Cook County HHS Board Meeting - March 29, 2012

The meeting was called to order at 7:30am by Vice-chairman Ramirez in the absence of Chairman Batts.

Highlights of Committee Reports included:

Quality and Patient Safety Committee - Director Ansell stated that there were nurse retirements in December that resulted in bed closures at the hospital (I presumed Stroger Hospital although he didn't state which hospital). He also said that some of the beds had been reopened but that nurse recruitment was progressing slowly.

Finance Committee - Director Carvalho singled out one of the contracts being presented for approval. It was for up to $9m to contract out the care of long term ventilator patients if they were "self pay". He stated that an analysis had been done and it was cheaper to contract out services for these patients than it was to keep them in-house. Many of these patients are undocumented he said. All the contracts presented for approval were approved.

A request to execute a Data Sharing Agreement between IDHS and CCHHS was proposed. Dr. Raju, CEO of CCHHS, stated that this would facilitate the process of getting medicaide approval for those patients seeking to be qualified. Dr. Raju said that he has been meeting with the state every 2 weeks regarding the medicaide qualification process and it continues to be slow resulting in cash flow issues for the county. The request for the agreement was approved.

An update was given on the Oak Forest Health Center Capital Renovation Project by those working on this project. This is the first phase ($3m) of a $19m renovation planned for this building that is converting Oak Forest to a primary care and specialty care center. The plan is to have diagnostic imaging, central registration, laboratory and care link on the first floor of Bldg New E with a schedule for destruction bids to come in April and the project to be completed by October. Dr. Mason, chief medical officer, stated that at the present time services continue to be offered but they are spread out throughout the Oak Forest Campus and the intent is to consolidate most services into the New E Building. He also stated that they are looking ahead to establishing a relationship with U of I Extension for doing some gardening on the grounds at Oak Forest so that chronic disease treatment and nutrition will be integrated into future treatment at the center. There was also talk of going back to the CCHHS Strategic Plan that was developed a few years ago to assess progress and to see how the plan needs to proceed or be revised.

Dr. Raju in his report stated that while medicaid revenue has improved slightly in February he predicts they will still not end the year with a balanced budget. He continues to lobby legislators to expand medicaide and indicated that CCHHS is in for a very tough time if the ACA is overturned. He also thanked the Price Waterhouse Coopers team whose contact is not being renewed. They have been transitioning their functions over the last 3 months to Cook County employees and the services they provided will now be done in-house.

Dr. Ansell pressed for more information on the revenue shortfall with medicaide. Dr. Raju stated he thinks the system has a $100m functional deficit because there are a certain number of patients that cannot pay for their care, therfore the system will never run in the black. How to make up the difference is the question.

At 9:00am the meeting went into closed session and the observer left.

Cynthia Schilsky

LWVCC Observer

Cook County Board Redistricting Committee Meeting Tuesday, March 13, 2012

“OUR GOAL IS TO MAKE THE 17 PRESENT COMMISSIONERS HAPPY AND ABLE TO BE RE-ELECTED FROM THE NEW DISTRICTS”

The first meeting of the 2010 Redistricting Committee began on this sad note and with a violation of the Board’s own rules specifying that public comment is to be taken prior to any votes on agenda items. This statement from Vice Chair Peter Silvestri clearly also expressed the sentiments of Chairman Deborah Sims and many of the other Commissioners present at this first meeting of the 2010 Redistricting Committee which is composed of all 17 Commissioners. Commissioner Schneider later in the meeting did state that the goal was to draw 17 districts that represent the interests of the citizens of Cook County, not the members of this Board. Sadly, he appeared to be in the minority with this sentiment. 

The statements made by most of the Commissioners at this meeting were a far cry from the earlier ones made about how this Committee would have a much better process than that followed by the State Legislature and Chicago City Council in redrawing districts. [See the Feb. 3 observer report for the Feb. 1 Board meeting.]

The Committee’s agenda was to deal with

(1) a resolution establishing redistricting procedures,

(2) a proposed contract hiring Election Data Services to provide redistricting software and support services to redraw districts ($521,850),

(3) a proposed contract to hire Peter A. Creticos, LTD., to provide support and advice to the Committee in redrawing the districts ($100,000),

(4) a letter engaging the law firm of Miner, Barnhill & Galland to provide legal services in connection with the redistricting, with Judson Miner acting as chief counsel ($35,000),

(5) a letter engaging Grasso Bass to provide legal services as co-counsel ($12,000),

(6) a letter engaging Schirott, Luetkenhans & Garner to provide legal services as co-counsel ($12,000), and

(7) a letter engaging Velazquezrodriguez LLC to provide legal services as co-counsel ($12,000).

