The County Board Room was filled to capacity with people
protesting the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Detainer Ordinance. This observer arrived at 9:55 am and was
denied entrance until 10:45 am due to overflow capacity in the chambers. While the observer waited in line,
Commissioner Garcia came out to address the crowd and promised that the policy
wording would be returned to committee.
Formal
observation began at 10:45. All
commissioners were present except Commissioner Suffredin. It
appeared there had been a series of resolutions concerning retirements and
football before observation began.
The
Finance Committee, a subcommittee of the whole, convened. Commissioners Sims, Murphy and Collins voted
against all payments to the attorneys working under the Shakman decree. The
Deputy Chief Financial Officer, Takashi Reinbold, addressed the fretting about the
Shakman decree by observing that the Sheriff’s office was in substantial
compliance, and that the Forest Preserve and Recorder of Deeds were getting
there quickly. He predicted the Shakman
expenditures would end soon for these offices.
2011
Cook County revenues overall are down $166.3 million relative to 2010. Most of this is due to health revenues being
down. Without Stroger Hospital, revenue
decline was just $9.5 million.
Cook
County Health and Hospital Systems CEO Dr. Ramanathan Raju, declared he was embarrassed by
the poor results. He attributed the
dramatic decline in revenues to several things: the large increase in unemployed and no-insurance people seeking care at
Stroger Hospital; the fact that Illinois State government had not yet paid $39
million in Medicaid payments to the system; and the financial consolidation of
the three hospitals in the system.
Physician
billing just started December 1 where the hospital should get reimbursements
from the highest value medical practitioners.
Dr. Raju reports that 28% of its Medicaid applications failed. This points to the need for better training
of personnel who put together the applications.
A
2014 rule in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will allow uninsured people who receive no Medicaid to
get it. Cook County is asking the
federal government for a waiver to be able to sign people up early for
Medicaid, as many large counties have already done this in Texas and
California. Currently 60% of Stroger’s
in-patient and 85% of its out-patient populations are “self-pay/no-pay”, which
essentially means Cook County will not be reimbursed for their care.
Commissioner
Silvestri asked about the Price
Waterhouse contract that has been ongoing. The contract allows data entry
personnel to be charged at $300 per hour.
Dr. Raju will definitely be eliminating the contract. Commissioner Daley asked about Cook County
receiving Medicaid monies directly from the federal government rather than have
to wait for the state to make payments.
Comm. Daley remembered this was allowed in 1998. Dr. Raju will investigate.
An amendment to the responsible bidder process, requiring that
contractors pay fair wages, use responsible and trained workers, and other measures, was discussed. Commissioners Collins, Beavers, and Butler
complained that the requirement for apprenticed labor eliminated many
minorities. Other commissioners voted to
pass the amendment, arguing that even unions are hiring untrained cheaper workers.
After
the Zoning Committee was convened by Commissioner Silvestri, the regular Board
meeting agenda continued.
A Comcast agreement for all unincorporated Cook County franchise
fees to be consolidated and to be paid to the County was approved.
A six month complete review of Bail Bonds by the Cook County
Judicial Advisory Council to be presented back to the Board was approved.
Agenda Item
6 concerning charging parking fees at Cook County courthouse facilities, was
returned to the Finance Committee for further review to make sure that excluded
categories of individuals who would not have to pay parking were finalized. Commissioners appeared to be
in agreement that fees should be charged and disabled veterans and handicapped
persons should be exempt.
There was much discussion about an amendment to the ICE detainer. Commissioner
Gorman objected to letting felons out on the street, and that Cook County has
not honored ICE detainer requests and in several cases felons have been
released and left the country.
Commissioner Garcia called for a roll call vote to send it back to
Committee. Commissioner Daley wanted to
make sure the Sheriff can weigh in on what to do and how to respond. Part and parcel of the ICE detainer requests
from the Federal Government is the bail bond issue. Comm. Murphy said that everyone should have an
opportunity to post bond--if ICE wants
Cook County to detain illegal immigrants they should pay Cook County to house
them. Comm. Schneider wanted to pass a
decently amended ordinance.
President
Preckwinkle reminded everyone that in this country people are innocent until
proven guilty.
Commissioner
Silvestri said we have an obligation to protect people and treat people
equally. The Board voted to send the Amendment to the Legislative
Committee with only Commissioner Gorman opposed.
The Board approved joint code enforcement between the City of Chicago and the County. Commissioner Fritchey pointed out that
sometimes the City has instituted ordinances that “steal” income from the County.
The
meeting was adjourned at 2:20pm.
--Submitted by Observer Amy Little
--Submitted by Observer Amy Little
