upfront, prior to hiring individuals, and not have to gather the information after the fact.
Deb Tate, Human Resources Director, was asked to comment on an incident at Cermak Hospital, where personal information on a nurse was obtained by an inmate. Comm. Steele, from the CC Board, was at the meeting and expressed great displeasure at the handling of the situation. Dr. Pisius, Director of Cermak Hospital, stated that the nurse has been moved to a different facility and the incident is being investigated by the Sheriff as that falls under his jurisdiction.
Finance Committee - Director Carvalho reported that they now have an internal auditor. He reported on a special earnings review that indicated significant funds being paid for moonlighting and shift differentials that lacked clear guidelines for who can receive such payments, as well as unclear guidelines for authorization of such payments. Price Waterhouse Coopers provided an update on their ongoing efforts as consultants within the HHS. Their projects include training CC employees to do medicaide authorizations; working on the supply side to reduce expenses; doing efficiency studies in the OR and the ICU; doing a process study on how a bill gets paid; working on standardization process for the clinics; and working on recruitment. Mr Ayres, CFO, was asked how the medicaide authorization backlog is going and he responded that they are still talking with the state about moving the process along.
Director Carvalho pointed out that at the present time increasing the revenues at the hospital will not increase the HHS revenues since all their revenue goes into the General Fund of Cook County. He made a motion that they seek a provision in the Cook County Budget Ordinance that increasing HHS revenues will allow HHS to increase expenditures. He said otherwise they have no incentive to increase their revenues if they are not going to be allowed to keep them. This year HHS decreased their subsidy from Cook County by $95m. The motion was approved.
Chamberlin Edmonds and Assoc. then gave an eligibility enrollment optimization report. Director Carvalho said that he wanted to get the information from both reports to the commissioners on the CC Board.
At 11:00am the meeting went into closed session and the observer left.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Feb. 1, 2011 Special Cook County Board Meeting for Presentation of the Proposed 2011 Budget
President Preckwinkle's address to the Board is available on http://cookcountygov.com . Here are some of the highlights:
The proposed budget was referred to the Finance Committee for review, which it will conduct in a series of meetings with department heads and elected officials beginning on Feb. 3. Look for postings about these meetings on this blog. Hearings where the public can submit comments will be held on Feb. 9 in the Maywood Courthouse, Feb. 10 in the Skokie Courthouse, Feb. 15 in the Markham Courthouse (all at 6:30 pm), and on Feb. 16 at 10 am in the County Building.
The Board needs to approve a budget by the end of February.
--Submitted by Pris Mims
- County faced a $487 million budget deficit that has been overcome in the proposed budget through
- Overall 15% in reductions from 2010, including
- 17% in departments under the President
- 21% in Health & Hospitals System by expediting implementation of the previously approved strategic plan
- 12% in departments under the Sheriff, who is joining with the President in a joint task force on employee absences and looking at shared services and reducing layers of management
- 10% in both the Public Defender's and State's Attorney's offices, who had made the case that they could not meet a 16% target without seriously undermining the services they provide
- 17% in departments under the President
- Proposed increase in certain user fees
- Pursuing late and unpaid taxes (particularly the cigarette tax)
- Closing tax loopholes
- Restructuring the county debt (which will save $60 million)
But to eliminate structural deficit in the future, the President is proposing to restructure how the county operates by exercising budget controls, including a new Performance Based Management and Budgeting ordinance (described in the previous post on the regular Feb. 1 Board Meeting). But this ordinance is also directed at improving services.
- The President reiterated her commitment to take the steps so that ¼ cent of the sales tax can be rescinded in 2012, followed by another ¼ cent reduction in 2013.
The proposed budget was referred to the Finance Committee for review, which it will conduct in a series of meetings with department heads and elected officials beginning on Feb. 3. Look for postings about these meetings on this blog. Hearings where the public can submit comments will be held on Feb. 9 in the Maywood Courthouse, Feb. 10 in the Skokie Courthouse, Feb. 15 in the Markham Courthouse (all at 6:30 pm), and on Feb. 16 at 10 am in the County Building.
The Board needs to approve a budget by the end of February.
