Cook County Board Meeting - September 15, 2010

The Board meeting was preceeded by a meeting of the Law Enforcement Committee chaired by Comm. Gainer. Judge Kinnaird from the Chancery Division of the Courts provided an update on the Mortgage Foreclosure Program that was initiated by the Chief Judge several months ago. This update had been requested by the Board. Judge Kinnaird stated that the program was instituted in response to the dramatic increase in foreclosures seen in the courts within the last few years. The program provides certified counselors for mediation when requested in foreclosure cases. Outreach is done for those cases coming into the court and they have received 12,000 calls to their hotline with 3,000 coming in for assistance. 412 cases have resulted in mediation with attorneys being appointed. Calls go to a hotline run by IHDA and persons are referred to a counselor who can see them at the court building or meet with them off site and then they may be referred to an attorney if legal services are in order. Lawyers from Chicago Volunteer Legal Services are used. Judge Kinnaird said that she anticipated they would spend $2.85m by the end of the year for running the program. The Commissioners wanted to know how many people had actually been saved from foreclosure. Judge Kinneard stated statistics would be provided later.


The Cook County Board Meeting follwed and was called to order at 10:18am by President Stroger. All commissioners were present. The first hour of the meeting was spent paying tribute to Congressman Dan Rostenkowski and to Ms. Terrie McDermott who will soon be retiring as Execuitve Director of the Department of Womens Justice Services, an appointed position within the Sheriff's Office.


The Finance Committee was called to order by Comm. Daley at 11:20am. They decided to first consider a Resolution Calling on the General Assembly to Remove the Unnecessary Provision that Require Seniors to Reapply for the Senior Citizens Homeowners Exemption Each Year. Representative John Bradley, the Chairman of the Revenue Committee for the Illinois House of Representatives was introduced to answer questions about the recently passed state legislation that requires all counties with more than 3,000,000 people to require yearly renewal of the Senior Citizens Homeowner's Exemption by mail. In the ensuing interchange between the Commissioners and Rep. Bradley there was discussion of why Cook County had been singled out since it is the only county of that size in Illinois, and why it was problematic that the Cook County Assessor had chosen to change the yearly renewal process, with references being made to home rule powers and unfunded mandates.


Assessor Houlihan was then asked to make a statement. He stated that a discussion prior to the decision would have been more appropriate and that the legislature has no understanding of Cook County's process. Yearly renewal will put an unnecessary burden on the seniors and the cross reference system he has in place no longer requires a yearly mailing for verification. Rep. Bradley felt that he was being unnecessarily attacked and he said the discussion was becoming "political" which resulted in Comm. Daley intervening to keep the conversation focused on the issue at hand in an effort to see what kind of compromise could be worked out. The Assessor then reviewed the 3 year program he began a few years ago where booklets were mailed to everyone explaining all the possible exemptions and requiring a response and then mailed again the following year. Now he matches sales data from the Recorder of Deeds and sends out cards to those addresses to establish if an exemption is still in effect. More discussion followed that established that the state law would have to be changed to change the policy. While it was thought that perhaps compromise was possible a vote was taken on the resolution. The resolution was approved.


Commissioners Sims, Steel, Collins, Murphy, Beavers and Peraica are now voting no on most all payments to the Shakman Compliance Administrators. Their stated reasons are that the county needs to be in compliance and paying the administrators is wasting money that should be spent in other ways.


The Workmen's Compensation bills again brought response from several of the commissioners questioning why compensation should be paid in some of the cases - for example, when people fall off broken chairs. Comm. Steele stated that dealing with these cases needs to be contracted out since the cases are out of control. Lisa Walik from the Dept. of Risk Management stated that state law is very liberal in settling workmens compensation claims and they do work with a contractor who does analysis on claims and works with claimants in getting them back to work.


The Revenue Report for 8 months was presented by the Comptroller. She stated that revenues are short $11m of expected revenue for the time period and that expenditures are about 65% of an expected 67%. October will see the first evidence of the Sales Tax reduction.


Comm. Gorman raised an issue about a bid that was denied to a lowest bidder because the company was from Arizona. She stated that saving the county $25,000 was more important than honoring the ordinance the board passed a few months ago to not do business with companies in Arizona. The Board expressed a desire to award the bid to the lowest bidder but the Purchasing Agent stated that since the contact was now over 90 days old the bid may no longer be valid. Bidders only guarantee their bid amounts for 90 days so they would have to go back to the bidders and see if their stated bids remained the same. A motion was then made to defer this contract. The roll call vote was 16 voting to defer with Comm. Claypool being absent for the vote.




The Finance Committee then adjourned for the Building and Zoning Comm. and the Roads and Bridges committee meetings which were very brief and the Board Meeting finally resumed at 1:10pm for the board agenda. The observer had to leave at this time.

