October 23, 2013 Cook County Board Meeting

Board President Tony Preckwinkle’s Chief of Staff is leaving to return to private practice and he was thanked and the new Chief of Staff welcomed.

Sharon Meroni of Defend the Vote spoke during the Public Comment Section and said that there were various issues with voting machines, absentee and early voting in Cook County.  NOTE – David Orr vigorously refuted these charges during his portion of the budget presentation following the board meeting.


Courthouse Parking – Cook County Public Guardian was added to list of people not subject to parking fees at facilities that will be charging those fees.  Parking fees and parking exemptions will no longer be considered a portion of employee compensation.  A management firm to administer the parking fees will be selected in  December or January and it is anticipated that fees will actually start to be charged sometime in the late Spring.

Intergovernmental Agreement – The CFO of the Hospital System explained there was a cash flow problem for the County due to processing delays of the Affordable Care Act.  The State of Illinois is allowing the hospital system to delay payment of $30 million of first quarter transfer back to the State General Revenue Fund to help out the situation.  The Board was assured this was a cash flow timing issue only and that 2014 budget was not impacted in any way.  The third quarter transfer back will have the corresponding increase.

A resolution was passed urging the Illinois General Assembly to Amend the State Officials and Employees Ethics Act to include members of a governmental entity appointed by a county board.  This is to ensure that Metra board members are covered.

Law Enforcement Committee met after the board meeting.  Concealed Carry - Cara Smith of Sheriff Tom Dart’s office presented information on new Concealed Carry of firearms.  $20 of the $150 fee will be going to mental health screenings but this can only be effective if healthcare providers and hospitals do all the required reporting.  Also, there is a for issuing FOID cards and the situation will not improve once Concealed Carry Permit applications are available beginning in early January.  The 30 days legally allowed to issue permits will not be met.

There was also discussion around enforcement of revoked FOID cards.  When someone is no longer eligible to have a firearm they are meant to surrender their card and their firearms.  There has been very little enforcement of this until this summer but now the Sheriffs office is visiting about 4000 individuals in attempts to recover their weapons.  These weapons, which start out as legal, are frequently the ones which end up used to commit crimes.

Finance Committee met after the board meeting – Two presentations were made on budget and activities of the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners and the Cook County Board of Election Commissioners.  Similar things were reported but David Orr described how his (suburban Cook County) office was much further along in implementing new policies and procedures.  His budget is down $1.47 million vs 2010 and headcount is down 8%.  

Some of the most significant developments are:
*Electronic poll books – Another 400 precincts will have these for the March elections and more than half of precincts will use these for the November elections.
*Introduction of Hindi – Elections will be conducted in Hindi (as well as English, Spanish and Polish).  All services will be provided including answering the phone in Hindi.
*TIF information will be on next summer’s tax bill
*Online Voter Registration
*17 year olds voting in Primary if they will be 18 by General election.
*Genealogy and vital records information online (will save lots of staff lookup time)

submitted by Lali Watt