The board meeting was called to order at noon as committee meetings
took longer than scheduled. Three
Committee items of note:
Commissioner Boykin introduced an Ordinance [15-1565] banning the
use of Choke Holds by Law Enforcement within the County. Some commissioners felt the ordinance was a
duplication of state law being considered and could lead to a increase in law
suits filed. The Ordinance passed in the
Criminal Justice Committee and later
by the full board.
Legislative &
Intergovernmental Relations Committee: Amy
Patton Campanelli was unanimously approved in Committee and then at the full
board meeting to be the next Cook County Public Defender serving a 6 year term,
effective April 1, 2015.
Ms. Campanelli spoke about how delighted she was to be appointed
the county’s second female
Public Defender since the department was established in 1930, in the second
largest Public Defender’s
office in the country. Ms. Campanelli listed her five goals, with reasonable
bond her top priority. The other four goals are to end the practice of
prosecuting children in adult court, proactive community outreach, expand the
special courts, such as mental and drug courts, and to offer consistent
training programs to public defenders.
Finance Committee: Commissioner Gainer expressed serious
skepticism about the Hospital Systems efforts to take in-house its collection
efforts and asked for calls to be made to other Chicago hospitals to see if any
have in-house collection operations and their experience.
Board Meeting: At 12:10pm, Commissioner Daley offered the consent
calendar for approval. Calendar discussion continued until 12:25 and included a
tribute to Jan Ortwell, former President of the League of Women Voters
of Illinois and Director of the IL Dept. of Aging.
Resolution 15-2499. Lengthy discussion occurred regarding this resolution
urging the General Assembly to pass legislation to reform percentage based bail
bond fees. The issue is whether the current 10% of posted bail bond, which is a
state statute, should be changed to cap the bond fee at $100 which is closer to
the cost of processing. Several
commissioners wondered whether requesting other levels of government to take
action is worthwhile. Others felt that passing resolutions is a way to ask
other government levels to listen to the County’s concerns particularly when the issue in question primarily
affects Cook County. The resolution passed.
Resolution 15-2421. Commissioner Schneider introduced with
sponsorship from Arroyo, Fritchey,
Gorman, Goslin, Moore and Silvestri, which stated: “The members of the Board of Commissioners of
Cook County ….shall
oppose a property tax increase and look for other methods to fill the budget
shortfalls in the 2016 CC fiscal budget.” Daley moved that the resolution was out of
order and President Preckwinkle agreed.
A roll call vote was called which resulted in the motion being defeated
by a comfortable margin. Schneider
stated that he would contact the States Attorney for validation of the motion
and ruling.
Resolution #15-2463 offered by Commissioner Tobolski and
sponsored by all attending commissioners to engage in outreach for Veteran-owned
businesses was moved to the Veteran’s Committee.
Resolution # 150961. The Bureaus of Technology, Finance, and
Assessor’s office asked for a $1,633,594 increase and a contract extension through 2019 with Acxiom Corporation in order to run
parallel systems while implementing the new platforms. Several commissioners expressed frustration at
the continued request for money with no concrete assurances that the problems
are resolved and a solid plan and timetable are in place. The new Chief Procurement Officer stated that
she is confident this money is needed and that over the next two years more
platforms will be up and running with the entire project completed by 2019. The
Contract extension passed.
15-2372. The Assessor’s Office proposed a contract amendment to add $600,000
for [tax] fraud collection research. Sixty percent of the data gained via this
contractor have been good hits. Commissioner Gainer expressed privacy concerns
with all the data generated. It was stated that the data was deleted shortly
after the search was completed.
Resolution #152543 opposing right to work zones was referred to
the Legislative Committee.
Commissioner Gainer asked commissioners to support
colleges in reporting sexual abuse attacks on campus.
A note: 16 commissioners were in attendance at the start of the
board meeting and 13 were in attendance at conclusion. We observers were very pleased to see
Commissioner Suffredin back from his medical absence.
Submitted by: Laura Davis
& Diane Edmundson
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