Cook County Board Meeting September 1--Concern about Costs

Numerous commissioners were concerned and vocal about containing costs during this meeting. They also seemed to question various department officials and representatives much more thoroughly than in the past.

Among the topics of concern was Workmen's Compensation. Comm. Schneider complained about the high costs for questionable injuries. Comms. Gainer, Steele and Schneider requested Lisa Walik, Dir. of Risk Management, to look into a revamping of the procedures of workmen's compensation settlements--perhaps as the city of Chicago has done.

The cost of incarcerating inmates at Cook County facilities was also mentioned. It costs $117.30 per detainee per day in Cook County and about half that cost to send detainees to other counties when Cook facilities are too full. Capacity at Cook County Jail is 9,838 and currently holds 9,548 inmates. More officers are being hired by the Sheriff's Dept. to address the high numbers and follow the Duran Court Decree. Comm. Gainer sponsored an ordinance (passed) to set a lower rate for health care reimbursement to health care facilities for inmates at the Cook County jail. This would now be at the Medicaid rate.

Comm. Peraica was concerned about the high costs of prosecuting and detaining drug abusers. He stated it was a systemic problem in the States Attorney and Sheriff's offices. There have been many civil rights lawsuits and judgments against the Sheriff's Dept. Comm. Gainer asked if there has been disciplining of the offending jail employees when this occurs. No clear answer was given by the Sheriff's representative.

Chief Financial Officer Jaye Williams gave a report on the budget process for 2011. She anticipates a $300 million shortfall due to the decreased rate in sales tax (which will be fully effective next year) and less money from patient fees at the Health and Hospital System (HHS). She will ask all agencies to reduce their budgets by 10% and evaluate overtime and professional development funds. In her revenue report, Comptroller Connie Kravitz stated there is a $16.8 million shortfall in collections of all revenue as of the first 7 months of the fiscal year. Collections of sales taxes were at a higher level than anticipated so far this year.

CFO Ayers of the HHS reported that Medicaid revenues were down, due to fewer Medicaid patients, the ending of federal DSH payments and possibly a change in the Medicaid formula. An exact explanation of why there are fewer Medicaid patients was not given. However, access to clinics and hospitals, lengthy admittance procedures and short (8am-4pm) hours were mentioned.

An ordinance was passed dealing with transition in the offices of the President and all other elected officials. One day after the November election, the newly elected officers shall have office space and all pertinent information, services and assistance to acquire a working knowledge of the budget, etc. before they take office December 1. It should be noted that an amendment to this ordinance was added late and the audience had no access to this. Only because one commissioner spoke about it, was this observer able to figure out the passed amendment.

A resolution calling on the General Assembly to remove the unnecessary provision that requires seniors in Cook County to reapply yearly for the senior citizen homeowner's tax exemption was passed.

This observer left the meeting, which was still ongoing, at 1:10pm.

Cook County Forest Preserve Mtg Sep 2

The meeting started 1/2 hour late but there was good attendance.
After the Finance Committee met, the regular Board convened and covered many items, almost all congenial and positive issues.

One of the first orders of business was to hear from staff and selected students and teachers about the very successful outreach programs that the Forest Preserve initiated with elementary schools and high schools. Thirty one elementary and home school groups and 103 high schools have participated including thousands of students. The Forest Preserve has funds and interest in expanding this program which offers a chance for school participants to learn about the ecosystem and participate in activities which restore nature. In addition to these programs, schools can also contact the nature centers to request that naturalists come for presentations.

It was announced that Chicago magazine has recently named Busse Woods as the best fishing spot in the area, and that the North Branch Bike Trail was named as the Best Bike Trail in the area.

Commissioner Larry Suffredin presented a permit report for his district which showed more use this year and fewer complaints than ever with a 98% satisfaction rate. Other Commissioners requested permit information pertaining to their districts so they can do the same type of analysis.

Resolutions were passed allowing the Forest Preserve Commission to seek grants in tandem with other bodies in order to take advantage of possible federal dollars which are coming available. Most of these grants relate to extending bike trails.

Sep 5 is National Public Lands day and there will be many volunteers working in the Forest Preserves.

Former Alderman and Cook County Commissioner Frank D'Amato was celebrated and congratulated upon his retirement after 49 years of civil service. He has recently been a staff member at the CCFP.

A temporary easement resolution was passed so that the Army Corps of Engineers can access two older dams on the Des Plaines River for removal. Mayors of Westchester and Riverside spoke in support of this project. It is hoped that it will help a little bit with the flooding problems in that area if the river is allowed to run smoothly. It will also help restore the natural ecosystem and allow fish to move freely. Funding for this project had been previously blocked but now seems to be coming available -- from the state and federal level. No County funds are requested for this effort.

Next meeting will be on October 6.