Cook County Board of Commissioners Meeting Wednesday, December 4, 2013

One item from the Finance Committee was to move a proposed resolution by Larry Suffredin-- Creating “Accountability Charges” for Violations of the Shakman Consent Decree-- to the litigation committee.  This resolution would deduct an amount equal to five percent (5%) of the total amount assessed for violation of the Shakman Consent Decree from the department’s operating funds and transfer those monies to the Cook County Self Insurance Fund.

One of the new agenda items from the Finance Committee dealt with the authorization of a contract with WestCare Foundation to supply substance abuse and mental health treatment programs for the Department of Corrections.  There was a lot of public testimony against this contract from current employees who fear losing their jobs, impact of wages, and increase in turnover.

Public testimony was given by Sharon Mulruney from Defend the Vote. She expressed concern with party affiliated judges presiding over another party’s voting machines. She stated that this is a clear violation of legal voting systems. The website for Defend the Vote states concerns with election security.

Before the start of the main board meeting, there was a recognition of several local communities and their involvement in Homeland Security. Over 30 people were recognized for their past and current service.

One agenda item dealt with new Time and Attendance Software that will be introduced in the county. Commissioner Daley asked if all separately elected officials would also be part of this new software program. He was told that the software would be converted over to cover all employees. The goal is to move all payroll processing from manual to computerized and improve accuracy and timeliness of payroll processing.

There was a great deal of discussion regarding the annual calendar of the regular cook county board meetings for 2014. Comments from commissioners who felt that there were too few meetings (formerly every 3 weeks in 2013 to 11 total meetings in 2014) included concerns that there may be too few meetings to get the work done and public perception of the how much work the commissioners were doing. Commissioners who supported the smaller schedule commented that the new efficiency of the board meetings allowed for fewer meetings, and Commissioners would be able to get more work done in their own districts.  The resolution approving the shorter meeting agenda was passed 10 to 6 with one commissioner absent.

The highlight of the presentation from John Yonan, Superintendent of the Dept. of Transportation and Highways, was the genuine praise from the commissioners for the work that John has done.  He was praised for his work ethic and ability to work with IDOT, the city, and suburban cook county governments, and coming up with practical solutions.

Submitted by Laura Davis, Palatine Area League of Women Voters

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  

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

Cook County Departmental Budget Hearings October 29, 2012

Health & Hospitals System’s Budget Balanced Thanks to Receiving 1115 Waiver from Fed. Govt. 

David Carvalho, Chair of the Board of the Cook County Health & Hospitals System (HHS), and Dr. Ram Raju, Chief Executive Officer of HHS, both expressed their great pleasure and relief that they were able to announce that the HHS had received an 1115 Medicaid Waiver from the Federal Government allowing them to enroll people now with incomes less than 133% of the poverty level and receive the Medicaid portion from the Federal Government, which is 48 cents on the dollar billed.  Currently, HHS might not be receiving even that amount.  In 2014, when the Affordable Health Care Act goes into effect, HHS will receive 100 cents on the dollar from the Federal Government for these people for 3 years, when it will drop down to 90 cents on the dollar.  (The State of Illinois is supposed to be supplying the remaining portion, but given the State’s financial condition, HHS is not expecting to receive any amount any time soon.)

As a result of this Waiver, HHS was presenting a balanced budget to the Cook County Board, albeit with a continuing subsidy from the County.  HHS expects to net $99 million over the costs of implementing the Waiver.  Absent the Waiver, HHS would have had a $99 million budget shortfall.  However, HHS has to do several things to maintain the Waiver, including signing up 115,000 people under the program.  HHS already has 67,000 qualifying people in its system and there are another 47,000 people in other federally qualified programs.  HHS estimates that there are 215,000 people in Cook County who would qualify under the program, meaning there are another 100,000 or so people that HHS could potentially sign up.  Work is underway to develop methods for reaching out to these people.

2013 Critical to Transforming HHS

Dr. Raju said that the 2013 budget presented to the Board is critical to transforming the health care system under the County to a patient-centered model.  When the Affordable Care Act goes into effect in 2014, many of the patients Cook County currently serves will now have health insurance and thus will have more options for care.  In order to keep patients with insurance who can pay for the care HHS provides, it is critical that they view HHS as an attractive option.  Otherwise, HHS will be left with only those patients who do not qualify to obtain insurance. 

While HHS continues to need significant dollars from the County to balance the HHS budget, Dr. Raju pointed to improvements in the HHS collecting fees from patients.  Revenues are up $100,000 more than in 2011, and physicians are at last billing for their services, with $5.2 million collected already thus far in 2012, and $12 million projected in 2013.  In addition, significant cost savings are being realized due to supply chain improvements.

Dr. Raju said that HHS needs to hire 444 people this year, with 144 positions needing to be filled in the next 8 to 10 weeks, and a plan to hire about 30 new people a month beyond that.  Dr. Raju stressed that HHS actually needs more people, but this budget reflects what can realistically be done during the course of the year.  He also stressed that he has eliminated all positions that won’t be filled this year.  (Often, departments maintain approved positions, but carry them at a $1/year salary.  All such positions have been eliminated from this HHS budget.)

Mr. Carvahlo stressed that one problem facing HHS is that the upper level salaries are not competitive enough to attract the talent needed.  HHS is working with Human Resources and the Shakman Compliance Officer to streamline the hiring process.

Patients from Outside Cook County

Based on a past survey, about 7% of the population being served through HHS comes from outside of the County, which amounts to about $25 to $30 million in costs.  In the past, HHS has not done a good job of keeping track of these people, but expects to do so in the future.  A new Illinois law prohibits a hospital that provides care from billing a patient whose income is less than 200% of poverty, no matter where the patient lives.  But a hospital is not obligated to provide care, except in emergency situations to save the patient’s life.  Currently, HHS provides all care.  The HHS Board is starting to have discussions as to whether there needs to be a change in policy for patients who come from outside the County.  Commissioner Tobolski stressed that Cook County taxpayers cannot continue to be asked to pay for care given to people from outside the County.

--Submitted by Priscilla Mims