Cook County Board Meeting April 17, 2013

Prior to the Cook County Board meeting, three standing committee meetings were held.  The Finance Committee was first, longest and mainly routine matters were approved.  While approving bills to be paid, there was once again an extensive discussion of the Shakman decree, how to get rid of the complaint, its history, its cost.  The Zoning and Building and Roads and Bridges Committees also met briefly.

At 11:10 a.m., the Cook County Board meeting was called to order by President Toni Preckwinkle.  The outstanding event of the entire meeting was the Invocation presented by poet laureate Aja Monet, who is a young woman who has been widely recognized for her outstanding, meaningful poetry and work with young people.  Her invocation ended with the statement “ Recognize Crime as a Disease”. She received a standing ovation for her outstanding work – this one written the night before she presented it.

A great deal of time was spent honoring Commissioner Peter Silvestri who is retiring as Mayor of Elmwood Park after serving for 24 years.  A Girls Scout troop from the north side of Chicago was recognized, as was April 22 Earth Day sponsors and activists. 

The three Intermediate Service Centers (regional resource centers of the Illinois State Board of Education) were presented and briefly described their role.  They informed the board that they serve about 400,000 students and that they have no funding to address the very serious issue of truancy in the schools. They indicated there are 12,000 chronic truants in the suburban schools.  The Board suggested working with the Justice Advisory Council to help find funding in the private sector to help deal with the problem of truancy.

Michael Master, Homeland Security Director for Cook County, briefly discussed the activities of his office and municipalities and first responders in relationship to the Boston Marathon bombing.   

The remainder of the meeting was routine.  This observer had to leave at 1:40 pm, although there were still a few more items on the Board's agenda.  Having read in the newspaper the morning of the meeting about the compromise between Commissioner Gorman and President Preckwinkle on the county car transfer tax that has been in effect for a year and applies to person-to-person car sales, the observer had hoped to hear a discussion on the subject.  None was forthcoming by the time of my departure.

--submitted by Syvia Tillman