--Submitted by Pris Mims
Feb. 1, 2011 Cook County Board Meeting
Commissioner Peter Silvestri welcomed the dozen members of the League of Women Voters of Oak Park & River Forest who had come to observe the meeting at the invitation of the Cook County League. Commissioner Bridget Gainer lauded the Cook County League for the information the League's Study Committee had pulled together concerning the Special Purpose Funds that was submitted to the Commissioners on Jan. 28. The regular Board meeting went into recess for committee meetings.
Finance Committee
Commissioner Sims and Murphy continued their practice of voting no to payments approved by the federal court in ongoing court cases involving the Shakman decree which prohibits hiring, promotion, or firing of County employees based on politics, except for "exempt" positions.
The Committee approved the Performance Based Management and Budgeting ordinance proposed by President Preckwinkle at the last Board meeting. This requires each County department to submit a Quarterly Record to the President that will define the department's mission and establish measurable goals for achieving results. The President, after review, will transmit these Quarterly Records to the Board for review. Each department shall also submit each quarter a Budget Resource Allocation Plan to identify resources required to execute priority outcomes outlined in the Quarterly Records. This Allocation Plan shall also identify which services are mandated by law and justify any non-mandated services. The President (or designee), Chief Financial Officer, and Chief Administrative Officer will review the Allocation Plans to determine the department's effectiveness and whether continued, increased, or decreased funding is justified. These Allocation Plans shall also be submitted to the Board. Look for this proposed ordinance to be on the Board's agenda at the next meeting on Feb. 15.
Resumption of Board meeting
There were a series of 18 New Items to the agenda, 16 of which had not been posted ahead of the meeting, and, in fact, as of Feb. 2, are still not posted on the Clerk's web site. They were made available via e-mail from the Secretary to the Board to this observer (and others on the list to receive notices by e-mail) the evening of Feb. 1. All but two of these items are amendments to ordinances. Two of these are amendments dealing with the County Ethics ordinance that were referred to the Rules Committee. Another new item was a proposed ordinance to establish a Cook County Affirmative Action Program that was also referred to Rules. The other proposed ordinance amendments were referred to the Finance Committee and deal with certain County user fees and taxes, presumably in conjunction with the proposed 2011 Budget presented to the Board at the earlier Special Meeting that day. I say "presumably" because the agenda notice did not contain any specifics of what is proposed.
All of this took place in an hour!
--Submitted by Pris Mims
Finance Committee
Commissioner Sims and Murphy continued their practice of voting no to payments approved by the federal court in ongoing court cases involving the Shakman decree which prohibits hiring, promotion, or firing of County employees based on politics, except for "exempt" positions.
The Committee approved the Performance Based Management and Budgeting ordinance proposed by President Preckwinkle at the last Board meeting. This requires each County department to submit a Quarterly Record to the President that will define the department's mission and establish measurable goals for achieving results. The President, after review, will transmit these Quarterly Records to the Board for review. Each department shall also submit each quarter a Budget Resource Allocation Plan to identify resources required to execute priority outcomes outlined in the Quarterly Records. This Allocation Plan shall also identify which services are mandated by law and justify any non-mandated services. The President (or designee), Chief Financial Officer, and Chief Administrative Officer will review the Allocation Plans to determine the department's effectiveness and whether continued, increased, or decreased funding is justified. These Allocation Plans shall also be submitted to the Board. Look for this proposed ordinance to be on the Board's agenda at the next meeting on Feb. 15.
Resumption of Board meeting
There were a series of 18 New Items to the agenda, 16 of which had not been posted ahead of the meeting, and, in fact, as of Feb. 2, are still not posted on the Clerk's web site. They were made available via e-mail from the Secretary to the Board to this observer (and others on the list to receive notices by e-mail) the evening of Feb. 1. All but two of these items are amendments to ordinances. Two of these are amendments dealing with the County Ethics ordinance that were referred to the Rules Committee. Another new item was a proposed ordinance to establish a Cook County Affirmative Action Program that was also referred to Rules. The other proposed ordinance amendments were referred to the Finance Committee and deal with certain County user fees and taxes, presumably in conjunction with the proposed 2011 Budget presented to the Board at the earlier Special Meeting that day. I say "presumably" because the agenda notice did not contain any specifics of what is proposed.
All of this took place in an hour!
--Submitted by Pris Mims
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