Proposed 2015 Cook County Executive Budget: October 27, 2015 Public Hearing at Skokie Courthouse, 5600 Old Orchard Road

The following Commissioners were present at the public hearing: Moore, Goslin, Steele, Daley, Suffredin and Silvestri. This was the last opportunity for members of the public to provide comments on the proposed budget. The courthouse was full. There was a mixed reaction to the budget, below is a summary of the testimony.

There were several speakers, including church groups, a member of the McGaw YMCA in Evanston, and representatives from the Erie Health Clinic, that were supportive of the budget levels and the care that they receive and are provided by different centers in the Health and Hospital Systems.They believe that programs such as Access to Care, in partnership with County Care provide a needed service to people who are underinsured or with no insurance. Commissioner Suffredin commented that these programs were very important and that the Board will continue to support them. There was a speaker from Women’s Business DevelopmentCenter who also voiced support of their continuing partnership with Cook County.

Several speakers from church groups and Illinois Collaboration on Youth asked for a $1 million grant to support programs to combat violence in Cook County. There is a need for more community based programs in support of alternatives to incarceration of minor offenses, programs to help youth and initiatives to stop gun violence. In addition, there is an urgent need to reform the criminal justice system.

The National Nurses Association raised issues of the closure of several health clinics and felt this was a bad policy and has an impact on patients.  The patients now face extra costs to get to clinics that are not in their neighborhoods. In addition, nurses are worried that because of the closures, people will not go to clinics to receive proper immunizations, STD services, and care for women and children along with other services. It was also stated that there is concern for those clinics in courthouses. The process of entering a courthouse can be scary to some, especially undocumented people.

Submitted by Nancy Marcus

2015 Proposed Executive Budget, Finance Committee’s Meeting with the Cook County Health & Hospitals System, October 17, 2014

CCHHS Executive Director Dr. Jay Shannon justified the FY 2015 budget to a few assembled members of the Cook County board, explaining that the 92,000 new members of CountyCare can now choose their health care providers. As a result, CCHHS must respond with high quality services to retain its new patient population that have insurance. The plan is to upgrade the 130 "medical  homes" with Saturday appointments, mental health services, and a patient portal allowing patients to access test results. CCHHS is developing a call center and centralized scheduling. Investments are also planned for new equipment. Also CCHHS must now market itself to compete with other providers. Five thousand jail detainees enrolled in CountyCare will receive covered services once they depart the jail.

CCHHS can now boast that more of its patients are insured than uninsured, for the first time in its history.  But many patients continue to be uninsured, including jail detainees and undocumented immigrants.  The proposed budget requires $164 million from Cook County taxpayers to balance, as opposed to $175 million in 2014.
 

Cook County Department of Public Health Chairman Terry Mason reported that CCHHS is working with all other Chicago hospitals in a "robust coalition" to prepare for any ebola patients, using the "Nebraska standard" involving lots of training, with new materials on order.  He reported that there is no evidence that ebola is airborne.  Nurses are now being trained but did not know how many had received training.  Dr. Mason also stressed that every year 37,000 people in the U.S. die from the flu, and urged everyone to get flu shots.
 

Commissioner Jesus Garcia complained about the lack of Latinos being hired, particularly in upper positions.  Dr. Shannon responded that HR Director Gladys Lopez (a Latina, he noted) is putting together a "hiring plan" that should address this problem, with monthly reports on how many vacancies have been filled.

Commissioner Jeff Tobolski complained about the salary increases for executive and director-level staff, as well as the level of salaries for new director hires, while lower level staff only received $1.25 step increases in pay - with applause by nurses attending the hearing.  Dr. Shannon responded that executive salaries at CCHHS are lower than at private hospitals; many staff salaries are determined by labor negotiations; and CCHHS can't afford to be cheap in this competitive environment and must hire top quality executive leadership in order to fulfill its mission effectively.  Chairman Daley pointed out that the ongoing contractual negotiations with the nurses and other employees fall under the responsibility of the President’s office, not HHS.
 

Commissioner Deborah Sims commented that nurses were excluded from conversations about the movement of their services when clinics changed locations.
 