Altogether, these contracts total almost $700,000. It was stated that this amount is within the amount for redistricting costs in the 2012 budget. Laura Lechowicz-Felicione, legal counsel to President Preckwinkle, who is obviously also providing services to this Committee, stated that this total is less than that spent 10 years ago when redistricting was last done.

However, Commissioner Suffredin began the meeting saying that he was going to vote against each of these matters because this Committee had failed to follow the County’s procurement procedures by not issuing a request for proposal (RFP) for the data and mapping services or having a request for qualifications (RFQ) for the law firms. Ms. Lechowicz-Felicione said that bypassing the normal procurement procedures was legal because the contracts were for sole source procurements of specialized services and the law firms were selected for their experience. Commissioner Suffredin did not dispute that the process was legal, but said that bypassing the procurement procedures was bad public policy for this redistricting process.

Commissioner Sims stated that her goal was to complete redistricting by the end of June 2012, saying that if

the city could complete its redistricting in 2 months, surely the County could. (Of course, the public wasn’t allowed to see, let alone comment, on the map that the City Council approved. Even many of the City Council members didn’t see the map until shortly before the vote was taken.)

Commissioners Beavers said he was unhappy with the selection of Judson Minor as the chief counsel for redistricting. Comm. Beavers said that Mr. Minor had been involved in a prior redistricting which resulted in a district from which Beavers could not get elected. Commissioner Fritchey objected to the fact that none of the 4 law firms would represent “his interests,” indicating that they had been chose to represent the Republican, African-American, and Latino interests.

Violation of the Board’s Own Procedures

The Committee then took a roll call vote on the first item, approving the resolution establishing procedures. This was in violation of the ordinance which states that public comment on agenda items is to be taken prior to taking any votes. Both Cynthia Schilsky, President of the League of Women Voters of Cook County, and George Blakemore, a concerned citizen, had signed up to speak with the Secretary to the Board prior to the start of the meeting. This observer was able to get Comm. Gainer’s attention after the vote, and she immediately raised the question about public comment. At that point, Ms. Schilsky and Mr. Blakemore were allowed to speak.

Ms. Schilsky’s prepared written comments all dealt with the resolution establishing procedures that had just been voted on. Most of these comments were directed to establishing additional procedures to allow the public to review and weigh in on proposed maps at different steps before the Committee and then the Board would vote on a final map. Ironically, this Committee did not even allow comments prior to approving the procedures which only provide for public hearings apparently prior to May 1, the deadline for the public to provide suggested maps. The written comments also took issue with such an early deadline for the public. If Chairman Sims’ desire for completion of the entire process by the end of June turns out to be the reality, then clearly the public will have little opportunity to review or comment on the map ultimately approved by the Board.

Ms. Schilsky told the Committee that after hearing what had been said thus far by the Commissioners, she was not going to summarize her written comments as she had planned. Instead, she told the Committee how distressed she was with the sentiment that the purpose of the redistricting process was to “make the Commissioners happy.” She said that the public was cynical about the political process, and those voting or otherwise following and taking part in the political process were becoming fewer and fewer. What had thus far gone on at this meeting only reinforced that cynicism and disengagement. She also questioned why the Committee was trying to hurry the process (thereby limiting the chance of the public to be involved). The elections for Commissioner will not take place until 2014.

Mr. Blakemore applauded Ms. Schilsky and the League for her comments and reiterated much of the same sentiments.

The Committee then proceeded to vote on the remaining agenda items, approving all of them. In the presence of this observer, Commissioner Silvestri did come up to Ms. Schilsky afterwards and state that he would be happy to meet with her and discuss her comments and suggestions for additional procedures.

