Treasurer, Inspector General, and Public
Administrator
Treasurer Maria
Pappas touted that her office is “almost” totally funded through the Special
Purpose Fund of the “Tax Sales, Automation Fund,” which derives its money from
user fees for the sale of property with delinquent taxes. [Note:
$9.6 million of the total Treasurer’s proposed budget of $11.6 million
comes from the Special Purpose Fund. The
remaining $2 million comes from the Corporate Fund.] The Treasurer also reminded the Commissioners
that since becoming Treasurer, she has significantly reduced the number of Full
Time Equivalents (FTEs) from 250 to
92 in the proposed budget.
Much of that reduction is due to the use of technology and
the use of banks and other outlets for the payment of property taxes, as well
as online payments. Treasure Pappas said
that the web site is getting 325,000 hits per month, and that 120,000 e-mails
are being answered automatically. Under
the STOPS program, $165,000 has been returned to taxpayers as being duplicate
payments. The tax sales program is now
automated resulting in tax sales taking place in 3 days, rather than 6 weeks. The Treasurer said that her office is now
undertaking a comprehensive scanning project with the expectation that there
will be no filing cabinets of paper by 2015.
To accomplish this technological push, her department now has 25 full
time IT employees.
Commissioner Suffredin inquired as to whether the Treasurer
has been able to resolve the issues of whether the data is correct in the
government bodies’ debt disclosure publication from the Treasurer’s
office. The Treasurer stated that her
office is now contacting the local government bodies to make sure the numbers
are correct.
Independent Inspector
General Patrick Blanchard reported that his office is now fully staffed
having hired 5 new investigators. His
office will be taking over the investigation of all complaints under the
Shakman decree, which prohibits the hiring/firing/promotion of employees for
political reasons, once the President’s Office is deemed in substantial
compliance. He will have 5 of the 14
investigators available for investigating such complaints. About 30% of the office’s time is now being
spent on Shakman-related matters. His
office is also doing work for the Forest Preserve (and being paid for that work
out of the Forest Preserve’s funds). He
anticipates over 500 complaints (not related to Shakman) being received by his
office this year, which are reviewed before opening a formal OIG
investigation. One investigator is
located at Stroger Hospital, and that proximity has resulted in additional
complaints being filed. As a result of
his office’s investigations, the Procurement Code was amended to require
itemized bills with the dates and description of work performed by County
contractors.
The main outstanding issue for the office is its
jurisdiction over the departments under the Elected Officers in the County,
other than the President and Board of Commissioners. Commissioner Goslin stated that it was
certainly his intent when he voted for the ordinance creating the Office of
Inspector General that it would have jurisdiction over all Cook County
officials and employees. The Inspector
General said that the Clerk of the Court has accepted the OIG’s
jurisdiction, despite the fact that there is an argument that as part of the
State’s court system, the Clerk would be exempt.
Nicholas Gapas, the Public
Administrator, explained that his is a State office, but his budget is
under the jurisdiction of the County Board.
However, the money for the budget comes solely out of the fees generated
by the Public Administrator in administrating the estates of decedents who
leave no will or whose named executor is not able to be the administrator. If there are no known heirs of decedents,
their real estate in Cook County escheats to the County. Mr. Gapas estimates that close to $3 million
will come to the County this year due to unknown heirs and revenue and interest
for administering estates. The Public
Administrator’s expense budget for 2014 is only $1.1 million.
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