Cook County Board Meeting, November 1, 2012

The meeting was called to order at 10:45 a.m. by President Toni Preckwinkle.  All commissioners except Murphy and Reyes were in attendance.   

A Pay Ordinance that would change the way part-time people appointed to various boards are paid, including the elimination of health and pension benefits, was moved to the Finance Committee. The sponsoring Commissioners need time to find more support even if it means a compromise that would make the changes applicable to new appointees while grandfathering current members.  Commissioners Suffredin and Gainer are leading the effort.   The change would affect several influential political appointees that now receive full time pay and benefits for part time service.  

The Regional Transportation Authority wants a $30 million Bond Issue to help offset a $30 billion backlog of deferred maintenance projects.  The RTA initiated a 6-county area Transit Study that will be ready by April 2013 and will make recommendations for a better integration of the CTA, PACE, and Metra services; funding streams for both capital and operating budgets; and a fair distribution between the three regional transit services.  Currently the state owes the region $400 million in transportation funds.Ridership is up 5% but the fair box makes up only 25% of transit costs. 

Electronic Monitoring:  The Sheriff’s office, the Courts, and the Administration are close to issuing an RFP that calls for the consolidation of electronic monitoring equipment under one vendor contract.  “Getting it Right” is important to President Preckwinkle’s goal of reducing the county jail's nonviolent population.  We have written before on the huge cost to the County to hold nonviolent offenders either before, during, or after sentencing.  

News of Interest

Kurt Summers, Chief of Staff for the President is leaving this month.  The Commissioners overwhelmingly lauded his contributions to reforming Cook County Government.

Veterans Day is November 11.  Cook County has 260,000 living veterans which is the largest Vet population in the state. 

Lane Tech High School won the national 2012 Blue Ribbon award – one of two in the entire state and one of 307 across the nation.  Quite an accomplishment!

The meeting was adjourned at 1:40 p.m. 

 Submitted by  Diane Edmundson

Cook County Board Meeting, November 1, 2011

The meeting was called to order fifteen minutes late as other committees of the whole had been meeting. Commissioner Steele was absent.

The budgets for Metra and PACE were presented for 2012. After doing extensive customer research with their constituency, Metra decided to raise fares by 25% across the board rather than have cutbacks in service. Sales tax intake was lower, and diesel fuel costs have spiked. The total budget is $930.9 million. Metra is investigating free wifi on the trains.

PACE presented their budget of $195 million for 2012. Ridership is up by 5% but most of this is in ADA service which is much more expensive to provide than regular bus service. With this service, appointments are made for smaller jitney buses to pick people up from their homes 24 hours in advance. ADA ridership is increasing heavily due to the aging of the population.

The Finance Committee convened and the Cook County Health & Hospital System (CCHHS) was discussed. Dr. Ramanathan Raju, the CCHHS CEO, was on hand to answer questions. Patient fee collections are down by $105.6 million. Many employees of the hospital system did not take requested furlough days as they were considered essential employees, causing a shortfall to the balanced budget for this year. There are apparently 28,000 patients from Lake and DuPage Counties who use the Cook County hospital system each year, for which the county receives no reimbursement. Commissioner Silvestri requested Dr. Raju to investigate. Other commissioners wanted to know about $40 million spent on consulting fees. Cook County is investigating entering all their employees in an HMO/PPO system to cut costs.

Takashi Reinbold, Deputy Chief Financial Officer for Cook County, discussed the list of 10,000 Cook County employees who did not take furlough as they were considered “essential”. Comms. Beavers and Collins became defensive about being labeled “bad guys” for not taking furlough and each talked extensively about how their staffs were essential and spent the bare minimum. Other commissioners expressed their desire to fulfill compliance with a motion that was passed unanimously to help President Preckwinckle balance the budget. Apparently, most commissioners did indeed take furlough days and made the necessary 2011 cuts to meet budget. Comms. Beavers, Butler, and Collins have not yet complied with the motion.

The remaining agenda was passed quickly and the meeting was adjourned at 12:45pm.

Amy Little, Observer, November 1, 2011