Commissioner Bridget Gainer asked about the bidding process for the key contract of administering the managed care aspect of County Care - length of time to bid, number of bidders, extent of advertising for bids.  Departing CCHHS budget director John Cookinham promised to respond to her questions.  Gainer also questioned the marketing plan, wondering what measures would be used to evaluate the plan.

submitted by Linda Christianson

Proposed 2015 Cook County Executive Budget Overview, October 9, 2014

On Thursday, October 9, 2014, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle presented to the Cook County Board her Executive (proposed) budget for the 2015 fiscal year that begins December 1, 2014.  The Board immediately referred the Executive Budget to the Board’s Finance Committee (which is composed of all 17 Commissioners and chaired by Commissioner John Daley), which begins meeting with departments to review their individual budgets on October 16.  Hearings where the public can provide comments will be held on:

Friday, October 17, 9 am in the Cook County Board Room

Tues., Oct. 21, 6:30 pm at Markham courthouse

Thurs., Oct. 23, 6:30 pm in Maybrook courthouse

Mon., Oct. 27, 6:30 pm in Skokie courthouse

Chairman Daley indicated that while the budget meetings with departments should be completed no later than October 29, the votes to amend and approve the budget will probably not take place until mid-November.

In addition to attending the presentation by President Preckwinkle, the League obtained the 3 volumes of the Executive Budget.  (These volumes are available on the County’s web site at www.cookcountyil.gov.)  Following are some of the key points from the President’s address, as well as from the review of the budget books.

I.              No new taxes, fees, fines, or layoffs are proposed

II.            Budget increased from $3.54 billion in 2014 to almost $4 billion in 2015 (increase of $463 million); total FTEs increased by only 27

III.           Most of increase due to increase in Cook County Health & Hospitals System (HHS) budget as a result of Affordable Care Act (which resulted in significant new revenues, as well as expenditures to treat people now covered by insurance); total HHS budget is now $1.5 billion

A.            Actual subsidy from County to HHS is down slightly (by $11 million) to $164 million

B.            Currently 92,000 under County Care

C.           With expansion of County Care to include children and seniors covered by Medicare, expect 150,000 by end of 2015

D.           For first time in history, more patients covered by insurance than uninsured

IV.          8800 average daily jail population for most of 2014 vs. close to 10,000 during much of 2013; goal by next year to have average of 7500 in jail

A.            Reduction began in Sept. 2013 around time Preckwinkle wrote IL Supreme Court seeking reforms in County judicial system, particularly pre-trial services

B.            Since then, electric monitoring up and more accused getting reduced bail or released on own reconnaissance

C.           Only 7% of those in jail serving sentences; rest awaiting trial

D.           70% in jail accused of non-violent crimes

E.            Large # of cases dropped when crime is small amounts of controlled substances; but those arrested on this charge serve an average of 2 to 3 weeks

F.            Preckwinkle says now is time to instead of getting “tough on crime” to get “smart on crime”

G.           Will only see savings for County when jail population has a sustained reduction allowing for closing of wings and reduced overtime and personnel

V.            Expect additional revenues from State as a result of the Juvenile Temporary Detention Center expected to finally be coming out from under Federal Court supervision to oversight by Chief Judge by end of 2014

VI.          Pension reform for the County approved by Senate but not by House; hope House will deal with in veto session

VII.         Proposed new Bureau of Asset Management to realize revenues and savings by overseeing all properties owned and leased by County

-- submitted by Priscilla Mims


Updated 10/21/14 to correct the difference between last year's and this year's budget.

2015 Proposed Executive Budget, Finance Committee's Meetings with Departments on October 16, 2014

Bureau of Finance

The meeting was sparsely attended by Commissioners Garcia and Sims, with Commissioner Daley presiding at 9:30am. 

The Dept of Revenue Manager, Zahra Ali, talked about changing from manual ticket writing to a computerized system. They are still choosing the appropriate technology, but want to hire 9 more positions to generate tickets. 

Commissioners Gorman, Butler, Moore, and Schneider joined the meeting.

The Dept of Risk Management under Deanna Zalas, has worked on its STAR goals to reduce workers compensation claims.  Schneider said that under Ms. Zalas the Risk Management group has gotten much better at keeping track of its 1350 outstanding workers comp claims.  The claims that are 8 to 12 years old are the tough cases and unlikely to return to light duty work, but those cases are being resolved.

