Cook County Board Meeting, May 1, 2012

The meeting began with an hour of various procedural and ceremonial matters including the recognition of Silver Star families, the 10th Anniversary of Growing Home and the recognition of a couple who had gone out of their way to help a crime victim.

Then the board meeting was recessed by President Preckwinkle and The Finance Committee met, chaired by Commissioner Daley. Routine court orders, subrogations and bond issue changes were approved.

Then the commissioners turned their attention to the matter of Contingency Funds which seem to be routinely used both by department heads and other high ranking officials and elected Commissioners to cover spending on travel and other expenses with much less oversight than these expenditures would receive if they were accounted for under individual budget line items. President Preckwinkle had asked Commissioner Tobolski to try to identify a solution that would be acceptable to a majority of Commissioners.

Commissioner Collins made a long statement saying that it was her opinion that any changes made should apply to everyone - the President, Department heads, Chief of Staff and Commissioners. Collins said she suggested an amendment to cover everyone but said Tobolski deferred it.  Daley said that Collins had not used the correct process to have her amendment considered.

Silvestri asked why the overall reimbursement process could not be clarified so the same process was used for everything and everybody.  He said he, Quigley and Daley introduced new controls some years ago and these changes are a good thing and a continuation of what they had started.  Further, he said the Collins amendment is worthy of consideration as the spending of contingency funds by Commissioners is only a fraction of the whole.  Daley responded by saying he did not really understand why people think this is a problem at all.

Murphy said the current process works and the new rules suggested by Tobolski and the Collins amendment are both unnecessary.  They will simply create extra work.  In her opinion the process that exists now is open and transparent.

Tobolski responded by saying that the Ethics department report shows that there are problems. “Office Supplies” has been used to cover all kinds of things from travel to entertainment.  The suggested changes mirror normal business practices - you can’t get money in advance and provide details later, sometimes months later.  The changes will not fix all the problems but the best that can be done at this point.  Many Commissioners have cooperated in developing them.

Fritchey said he agrees with the Tobolski effort but disagrees with how it is being done. He agrees with Collins that the rules should apply to those not elected as well particularly as they do not have to answer to the voters. There should also be rules in place to reimburse the County for personal use of county cars.  He had filed an ordinance to do away with contingency funds altogether as they are so subject to misuse but there are not enough votes to pass this.  The Tobolski-suggested changes still leave significant loopholes.  They add a layer of bureaucracy and allow people to say something is being done but they don’t fix the problem.  The Ethics department is busy with other things.  He will vote yes but just for “optics” reasons as he doesn’t want it to be said he did not support stronger controls over spending.  Each Commissioner has different dollar amounts in Contingency funds and they use them for different things.  This makes no sense.  The analogy is that the State Board of Elections shouldn’t have to pre-approve each campaign expense as there is already a list of pre-approved types of expenses.  So why does the Ethics department have to look at each item?  Also there are no mechanisms for dealing with non-compliance in place and no penalties for non-compliance.  He questioned Director of Ethics Mary Foster about the personal use of County cars.  She said they have no authority over this.  They are just being given oversight over spending contingency funds.  She said daily review would be better than quarterly review but she supports the amendment.  Fritchey said daily review would be unworkable.

Commissioner Garcia expressed support for the Tobolski proposals.

Commissioner Simms said she was offended by the idea that the old ways were bad and the old guard was corrupt.  The current discussion about Good Government was just to generate Good Press for the newcomers.  When lobbyists joined the board lobbying became alright.  People are double dipping on pensions but the reformers won’t touch that because they want to double dip too.  The board has to stop just acquiescing to what the press says.  If you don’t like contingency money then don’t take them and don’t use them.

Tobolski asked people not to get personal and said the Collins amendment should be looked at once his proposed changes had been put in place.  He had confined his review to the Commissioners spending only because that is what President Preckwinkle had asked him to do.

Vote was as follows:  16 yes (Reyes, Tobolski, Garcia, Collins, Fritchey, Suffredin, Butler, Beavers, Murphy, Simms, Daley, Schneider, Goslin, Silvestri, Gorman, Steele) and 1 absent (Gainer).

After the Finance Committee adjourned, the Workers Compensation Committee failed to meet because of a lack of quorum.

Then the Zoning and Building Committee met to handle some routine matters.

President Preckwinkle returned to restart the Board meeting itself and various routine matters were handled including an intergovernmental agreement between the City and County covering Juvenile Justice.

