Cook County Board Meeting, November 1, 2011

The meeting was called to order fifteen minutes late as other committees of the whole had been meeting. Commissioner Steele was absent.

The budgets for Metra and PACE were presented for 2012. After doing extensive customer research with their constituency, Metra decided to raise fares by 25% across the board rather than have cutbacks in service. Sales tax intake was lower, and diesel fuel costs have spiked. The total budget is $930.9 million. Metra is investigating free wifi on the trains.

PACE presented their budget of $195 million for 2012. Ridership is up by 5% but most of this is in ADA service which is much more expensive to provide than regular bus service. With this service, appointments are made for smaller jitney buses to pick people up from their homes 24 hours in advance. ADA ridership is increasing heavily due to the aging of the population.

The Finance Committee convened and the Cook County Health & Hospital System (CCHHS) was discussed. Dr. Ramanathan Raju, the CCHHS CEO, was on hand to answer questions. Patient fee collections are down by $105.6 million. Many employees of the hospital system did not take requested furlough days as they were considered essential employees, causing a shortfall to the balanced budget for this year. There are apparently 28,000 patients from Lake and DuPage Counties who use the Cook County hospital system each year, for which the county receives no reimbursement. Commissioner Silvestri requested Dr. Raju to investigate. Other commissioners wanted to know about $40 million spent on consulting fees. Cook County is investigating entering all their employees in an HMO/PPO system to cut costs.

Takashi Reinbold, Deputy Chief Financial Officer for Cook County, discussed the list of 10,000 Cook County employees who did not take furlough as they were considered “essential”. Comms. Beavers and Collins became defensive about being labeled “bad guys” for not taking furlough and each talked extensively about how their staffs were essential and spent the bare minimum. Other commissioners expressed their desire to fulfill compliance with a motion that was passed unanimously to help President Preckwinckle balance the budget. Apparently, most commissioners did indeed take furlough days and made the necessary 2011 cuts to meet budget. Comms. Beavers, Butler, and Collins have not yet complied with the motion.

The remaining agenda was passed quickly and the meeting was adjourned at 12:45pm.

Amy Little, Observer, November 1, 2011