Committee Meetings
Prior to the beginning of the scheduled County Board meeting, various Board committees held brief meetings: Legislation and Intergovernmental Affairs, Rules and Administration, Zoning and Building, and Finance. Of these Finance had the most on its agenda, running to 53 pages. Members reviewed and approved for recommendation to the Board a wide variety of court-ordered attorney’s fees, workers compensation claims, special court case payments, and self-insurance claims. The dollar amounts of these actions are substantial, workers comp claims for FY 2013, for example totaling almost $5.7. It appears that these amounts fit into the overall anticipated budget as none of the commissioners expressed any surprise.
Board Meeting
The actual Board meeting was called to order at approximately 11 a.m. by President Preckwinkle, and was mostly uneventful as the Commissioners efficiently and quickly disposed of items on the 71-page agenda plus “errata” and several added items.
Public Comment
Public comment is allowed at the beginning of the Board meetings, a practice that had been discontinued and then restored in recent months. Today’s public comment led to some uncomfortable moments, as one speaker used his time to express some strong anti-undocumented immigrant sentiments. Many Board members exrpessed outrage at the comments, and discussed some possible methods to curb such statements in the future. Finally, President Preckwinkle stated that she would in future admonish public comment speakers to make certain that their comments were germane to the agenda.
Consent Calendar
Two items were pulled for individual presentation from the Consent Calendar, which consists of congratulatory resolutions to retiring public officials, private entities celebrating various anniversaries, private individuals being congratulated for various things. Commissioner Schneider introduced some visitors from Ixtapa Mexico who were on a Sister City Visit and presented a Resolution of Welcome. Commissioner Fritchey introduced a Mental Health Awareness Resolution, presenting Representatives of the Brandon Marshall Foundation and the National Alliance for Mental Illness.
Appointment Approved
The Commissioners approved the appointment of Michael W. Lewis to the RTA Board.
Board Actions
Most of the items on the agenda were devoted to approval of contracts or contract extensions and payments for services and materials, accepting various grants and reports, and transferring funds internally from one account to another at the request of various officials. Some discussions occurred regarding two contracts related to the Courts Mortgage Foreclosure Mediation Program: $2.2 million and $4.7 million. Commissioner Collins strongly objected to approving additional contracts with “outside” entities such as the Chicago Community Trust and the Chicago Bar Foundation when there are community based organizations which know their communities well and are just as capable of doing the work. She asked for a full accounting of all funds devoted to the program since its inception.
County Revolving Bail Fund
Commissioner Suffredin introduced two proposed resolutions. The first, directing the Cook County Budget Director and the Executive Director of the Justice Advisory Council to review the legal and financial feasibility of a program to establish a revolving bond fund to provide prompt posting of bail for non-violent detainees with low bail amounts of $2000 (“c” or “d” bonds). His reasoning behind this proposed fund is that many detainees are non-violent offenders, are not flight risks and are in jail while their families try to scrape up the money for their bail. Since the jail is at near-capacity, and it costs Cook County $143 per day to house a detainee it would be a cost savings to the County to provided this assistance. The working group is to make a recommendation to the Board by March 1, 2014. The resolution passed.
Accountability Charges/Shakman Decree Violations
The second proposed resolution introduced by Commissioner Suffredin was referred to the Finance Committee. The resolution creates “accountability charges” for violations of the Shakman Consent Decree by various departments. He introduced it because the County has spent millions of dollars in payments for violations and there are currently no financial consequences for individual departments that violate the Shakman Consent Decree.
Mass Transit Budgets
By State law and County and City ordinance, all local transportation Boards are to present their upcoming fiscal year budgets to the 6-county region’s County Boards. Appearing at this Board meeting were top-ranking executives and Board members of the four transit Boards: Metra, the CTA, PACE and the RTA. The region faces no fare increases or service cuts in FY 14, which was cause for congratulations all around. There is a general increase in ridership for all mass transit providers. Much praise heaped on CTA and PACE for service enhancements and “green” equipment modifications. Some concern was expressed by several commissioners about rumors coming from Springfield about attempts to change the current 4-Board structure. While several commissioners expressed some concern about perceived growth in RTA’s budget, the general sentiment expressed was that local control by the City, and 6-County region was paramount, and Boards and appointment should be kept out of Springfield.
Submitted by observer
Jura Scharf, LWV Palos/Orland
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