Another intergovernmental agreement generated some discussion and questions but no dissent.  This covers the County taking over the provision of services to tuberculosis patients who are currently handled by the City.  By combining the responsibility under one body it is believed that patients can receive better services at lower cost.  The City will close outpatient TB clinics.

After this various spending contracts were approved.  Most interesting of these were one for GIS software to track wetlands information and one with the Gartner Consulting group to look into streamlining County operations.

Various building fee waivers were approved for organizations such as the Chicago Botanic Gardens (County entity) and the Loyola Medical Center in Maywood.  It was not clear to me if all not for profits have fees reduced or waived or if this was a special case.

Various items on the consent agenda were referred to the Finance Committee and the Roads and Bridges Committee before the rest of the Consent agenda was approved.

A $9.8 million project with US Equities Realty was approved for them to spend two years developing recommendations for rationalizing all the real estate owned by the County.  Suffredin voted “present” on this item.

There was extensive discussion on what initially appeared to be a routine matter to urge the Illinois House to pass Bill 4148 clamping down on the fraudulent use of homestead exemptions.  Representatives from the Cook County Assessors Office explained that the bill contemplated a sliding scale of penalties ranging from $0 for claiming one exemption someone is not entitled to to 40% penalty for claiming three incorrect exemptions.  Suffredin said it was a very fair bill with lots of safeguards to protect the elderly or those who simply made an innocent mistake.  Collins and Simms feel many of their constituents would not be able to cope and would be subject to penalties through simple error on their part.  Schneider and Silvestri also felt there were major issues to be clarified.

Butler and Collins voted No on this item, Schneider, Gorman and Goslin voted Present and the rest of the Commissioners voted Yes.

Another item that generated a lot of discussion was an agreement with the Heartland Alliance for them to provide various services that would result in further reducing the numbers of youth in the Juvenile Detention Center. Currently youth who do not have parents to whom they can be released have to be kept in detention while awaiting court action.  Heartland will serve in the role of guardians and provide services to the youth.  All the Commissioners supported the actions President Preckwinkle and the Chief Judge had initiated in this area.  Substance abuse and other treatment and social services will cost less than detention and result in better outcomes.

The board approved a contract to house detainees for a two year period in other counties who charge $50 per day plus medical costs.  This is significantly less than the cost to provide these same services within Cook County.

Commissioner Simms reported on redistricting.  An additional hearing would be held in the Loop and the deadline to turn in maps would be extended to May 8th.  Nothing had happened behind closed doors and every Commissioner has been invited to come to the map room and draw a map although most had not taken her up on the offer. She encouraged Commissioners to talk to the those who represent neighboring districts.  Simms pointed out this time a Committee of the Whole is working on the issue instead of having 9 people as was done last time.  Daley said he supports the process. Silvestri said the process has been open and they have to figure out the protected districts and have the rest fit around them.

The meeting adjourned at 2:10 pm.

--Submitted by Lali Watt

Cook County Board Finance Committee Meeting February 14, 2012

There were not enough commissioners for a quorum.  Commissioners present:  Daley, Gorman, Sims, Suffredin, Garcia,  Fritchey, Tobolski, Gainer.  Ten were needed, eight were present.  Many of the absent commissioners apparently opposed the proposal to move the duties of the Office of the Recorder of Deeds to the County Clerk and abolishing the office.

State Representative Karen Yarborough (D-07), a Democratic candidate for Recorder of Deeds, was present with an aide, but did not speak.  She spoke with Clem Balinoff from David Orr’s office before the meeting, asking him reasons why he thought it was a good idea.  Fritchey praised her often as one of his most esteemed colleagues from his congressional days in Springfield.  

Although there was not a quorum, Daley wanted all those present who had signed up to speak, to do public testimony.

1)  First Jesse White, current IL Secretary of State, spoke.  He said that before he became Secretary of State, he had been Recorder of Deeds and in that office had generated increased revenue for Cook County.  He did a lot to streamline the computer systems.  He wants to keep the Recorder of Deeds office because it provides a good revenue stream, offers a good service to voters, and believes Cook County should keep it the way it is.

2)  Laurence Msall, President of the Civic Federation of Chicago, testified next.  The Civic Federations supports the referendum.  The proposal would be less costly and more efficient.  There is little policy debated in either the Recorder or the County Clerk’s offices – the offices are purely administrative.  $1 million savings per year could be realized and spent elsewhere.  All IL counties less than 60,000 people have combined offices.