Commissioners Fritchey and Steele joined the meeting.

Risk Management also handles healthcare negotiations and negotiated a 3.5% increase rather than a 5.9% increase first presented by BCBS.  Comm. Steele asked if there were wellness programs for workers linked to premium reductions, like in the City of Chicago, and Ms. Zalas said she plans to attempt to link wellness programs with health premiums in the next round of union negotiations.

Lawrence Wilson, County Comptroller, presented his budget and STAR goals.  While the Comptroller’s office has improved on all its STAR goals, Comm. Daley suggested that the independent elected officials needed to get their invoices and revenues into the comptroller in a more timely fashion.  The new Accounts Payable system was implemented in August.  90% of county employees receive their paychecks by direct deposit.

The Comptroller is working on setting up the County’s bank audit. 

The Office of Contract Compliance is headed by Jacqueline Gomez, whose main task is to make sure that the County’s information on MBE/WBE is statistically reliable and can be used in the event of a lawsuit.  The County was sued several years ago and was not able to prove compliance with minority hiring.  Comm. Steele noted that Ms. Gomez has improved the office greatly.  She has ordered a Disparity Study by Consultant Collette Halt in order to document the County’s compliance.

The Office of Enterprise Resource Planning is the County’s office of technology.  They have implemented a new payroll system update that includes biometric time clocks.  Tom Lynch, the manager of ERP, is still in the process of formulating the RFP for the master software system for Cook County.  Comm. Moore wanted to make sure the county is considering MBE/WBE companies.  The kind of software Cook County needs is only sold by a handful of large companies, but Mr. Lynch assured Mr. Moore that the implementation  phase would include minority companies.

Office of Procurement is led by Shannon Andrews.  For the first time the county is selling obsolete equipment,  mostly vehicles, via the “Public Surplus” website.  They have so far raised $79,000.

Andrea Gibson, the Budget and Management Services manager, has produced a budget that assigns costs to departments rather than relying on chargebacks at a later date.  The “Fixed Charges” budget category should be going away in future years.  She was present throughout the day.

Department of Administrative Hearings

John Allen leads this department and has implemented a web-based ticket contesting software to allow more fair and efficient compliance.  He has also tried to accommodate ticket recipients in branch Cook County courthouses rather than requiring a hearing downtown.  The department has handled 40,000 cases in 2014 with just 8 full time hearings officers presiding at the hearings.  Comm. Daley claimed to have seen a huge improvement in efficiency and response.

The dept. has assessed $11 million in fines in 2014.  Fines collected go into the general fund for the County.

Juvenile Temporary Detention Center  1pm

This is the last meeting that Earl Dunlop will be attending.  He is the interim head of JTDC and has been in Chicago since 2007.  Theresa Abrue is the acting CEO at JTDC, for two years now.

Commissioners Sims, Fritchey, Butler, Schneider, Moore, Steele, and Sims attended with Daley presiding.

Mr. Dunlop thanked the board and president for their support over the years.  He had been called in because of “gladiator rooms” and federal court intervention.

Mr. Dunlop said that things have improved but the two issues that most have to be dealt with are racial disparity and the serious union issues.  99% of the detainees at the JTDC are black and Hispanic.  He has never played favorites and has registered over 2000 disciplinary actions in those 7 years.  Many of the worst employee offenders are no longer employed by JTDC.

More women than men are in leadership positions.  He wants to make sure that someone at the county level discover why AOIC (Administrative Office of Illinois Courts) funding of $100 million halted in 2008.  It would significantly help the budget.

Comm. Sims told Mr. Dunlop that he should not continue to hire people, rather that Judge Evans should be allowed to appoint his own people.  Mr. Dunlop stated that he would continue to hire the best people for the job.  Comm. Schneider said that JTDC is not the right way to deal with young criminal offenders, and that Mr. Dunlop’s original task was to improve JTDC as it existed, not re-create it the way it should be.  The County spends $200,000 per year per bed for each young person at JTDC.

Mr. Dunlop said that this is not the right model for dealing with young people.  It is a holding facility, not a treatment center.  When he worked in Indiana, the detention center was able to get federal monies because it was an unlocked facility and considered voluntary.  Mr. Dunlop would rather see the money go back to the communities rather than to hold people in temporary detention.

Submitted by Amy Little