A Public Hearing of the Finance Committee concerning a
proposed amendment to the Cook County Parking Lot and Garage Operation Tax
Ordinance was scheduled to begin at 9am but was delayed as a quorum was not
present until 9:15am.
After Chairperson Daley called the meeting to order he
announced that the amendment had been withdrawn but did allow those who were in
attendance to give their testimony on the issue. A person representing parking
lot owners and managers stated that much work had been done to change state law
so that a percentage tax would be used and not a flat rate. Implementation was supposed
to be revenue neutral though and the proposed amendment included a percentage tax that
would increase revenue and thus increase rates. The 3 speakers representing the
hotel and parking industries were not in favor of the amendment as proposed. Chairman
Daley stated the administration would be back with a new proposal at a later
time.
Several other committee meetings were then held prior to the
board meeting. The only item of note was during the Finance Committee meeting
when John Cookinham, CFO for CCHHS, stated that the first payment for those
persons qualified for Medicaid under the 1115 Waiver was received in April. Monthly
1115 Waiver payments will be coming in now and will include retroactive payment
to the date of application for those who qualify.
The board meeting was called to order promptly at 11am by
President Preckwinkle. Public comment now begins all of the committee meetings
and the Board Meeting. Items from the Consent Calendar that were highlighted
included memorials to Cal Sutker, a previous CC Commissioner, and Sister Sheila
Lyne, a recently retired member of the CCHHS Board.
At 12noon Comm. Steele stepped in as President Pro Tempore to
preside over the remainder of the meeting. Each agenda item was moved,
seconded, summarized, and voted on in short order with minimal discussion. Highlights:
The start time for board meetings was changed from 11am to 10:45am beginning
with the next board meeting in June. Another item that was approved was a
change to the board rules that clarifies how an item can be divided from a
committee report for a vote. (Agenda item #7) According to Comm. Suffredin this
is now known as the “Fritchey Rule”, resulting from a parliamentary
disagreement at a previous board meeting.
There were 9 items on the New Items agenda, 3 of which could
be acted on as they had been posted more than 48 hours before the meeting. An
item that was referred to the Finance Committee was an amendment to the CC
Procurement Code that will require social service contract providers to submit
an annual performance report to the Board of Commissioners. A contract
extension was granted to Northwestern for $1.8m to manage the Juvenile Court
Clinic for another 18months while an evaluation of this court is undertaken. An
RFP was issued a year ago and is considered still active while this evaluation
takes place and is intended to result in a new plan by December of 2014. Another
new item was the proposed appointment of 4 members to the CCHHS Board. If
appointed the new members will include M. Hill Hammock, Wayne M. Lerner, and
Lewis M. Collins for 4 year terms ending on June 30, 2017 and Ada Mary
Gugenheim until June 30, 2014 to fill Quin Golden’s unexpired term. The
appointments were referred to the Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs
Committee for consideration.
The meeting
was adjourned at 12:30pm.
Submitted by Cynthia Schilsky, LWVCC Observer
No comments:
Post a Comment