Department Review Meetings for 2014 Budget: Thursday afternoon, October 17, 2013

Offices under the President, Auditor, Bureau of Administrative

Hearings, & Department of Facilities Management

Kimberly Fox, who previously headed up the Commission on Women and is now President Preckwinkle’s  Deputy Chief of Staff, presented the budget for the Offices under the President.  The 27 positions and $3.2 million proposed budget include the following departments: Public Affairs, Legal & Legislative Affairs, and the Justice Advisory Council.  The Commission on Women’s Issues, which has no separate positions or budget for 2014, now falls under the Office of the President.  The Justice Advisory Council, headed by Juliana Stratton, is to work collaboratively with those primarily responsible to safely reduce the population of the Cook County Jail and the Juvenile Temporary Detention Center.  President Preckwinkle has also given the group the mandate to improve the efficiency and fairness of the criminal justice system by fostering collaboration. 

Chief Auditor Shelly Banks said that following the county-wide risk assessment program that has been completed, the Audit Department has developed an audit plan based on this which is expected to entail 24 audits for 2014.  She confirmed that she has the authority to audit County contractors. The Health & Hospitals System has its own internal audit department.

John Allen, who heads the Bureau of Administrative Hearings, talked about the improvements in this area.  To catch up on a backlog, the administrative judges are currently holding hearings 2 days a month, and the case load has increased to 500/day.  The morning docket is set aside for arraignments, and the afternoon for trials.  This division means that people no longer have to be there all day waiting for their case to be called. This Bureau has absorbed hearings for the Department of Human Rights.  The costs per hearing are averaging just $17.  Commissioner Suffredin raised a concern about the Assessor, under new state legislation, now being able to appoint hearing officers, but the Assessor’s budget reflects a higher cost for such hearing officers.  Mr. Allen said that he had offered to handle the Assessor’s hearings, but the Assessor turned him down.*  

James D’Amico heads up the Department of Facilities Management, and he talked about the STAR Performance Management program has assisted the department in speeding up and improving their processes in maintaining the County’s many buildings.  The average costs for the County are far less than those reported by the Building Owners and Managers Association for privately owned buildings in Chicago.  There has been a $2 million reduction in costs to the County as a result of transferring the custodial work under the Sheriff to his department. 

* Note:  when Assessor Joseph Berrios subsequently appeared on Oct. 21, he stated that volume of cases is relatively small and the salaries of his two hearing officers reflect the fact that they have other duties.

-- Priscilla Mims, Observer