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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