--Submitted by Priscilla Mims

Forest Preserve Commission Meeting March 8, 2012

The meeting was well attended and started on time. One of the first orders of business was to vote to acquire land that is surrounded on 3 sides by existing Forest Preserve and which is the home to Commissioner Timothy Schneider's mother. She is 89 years old and is in poor health, and has resided in the home for over 62 years. Commissioner Schneider recused himself from the vote and all ethical considerations appear to have been taken properly. Mrs. Schneider will be able to live in the home indefinitely in a lease-back arrangement -- which has been done in the past with other elderly sellers as well. The purchase of this land is an example of the Board carrying out a land acquisition strategy which was articulated in their current budget plan, while cutting back on other expenditures the hope is to take advantage of a down market in order make sensible land purchases.

Amid other routine business, the Commission also accepted a report chronicling the year, and celebrating 10 years of ecological restoration work at the Miami Woods and Prairie. Stewards Kent and Jerry Fuller have made a practice of document the efforts of hundreds of volunteers spending thousands of hours in that area, and they have also reported on the effects of this work. Stewardship and restoraton work have large acknowledged benefits to our ecological systems as well as the quality of life but are rarely documented in this way. The Commission thanked and congratulated them for all their work and Commmissioner Suffredin noted the great diversity of people who are involved as volunteers, and the important value contributed by the workers.

The last major item of business was the authorization for Superintendent Arnold Randall to enter into an Intergovernmental Agreement with the Public Building Commission of Chicago for the purpose of managing the assessment of the existing condition of the roughly 152 buildings owned by the District. No inventory or assessment has been done in recent memory and this work will help the District identify and prioritize capital investment in the future. The Public Building Commission of Chicago was created in 1956 for the purpose of managing capital programs and projects for governmental agencies in Chicago and Cook County, so it is the appropriate entity to do this work for the Forest Preserve District. The contract is not to exceed $300,000 and the work is to be complete by March 30, 2013.

Cook County Board Meeting--March 1, 2012

Issues with Medical Examiner and Recorder of Deeds Offices

The first of two main issues discussed and voted on during yesterday's Cook County Board meeting dealt with the Medical Examiner's Office. Since being in the news over the past few months, various proposals have been made by commissioners to "clean up" this office. Chief Administrative Officer, Robin Kelly, presented her findings to the Board with regard to changes being made at the Medical Examiner's office. These include holding unclaimed bodies for a maximum of 60 days, a quarterly report by the Medical Examiner regarding the disposition of bodies at the morgue, better notification to families, and faster burial procedures. An advisory board of interested stakeholders will be appointed to oversee these changes and suggest other procedures.

Concerns and questions brought up included decreased funding from the state and Cook County, use of Catholic Charities providing free burial plots, Sheriff Dart's offer to have inmates build coffins for the indigent.

After much back and forth over several meetings, a compromise ordinance was presented by Comm. Silvestri and approved almost unanimously by the Board, with Comm. Beavers voting "present." The new ordinance makes the medical examiner position a 5-year term with appointment by the Cook County President. The medical examiner may be removed-- due to negligence, malfeasance, illegal conduct, failure to properly execute duties of the office--by written request of the president and majority approval of the Cook County Board. The medical examiner can also be re-appointed after the 5-year term is over. The current Medical Examiner, Dr. Nancy Jones, is considered to have begun her term as of December 6, 2010, when President Preckwinkle took office.

The second major issue to continue at this Board meeting was the proposed referendum on consolidating the offices of the Recorder of Deeds and the County Clerk by 2016. The sponsor, Comm. Fritchey, touted cost savings, efficiencies, combined technology, and fewer staff needed for satellite offices. He stated that all the obligations/work now done at the Recorder's Office would still be done in a consolidated office. Most large counties in the United States have combined these two offices. Many speakers have spoken for and against this referendum in the past and at this meeting. Karen Yarbrough, who is running for Recorder of Deeds in the next election, and elected recorders of deeds from Champaign and Kankakee counties spoke vehemently against the consolidation.

Many commissioners felt the plan was not thought-out enough and it was alluded that political considerations were involved in commissioners being against this referendum. By the end of the meeting, the vote for placing the referendum to consolidate on the fall ballot for voter consideration was eight votes for and nine against--a very close vote. The issue will probably now be dropped, according to Comm. Fritchey, as he felt this was the most opportune time.

As far as transparency at the Board meeting, with which this organization (LWVCC) is concerned, there were three substitute amendments distributed to commissioners at the last minute. The audience could not see these and clear explanations of the amendments were lacking. Even a few commissioners were unclear on what the amendments changed from the original proposals.

Submitted by Karin Hribar