LA county, the largest in the US, merged all functions into one site in 1968.  There were 160 million documents merged and put into one location.  By 1991 LA had fully merged the Recorder function.

Mr. Msall urged that Cook County just put the issue in front of voters.  The last time we did that was in the 1970s concerning elimination of the elected coroner’s office. 

Commissioner Sims responded and said that “Cook County was special”.  Just because other counties have merged the offices doesn’t mean that Cook County should do this.  “We don’t know what will happen with a merger”.  “We wasted money on contractors in the Cook County Hospital because the Civic Federation recommended an independent governors board.  We have spent millions hiring contractors and we shouldn’t have wasted the money”.

3)  Darlene Williams-Burnett spoke, from the Recorder of Deeds office.  She issued a dire warning that the Recorder's Office was “under repair” and that the county should proceed “with caution”.   The Recorder of Deeds office has reduced its budget by 50%, and has produced $347 million in the past six years.  It is the only viable lifeline for mortgage foreclosure issues.  She cautioned about the costs of retraining, that it may cost labor strife, and warned that they worked with public safety agencies to defeat criminals in the bank and financial agencies. She questioned the cost of retraining employees.  She said the Recorder of Deeds office was the final line between predatory lending and the consumer.

She claimed the office has consistently reduced its costs and now collects five times the revenue of its costs.  It operates as a “profitable small business”.  The projected savings has already been realized she claimed.  They operate a robust e-commerce site.  “We are restoring integrity to our database and defend property rights in Cook County”.

Com. Fritchey responded that the resolution does not single out any person and that it does not propose to eliminate any of the functions of the Recorder of Deeds office.  Ms. Williams-Burnett claimed that Cook County was unique in that it maintained a full legal description of all properties, and that other counties use title companies to keep track of their documents.  

4)  Clem Balinoff from David Orr’s office spoke.  He said that the resolution for a referendum had nothing to do with individuals but rather improved efficiency.  He proposed that consolidation of the two offices would combine 2 IT structures, 2 purchasing departments, two office spaces, and two supervisory staffs, resulting in savings of $1 million per year through permanent consolidation of staff.  He thought this could be achieved through attrition and no re-hiring. 

Mr. Balinoff has been at the County Clerk’s office for 15 years, during which time, the office has absorbed the City of Chicago’s bureau of vital statistics.  The county clerk’s office has increased revenues by $1 million with a total cost of two employees, handling all the responsibilities that Chicago once performed (badly).  A one year time frame for absorption of Recorder of Deeds duties should be very doable.  The county clerk’s office has never missed a deadline.

5) Adam Clement from the Bureau of Technology spoke.  His specialty has been in IT for Recorder of Deeds offices all over the country.  Despite Cook County saying they are unique, they utilize the same software as most other Registrar/Recorder offices around the country.  The transition would be smooth and aided by internal IT people.  A year’s timeframe to merge would be doable.  Mr. Clement was called to testify by Com. Fritchey.

Com. Fritchey gave his presentation.  LA county has only 8 elected officials while Cook County has 29, including the 17 commissioners.  The last time Cook County eliminated a position was in 1972 with the Coroner.  It is the right time now to continue consolidation.

Fritchey has not heard a constructive reason why not to do this referendum.  The time is now.  He said he knows that commissioners have been getting calls from influential people to table the resolution but that we owe it to the voters to let them decide.

Chair Daley will decide when to call this to the Finance Committee again.

--submitted by Amy Little

Cook County Board Meeting October 19, 2010

The meeting of the Cook County Board was called to order about 10:20 a.m.

After passing a Resolution commemorating the achievements of the "Queen of Gospel" Albertina Walker and another Resolution recognizing and expressing Cook County's gratitude to their Sister County Partner of Cork for providing 8 boys of Mercy Home the opportunity to visit Ireland, the FINANCE COMMITTEE meeting convened.

After approving several routine items, a proposed ordinance amending the Ethics Code was introduced by Commissioner Anthony J. Peraica. The heatedly discussed ordinance amendment was a proposal to amend Chapter 2 Administration, Sections 2-570, 2-580. 2-581 and 2-585 of the Cook County Code of Ethics. The proposal would "prohibit elected officials from lobbying other elected officials". The proposal was defeated by a vote of 13 nays to two (2) yeas which were cast by Commissioners Beavers and Peraica. Among the reasons for the opposition was the concern that the proposed language would have voided ethics legislation recently passed dealing with pay to play, other inconsistencies in the language and complaints that the proposal actually targeted specific individuals.

