Thursday, April 10, 2014

April 9, 2014 Cook County Board & Committee Meetings



CC Board Restricts Sources of Pets Sold at Pet Stores
 
Note:  As mentioned by other League Observers, there continue to be issues regarding transparency of Board actions.  At this meeting, there was no WiFi available in the Board room for accessing the Board and Commission agendas, and no paper copies were available until finally, after the Committee meetings and an hour and a half into the Board meeting, citizen George Blakemore came in and started passing copies of the Board agenda to audience members.  However, at that point, a second amended proposed ordinance to amend the Animal and Consumer Protection Ordinance was being discussed.  Board members had received this second amended version earlier that morning, but it was not available to audience members at the meeting, nor was it available online on either the Secretary to the Board’s or the Clerk of the Board’s web sites during or after the meeting.  Commissioner Fritchey, who was the chief sponsor of the second amended and original proposed amendment to the Ordinance did identify the changes from what appeared in the agenda, but this observer has not been able to verify that all the changes were identified since this second amended version is still not posted as of the end of April 9.  The 3 New Agenda items were also not available online or at the meeting. Reports of Board Committee meetings from April 8 were approved by the Board during the Board Meeting on April 9, but since these Reports are not available, this Observer does not know what items or how those items that were on the Committee agendas were dealt with at the Committee meetings and consequently what the Board votes accepting the Reports actually mean. However, all items dealt with on the agenda, other than the Committee Reports, were briefly summarized for those watching the meeting, which is appreciated.

After about an hour of public comment from supporters of and those expressing concern over the proposed restrictions to the sources of pets for pet stores, the Board voted unanimously to approve the second amended version of an Amendment to the Cook County Companion Animal and Consumer Protection Ordinance.  Under the version that appeared in the agenda, retailers may only offer for sale cats, dogs, and rabbits that are obtained from a government-operated facility or from a humane society or rescue organization.  However, Commissioner Fritchey stated that under the second amended version that was passed, retailers may also obtain these animals from someone that has 5 or fewer breeding animals.  Further, any municipality that has Home Rule powers may opt out from this ordinance.  Finally, this second amended version provides for an effective date of October 1, 2014, rather than the originally proposed July 1. Commissioner Fritchey said that he would be happy to talk with those who expressed concern over the amendment to see whether any further changes should be proposed to the Board.

Prior to the vote, Commissioner Goslin questioned why the Board was considering this proposed amendment at all, as opposed to referring it to a Board Committee, as is the usual practice.  Commissioner Gorman then moved to refer it to the Legislative Committee so that there would be time for all the written testimony and other information presented to the Board during the public comment period to be reviewed and considered. That motion was voted down, with only Commissioners Gorman, Goslin, Murphy, Schneider, and Suffredin supporting it.  Commissioner Goslin did say that he would look at all the testimony presented and would consider whether he would offer amendments at future Board meetings.

The Board received for filing the Human Resources Biweekly Activity Reports for January 12 through February 8. Commissioner Gainer questioned the large raises/promotions ($35,000 to $50,000) given to several employees at the Juvenile Temporary Detention Center (JTDC) within just a few weeks of the budget being passed. Transitional Administrator of the JTDC sent an employee with a letter to the Board which stated that the Administrator would respond in writing to any written questions the Board had and the employee said that he had been instructed not to respond to any Commissioner questions during the meeting. Several Commissioners expressed their dissatisfaction with what they perceived to be a lack of respect for the Board. Commissioner Suffredin said that Chief Judge Evans had expressed the belief that the hand-off from the Transitional Administrator (appointed by the Federal Court) to the Chief Judge (and therefore from Federal Court to County control) would take place by June or July. 

New Agenda item 14-2448 was passed which apparently (the text of this item was not available to the public) amends the Board’s appointment process to cover the appointment of members of a Juvenile Temporary Detention Center Advisory Council once the JTDC is under the Chief Judge’s supervision.

The 1st Quarter Report of the Veterans Assistance Commission was received and filed.  The budget for this Commission had been a hot topic during last fall’s budget hearings, and the Board at that time ended up increasing the budget by $100,000 even though the Commission spent far less than had been budgeted in the past.  Per this Report, the Commission has spent $37,000 vs. the $78,000 the Budget Department would have expected, but what was spent is slightly over what had been spent at this time the prior year.

Finance Committee Meeting (prior to the Board Meeting):  Commissioner Suffredin moved to defer the proposed Ordinance to Create a Municipal or Special District Inspector General to the next Board meeting in order to give the Cook County Sheriff and State Comptroller time to work out an acceptable deal with Harvey regarding turning over records. The Committee received the Revenue Report through February for filing.  Revenues from the Clerk of the Court and the Recorder of Deeds were down from what had been projected, but the revenues from the Health & Hospitals System (HHS) for the Health Fund are well above projections. Upon questioning from Commissioner Gainer and others, the Chief Financial Officer for HHS said that most of the excess revenues are coming from the Medicaid Expansion:  the budget anticipated that there would be 56,000 under County Care throughout the year under the expansion, while currently 86,000 have been approved, though some of these may opt for other providers later in 2014; further, some of the revenues received in 2014 are for services provided in 2013.  Commissioner Gainer asked that HHS provide the Board with an estimate of sustainable increase in income.

--reported by Priscilla Mims

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