Department Review Meetings for 2014 Budget: Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Treasurer, Inspector General, and Public Administrator

Treasurer Maria Pappas touted that her office is “almost” totally funded through the Special Purpose Fund of the “Tax Sales, Automation Fund,” which derives its money from user fees for the sale of property with delinquent taxes.  [Note:  $9.6 million of the total Treasurer’s proposed budget of $11.6 million comes from the Special Purpose Fund.  The remaining $2 million comes from the Corporate Fund.]  The Treasurer also reminded the Commissioners that since becoming Treasurer, she has significantly reduced the number of Full Time Equivalents (FTEs) from 250 to 92 in the proposed budget. 

Much of that reduction is due to the use of technology and the use of banks and other outlets for the payment of property taxes, as well as online payments.  Treasure Pappas said that the web site is getting 325,000 hits per month, and that 120,000 e-mails are being answered automatically.  Under the STOPS program, $165,000 has been returned to taxpayers as being duplicate payments.  The tax sales program is now automated resulting in tax sales taking place in 3 days, rather than 6 weeks.  The Treasurer said that her office is now undertaking a comprehensive scanning project with the expectation that there will be no filing cabinets of paper by 2015.  To accomplish this technological push, her department now has 25 full time IT employees.

Commissioner Suffredin inquired as to whether the Treasurer has been able to resolve the issues of whether the data is correct in the government bodies’ debt disclosure publication from the Treasurer’s office.  The Treasurer stated that her office is now contacting the local government bodies to make sure the numbers are correct.

Independent Inspector General Patrick Blanchard reported that his office is now fully staffed having hired 5 new investigators.  His office will be taking over the investigation of all complaints under the Shakman decree, which prohibits the hiring/firing/promotion of employees for political reasons, once the President’s Office is deemed in substantial compliance.  He will have 5 of the 14 investigators available for investigating such complaints.  About 30% of the office’s time is now being spent on Shakman-related matters.  His office is also doing work for the Forest Preserve (and being paid for that work out of the Forest Preserve’s funds).  He anticipates over 500 complaints (not related to Shakman) being received by his office this year, which are reviewed before opening a formal OIG investigation.  One investigator is located at Stroger Hospital, and that proximity has resulted in additional complaints being filed.  As a result of his office’s investigations, the Procurement Code was amended to require itemized bills with the dates and description of work performed by County contractors. 

The main outstanding issue for the office is its jurisdiction over the departments under the Elected Officers in the County, other than the President and Board of Commissioners.  Commissioner Goslin stated that it was certainly his intent when he voted for the ordinance creating the Office of Inspector General that it would have jurisdiction over all Cook County officials and employees.  The Inspector General said that the Clerk of the Court has accepted the OIG’s jurisdiction, despite the fact that there is an argument that as part of the State’s court system, the Clerk would be exempt. 

Nicholas Gapas, the Public Administrator, explained that his is a State office, but his budget is under the jurisdiction of the County Board.  However, the money for the budget comes solely out of the fees generated by the Public Administrator in administrating the estates of decedents who leave no will or whose named executor is not able to be the administrator.  If there are no known heirs of decedents, their real estate in Cook County escheats to the County.  Mr. Gapas estimates that close to $3 million will come to the County this year due to unknown heirs and revenue and interest for administering estates.  The Public Administrator’s expense budget for 2014 is only $1.1 million.

-- Priscilla Mims, observer  

More Cook County Budget Hearings

Bureau of Technology - Feb. 3 Hearing

Greg Wass, the newly appointed Chief of Technology, provided a handout to the Commissioners and reviewed his vision for changes needed to streamline the organizational structure of technology within the county. At the present time 20% of IT spending is within the Bureau. He stated that while there may be enough money allocated for IT it is not well managed since central oversight for spending or coordination of IT services is lacking. Purchase of the county's main frame computer from IBM (for $400,000) was listed as one of his initiatives with the long term goal of getting off the main frame. He would like 2011 to be focused on the planning phase for IT across the county with execution of their plan following in 2012 and beyond.

Commissioners raised concerns about the amount of money that they have approved for technology over the years. Contractual issues of changing vendors were raised. A big concern was expressed by several commissioners about cell phone use - who gets cell phones paid for by the county and who pays the bills for those phones. Department Heads make the determination of who gets phones and who pays for them but there does not seem to be a consistent policy. Some phones are paid for from a central account but Comm. Gainer questioned why cell phone bills were not allocated to the departments. Sharing of IT systems and having separate IT systems in different departments that don't communicate were also raised as issues as they are every year. Comm. Daley stated that they may need an ordinance that would require the elected officials to participate in whatever system changes are made. He further stated that savings can only come from the cooperation among all elected officials and departments.

Public Administrator - Feb. 3 Hearing

Nicholas Crapsas serves as the Public Administrator for Cook County. He is appointed by the state to provide services to those persons who die in Illinois without a will or have no one to administer their estate. His $56,000 part time salary is paid by the state and his office has a budget request for $1.172m. Revenue generated by this office was $4.2m this past year. This hearing was brief with few questions asked. Comm. Gainer did ask how the law firms were chosen with which the office contracts for services and Mr. Crapsas stated that a request for qualifications had been issued and the office selects from those firms that have met the qualifications.

Auditor - Feb. 3 Hearing

Laura Burman is the head of the Internal Audit Dept. of Cook County. She stated she has complied with the requested budget cuts but instead of doing lay offs she will use furlough days (19 for each FTE) in her department. She stated that future audits will focus on revenue generating departments and they are doing a more risk based approach in their audits. Comm. Gainer stated that making cuts in this department could reduce their ability to catch problems. This also was a brief hearing with few questions asked.

States Attorney - Feb. 8 Hearing

Anita Alvarez came into the hearing after holding a press conference in the hall outside the President's office. In her prepared statements she discussed what a difficult year 2010 had been for law enforcement citing the challenges presented by increased gun violence. She stated that she had negotiated with President Preckwinkle about the cuts to her budget and if she made the requested 10% cuts she would have to cut 58 states attorney positions and 100 support staff and such cuts would greatly impact the services her office would be able to provide.

In discussion with the commissioners it was revealed that the President had requested the 16% cut and the States Attorney had submitted a budget with a 5.5% cut. Further discussion between the President and SA had resulted in a compromise cut of about 10% but there still seemed to be some unresolved issues. Comm. Suffredin asked about whether she was able to use any Special Purpose Funds that were collected by the courts and she said that those belonged to the Chief Judge and her office did not share in any of those funds. She stated that she needs to be fully staffed on the criminal side which is not where her office can generate income. Thus if cuts are made to her civil case staffing her ability to generate increased revenue will be compromised. Comm. Beavers asked his usual question about minority representation on the staff in her office. Ms. Alvarez was prepared for the question and provided the following statistics: her professional staff is 9.62% African American, 7.24% Hispanic, and 4% Asian with 43% of the staff being women. Observer left before the hearing was over.

CC Finance Committee Budget Review – Public Administrator, Nov. 2, 2009

Public Administrator Nicholas Grapsas reported that his budget is up from 2009 due to regular salary increases and the hiring of one attorney for this area, which he feels is needed to help oversee the outside law firms that handle the legal work for the office in dealing with estates where there are no known heirs or, if known, can’t be found or can’t or won’t act. For this department’s $1 million budget, the County has obtained $5 million from the closed estates. If this budget were cut, that would simply slow down receipt of these funds. Comm. Gainer suggested that Mr. Grapsas consider seting up criteria selecting the law firms that handle the legal work for this office to make the process more understandable and transparent.

--Submitted by Observer Pris Mims