Following this decision by the Finance Committee, the Commissioners went into executive session to discuss an Interest Arbitration Award Decision concerning AFSCME Council 31 (representing the County Police Officers, County Police Sergeants, Correctional Sergeants and Correctional Lieutenants) which involved pay raises covering these employees which would be effective from December 1, 2008 through June 1, 2012.

What was anticipated to be no more than a 30 minutes closed session lasted an hour and a half. Upon reconvening and having open discussion about approving this compulsory Interest arbitration award or taking the decision to court, the Commissioners voted twelve (12) to one (1), with Commissioner Peraica voting no, to accept the award.

INTEREST ARBITRATION AWARD PROVISIONS:

Effective December 1, 2008     (2.00%)    $1,247,374

Effective December 1, 2009     (1.50%)    $2,201,615

Effective December 1, 2010     (2.00%)    $3,493.021

Effective December 1, 2011     (2.00%)    $2,405.127

Effective June 1, 2012             (1.00%)     $2,741.022

TOTAL ESTIMATED 4 YEAR COST:      $12,088,159

This decision concluded the Finance Committee meeting which was followed expeditiously by the Roads and Bridges and Zoning and Building Committee Reports.

The Cook County Commissioners meeting was adjourned at approximately 1:45 p.m.

--Submitted (with sincere appreciation for the guidance of President Cynthia Schilsky) by Observer Syvia Tillman




 

Another veto, another attempt at an override

June 2, 2009 Cook County Board of Commissioners Meeting

SALES TAX ISSUES:

President Stroger addressed and vetoed the second attempt by some commissioners to repeal part of the sales tax increase, which has been in effect for about a year. Some commissioners again tried to override the veto, but failed to have enough votes. Comm. Beavers, Butler, Moreno, Murphy, Sims, and Steele voted against the override. Comm. Collins voted "present"--again. Comm. Maldonado was absent. Almost all commissioners expressed dismay at the continuing vetoes and override attempts. Comm. Daley suggested a finance meeting next week (which has since been cancelled) to work out a compromise with Stroger and the Board members. He stated that sales tax revenues are down $1,000,000.00; other county income has dropped even more this year and the budget will need trimming in all elected officials' departments.

Once again commissioners expressed their viewpoints on the sales tax. Several weren't sure if there was a county sales tax on cars. Sims said to look at the retail mark-up of products and related her experience with pants being marked up 50%. Butler does not want any repeal of the sales tax because the .25% is only "a quarter of a penny and won't make any difference." It appears the Hospital Board indicated to Gorman that cuts could be made; and to Sims that no cuts could be made. Peraica pointed out that Cook County Hospitals have 9 employees per patient bed compared with 4-5 in the private sector, so positions could be cut there.

SHAKMAN DECREE:

Comm. Peraica noted that Illinois paid $500,000.00 in "corruption tax" last year, half of which is in Cook County. Collins agreed with Peraica that this patronage needs to stop. Since 2007, Cook County has paid out about $2.5 million due to the Shakman Decree -- court cases, 150 settlements to employees hurt because of patronage, and monitoring of hiring practices by the Compliance Administrator and her staff. Laura Lechowicz-Felicione of Pres. Stroger's staff reported that Cook County is heading in the right direction regarding Shakman--training of employees is being done and hiring plans have been implemented. Butler asked if there was such a thing as "legal patronage." (Yes--for exempt positions) Several commissioners desired a desk audit to determine which positions are exempt and a description of each job's requirements and duties. As was pointed out at a previous board meeting, much of this could be done by each manager in-house with no extra cost. It appears this still isn't being done.

OTHER NOTED INFORMATION:

It was brought up that pay outs for Workmen's Compensation and costs for litigation are very high.

It was noted that an ordinance passed previously required commissioners to report and file (with receipts) expenses incurred by their offices. This is to be done quarterly; previously no receipts were required to obtain the money and several commissioners took it as extra salary.

Comm. Steele proposed a lengthy procedure to more closely monitor contracts of over $1,000,000.00. This was referred to the Finance Committee for further review.

Comm. Gorman proposed an ordinance amendment to establish a familial relationship disclosure requirement for all persons contracting with Cook County. This was also sent to Finance Committee.

A resolution by Comm. Murphy to honor the League of Women Voters was made. This commemorated the Palos-Orland Park LWV for their 50 years of service.