There were not enough commissioners for a quorum. Commissioners present: Daley, Gorman, Sims, Suffredin, Garcia, Fritchey, Tobolski, Gainer. Ten were needed, eight were present. Many of the absent commissioners apparently opposed the proposal to move the duties of the Office of the Recorder of Deeds to the County Clerk and abolishing the office.
State Representative Karen Yarborough (D-07), a Democratic candidate for Recorder of Deeds, was present with an aide, but did not
speak. She spoke with Clem Balinoff from
David Orr’s office before the meeting, asking him reasons why he thought it was
a good idea. Fritchey praised her often
as one of his most esteemed colleagues from his congressional days in
Springfield.
Although there was not a quorum, Daley wanted all those
present who had signed up to speak, to do public testimony.
1) First Jesse
White, current IL Secretary of State, spoke. He
said that before he became Secretary of State, he had been Recorder of Deeds and in
that office had generated increased revenue for Cook County. He did a lot to streamline the computer
systems. He wants to keep the Recorder
of Deeds office because it provides a good revenue stream, offers a good
service to voters, and believes Cook County should keep it the way it is.
2) Laurence Msall,
President of the Civic Federation of Chicago, testified next. The Civic Federations supports the
referendum. The proposal would be less costly and
more efficient. There is little policy
debated in either the Recorder or the County Clerk’s offices – the offices are
purely administrative. $1 million savings
per year could be realized and spent elsewhere.
All IL counties less than 60,000 people have combined offices.
LA county, the largest in the US, merged all functions into one site in 1968. There were 160
million documents merged and put into one location. By 1991 LA had fully merged the Recorder
function.
Mr. Msall urged that Cook County just put the issue in front
of voters. The last time we did that was
in the 1970s concerning elimination of the elected coroner’s office.
Commissioner Sims responded and said that “Cook County was
special”. Just because other counties
have merged the offices doesn’t mean that Cook County should do this. “We don’t know what will happen with a
merger”. “We wasted money on contractors
in the Cook County Hospital because the Civic Federation recommended an
independent governors board. We have
spent millions hiring contractors and we shouldn’t have wasted the money”.
3) Darlene
Williams-Burnett spoke, from the Recorder of Deeds office. She issued a dire warning that the Recorder's
Office was “under repair” and that the county should proceed “with
caution”. The Recorder of Deeds office
has reduced its budget by 50%, and has produced $347 million in the past six
years. It is the only viable lifeline
for mortgage foreclosure issues. She
cautioned about the costs of retraining, that it may cost labor strife, and
warned that they worked with public safety agencies to defeat criminals in the
bank and financial agencies. She questioned the cost of retraining
employees. She said the Recorder of
Deeds office was the final line between predatory lending and the consumer.
She claimed the office has consistently reduced its costs
and now collects five times the revenue of its costs. It operates as a “profitable small
business”. The projected savings has
already been realized she claimed. They
operate a robust e-commerce site. “We
are restoring integrity to our database and defend property rights in Cook
County”.
Com. Fritchey responded that the resolution does not single
out any person and that it does not propose to eliminate any of the functions
of the Recorder of Deeds office. Ms.
Williams-Burnett claimed that Cook County was unique in that it maintained a
full legal description of all properties, and that other counties use title
companies to keep track of their documents.
4) Clem Balinoff from
David Orr’s office spoke. He said that
the resolution for a referendum had nothing to do with individuals but rather
improved efficiency. He proposed that
consolidation of the two offices would combine 2 IT structures, 2 purchasing
departments, two office spaces, and two supervisory staffs, resulting in
savings of $1 million per year through permanent consolidation of staff. He thought this could be achieved through
attrition and no re-hiring.
Mr. Balinoff has been at the County Clerk’s office for 15
years, during which time, the office has absorbed the City of Chicago’s bureau
of vital statistics. The county clerk’s
office has increased revenues by $1 million with a total cost of two employees,
handling all the responsibilities that Chicago once performed (badly). A one year time frame for absorption of Recorder
of Deeds duties should be very doable.
The county clerk’s office has never missed a deadline.
5) Adam Clement from the Bureau of Technology spoke. His specialty has been in IT for Recorder of
Deeds offices all over the country.
Despite Cook County saying they are unique, they utilize the same
software as most other Registrar/Recorder offices around the country. The transition would be smooth and aided by
internal IT people. A year’s timeframe
to merge would be doable. Mr. Clement
was called to testify by Com. Fritchey.
Com. Fritchey gave his presentation. LA county has only 8 elected officials while
Cook County has 29, including the 17 commissioners. The last time Cook County eliminated a position
was in 1972 with the Coroner. It is the
right time now to continue consolidation.
Fritchey has not heard a constructive reason why not to do
this referendum. The time is now. He said he knows that commissioners have been
getting calls from influential people to table the resolution but that we owe
it to the voters to let them decide.
Chair Daley will decide when to call this to the Finance
Committee again.
--submitted by Amy Little
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