The Finance Committee meeting met before the General Board meeting. Of interest was elimination of the Office of Coroner, which is now the Medical Examiner office. Also, the Medical Examiner now has the power to cremate bodies. Most big cities allow cremations, and this will allow the medical examiner's office to act more quickly to deal with remains of indigents, unless the remains are unidentified. Cremation will save the County almost half the amount that it now costs the County to bury unclaimed bodies.
Two interesting agenda items, a proposal urging the IL General Assembly to create stricter criteria for who can serve as a Metra Board Director, and one asking for resignations from suburban Cook County Metra Directors, were moved to the Legislation Committee.
A very involved ordinance amendment dealing with Solid Waste and the county code was referred to the Finance Committee.
An agreement between the Cook County Medical Examiner office and the Gift of Hope was proposed for organ and tissue donation. After death, tissue can be retrieved for up to 24 hours.
Several contract extensions or transfers of funds to the Court System were approved. There was a lot of discussion, particularly from Commissioner Sims, on the award of a contract to Aunt Martha's Youth Service Center, Olympia Field, and how the guidelines are written for an agency to bid for the business. Comm. Sims asked the representative from the Chief Judge's Office to arrange a meeting with Judge Evans to discuss the guidelines.
A new agenda item, offering a proposed resolution by Comms. Goslin and Schneider, urging the Illinois General Assembly to amend the Ethics Act, was sent to the Finance Committee. Comm. Goslin explained that he sought to have County or board appointees to be included under the Act and used the Metra Board Members as examples of folks who would be covered with this resolution. There was debate about which committee to refer this amendment to, and President Preckwinkle conferred with her counsel who suggested that finance was the correct committee. An amendment giving the Cook County Inspector General the authority to request the State's Attorney to enforce subpoenas was approved, with Comm. Sims voting present.
--Submitted by Laura Davis
No comments:
Post a Comment