Thursday, October 24, 2013

Departmental Review Meetings for 2014 Budget : Monday, Oct. 21



The Cook County Board Finance Committee Budget Hearings continued today with presentations from 9 departments. The hearings began shortly after 9am and concluded for the day at 3:30pm. Commissioners drifted in and out of the hearings throughout the day with Comm. Tobolski, Fritchey, and Goslin not in attendance at all during the day. There was very little discussion of actual budget numbers with nearly all departments being in agreement with the President’s budget recommendation for their office/department. Most presenters did highlight the goals for their offices/departments and their success in meeting them but there was little reference to STAR by name and there was virtually no discussion about the goals from the commissioners.  

Board Of Review – Larry Rogers, Commissioner Board of Review
Mr. Rogers expressed support for the President’s budget recommendation for their department and stated his office’s intent to work towards ensuring that tax bills would again be sent out in a timely manner in 2014. Comm. Sims commended his office for their outreach in educating the public about the tax appeals process. He stated that there was a 64% success rate for appeals this past year but he thought a better measure was access to appeals, although he did not state a number for the actual number of appeals filed. (The number is in the budget book)

Assessor – Joe Berrios, Assessor
Mr. Berrios stated the intent of his office is to establish real value in property assessments and their intent to be better, faster, and more efficient so that tax bills are sent out on time. He stated that there is new state legislation that enables his office to pursue those claiming illegal exemptions and that he has 4 attorneys who are working on this type of fraud. These investigations are now done within his office and processed with an administrative hearing, and not contracted out as was done previously.  Several commissioners commended him for his outreach efforts and Comm. Gainer thanked his office for help with the new Land Bank.

Recorder of Deeds – Karen Yarbrough, Recorder of Deeds
Ms. Yarbrough stated that her office is dedicated to Accuracy, Efficiency, and Assistance. Anyone can come in and request and pay for a copy of a deed. One of their goals is to digitize their records back to 1871. Her office was required to hire a full time Shakman Compliance Administrator which did impact her budget and efforts continue to bring the office into Shakman compliance. Fraud related to filing of deeds is dealt with through the administrative judges. The office needs IT upgrades which are included in the IT budget. The President’s recommendation for this office is some $200,000 less than last year with a decrease of about 15 positions which Ms. Yarbrough highlighted as her efforts to reorganize this office through shifting of positions and efficiency. She also expects her revenues to increase.

Human Resources – Terry Larkin, Deputy Bureau Chief
Ms. Larkin related the achievements of HR to President Preckwinkle’s 4 Pillars – the county goals. Hiring time has been reduced. The process for compliance with Shakman went into effect in August and is now being monitored with the possibility of completion in 2014. A reporting tool is now in use for absenteeism and training is ongoing. The time for processing grievances has been reduced. She stated that case management for FMLA will be outsourced in an effort to better monitor its use since HR does not have the personnel to handle this internally. Negotiations with the unions for the 2012-1016 contracts are in process and the goal is to have them completed by the end of 2014. Comm. Gainer asked if there are allowances in the proposed budget for any COLAs that could result from these negotiations for 2014. Andrea Gibson, Budget Director, indicated that there are allowances included. Discussion ensued about employee sick leave, vacation, holidays, disability etc.  Comm. Gainer asked if a plan could be developed that looked at the cost drivers of benefits and how this relates to union negotiations and future budget considerations. Comm. Schneider asked if there is value in knowing the status of union contract negotiations since collective bargaining is such a complicated process. Lisa Medder, Dir. Of Labor Relations, stated that she would provide a status report with as much information as she can since negotiations are confidential. She also stated that only one of the 2008-2012 contracts remains to be settled. It is awaiting arbitration. There are 95 collective bargaining units with contracts to be negotiated and 80% of county employees are in a union.  The Teleo system is now used for posting and hiring of all positions except for those that are Shakman exempt and those that needed training in this system now have been trained so it is working much better than in the past. Comm. Garcia asked about HR for HHS. HHS does its own HR with the exception of collective bargaining and EEO complaints that are still done through the county HR office. Questions from the commissioners continue to revolve around Shakman compliance and there was a suggestion that perhaps an executive meeting needed to be called for training.

Homeland Security and Emergency Management – Michael Masters, Ex. Dir.
Mr. Masters stated that his department is using best practices as a guide for ensuring the safety and security of the residents of Cook County. They deal with the coordination of emergency preparedness throughout the county including all kinds of emergencies – weather, utility, health, law enforcement preparedness etc. Comm. Daley asked whether some of the grant money could be used for violence initiatives in the county or whether it must be used for  “terrorism”. Mr. Masters said there are restrictions on the use of homeland security grant money but perhaps some money can be used for violence initiatives.

Bureau of Technology – Lydia Murray, Chief Information Officer
Ms Murray just completed her first year in her position and highlighted her achievements that were based on her interactions with persons throughout county government. The internet capacity has been doubled. A catalogue of the services of the department has been published and they use this to measure their performance. Contract management has improved and clarifying contracts will be a goal going forward, Cooperation among the many IT efforts has been a primary goal so that there can be better coordination of resources and communication between systems. A $40m investment in IT throughout the county is budgeted in 2014. She wants to have all project managers to be county managers not vendor managers so there is more control over the projects. 18 project managers will be funded from capital money.

Veterans Assistance Commission – Abundio Zaragoza, Supt.
Mr. Zaragoza stated that his office located in the lower level of the JTDC provides services to veterans. These services include career assistance, housing location, rent and utility assistance, money for food, transportation vouchers, clothing and furniture. He runs the office with 2 part-time employees. This commission has a proposed budget of $300,000 which is an increase of $300,000 from the previous year. Mr. Zaragoza indicated that he has run out of money towards the end of the year but it was unclear whether he was still able to provide services..

Human Rights and Ethics – Ranjit Hakim, Ex. Dir. (in his position since August)
Mr. Hakim stated that he oversees the 11 member Human Rights Board that adjudicates complaints against the Human Rights Ordinance and the Wage Ordinance, and the 5 member Board of Ethics that adjudicates complaints against the Ethics Ordinance. His budget in the 2014 proposed budget is a 7.8% reduction so he stated he must be more responsible within his office. His plans include interagency cooperation with the use of Administrative Hearings when necessary, and not outsourcing adjudications. Focusing on investigation and adjudication and identifying and eliminating the expenses within the department that are not part of their mission. Women’s Issues has been removed from this department. He has implemented a case management system to deal with cases. There was a backlog of 150 Human Rights cases when he arrived and that has been reduced to 138. There are also 14 Ethics cases that are older than a year and he would like to expedite these and cut down on the time it takes for a case. Comm. Simms asked him what his role was in payment of the commissioner’s contingency funds. According to the recently approved Ethics Ordinance the ED has to sign off on any requests for reimbursement. Mr. Hakim stated that his role was to ensure that the requests were in compliance with the criteria as outlined in the ordinance. From further discussion it appears that an amendment to the ordinance is forthcoming as there seems to be a lack of understanding among some about what are political activities as opposed to what are the normal duties of a commissioner.

Board of Commissioners – Matt DeLeon, Secretary of the Board
Mr. Deleon outlined the many changes that have occurred within the office. The Legistar System which unifies agendas and the data base is now in place. All board and committee meetings are now live streamed and archived. The budget hearings are online. The commissioners will all be receiving ipads within the next week on which they will have the necessary documents for their meetings in an effort to go paperless. After several minutes of discussion of how to use the ipads and storing information in the “cloud” the meeting was recessed at 3:30pm

Submitted by Cynthia Schilsky, observer

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