November 7, 2011 Meetings of the Budget: Assessor, Board of Review, Recorder of Deeds

Assessor

Proposed budget represents a 9% decrease from 2011, with 23 positions cut.  Of these, only half will result in actual layoffs as the others are currently vacant.  Assessor Joseph Berrios disputed claims made by people at public hearings that union members are being laid off while the Assessor filled higher paid positions.  The Assessor stated that he cut the higher paid positions (often those making over $100,000), and with 95% of the workforce in the union, that resulted in union employees being affected.  He said that his goal was to keep as many positions as possible in order to deal with all the work of the office, so he determined reducing the higher-paid positions would have the least negative effect on his office.  However, in reviewing the budget book, it appears that the actual number of positions has gone up by 32.5.  None of the Commissioners asked about this.

Assessor Berrios touted the fact that his office has implemented online appeals, and he expects to complete the triennial reassessment for the southern suburbs by December 10.  This will allow his office to begin work on the Chicago triennial then.  By finishing earlier than in the past, this will allow the Board of Review to begin their work of hearing appeals from the Assessor’s reassessments sooner, which in turn should help speed up the process of getting the 2^nd installment of the property tax bills out sooner.  It has been 34 (!!!) years since Cook County got the 2^nd installment out by August 1, which is what the statute calls for.

Board of Review

The elected members of the Board of Review, Larry Rogers, Jr., Dan Patlak, and Michael Cabonargi are seeking $7.9 million rather than the $7 million proposed by the President.  They stated that the extra $900 thousand would allow the Board to finish hearing appeals in time to allow the 2^nd installment tax bills to go out by Aug. 1, 2012 for the first time in 34 years!

The Board of Review, working with the Assessor’s Office and the Bureau of Technology, is also implementing online appeals.  While this should help the Board cut expenses in the future, for this interim period as they implement new processes, this extra money is needed according to the Board. 

The Commissioners who spoke (Sims, Silvestri, Murphy, Tobolski, Fritchey and Suffredin) all expressed support for the Board’s request, except for Comm. Gorman.  She appeared to accept the Budget Director’s point that even with turnover and unfilled positions this year (including the fact that Mr. Cabonargi did not take office until Feb.), the Board was able to finish its work sooner than last year, albeit that the bills still went out 2 months late.  However, the other Commissioners urged that the Budget Dept. continue to work to see about finding additional money for the Board of Review.  Their concern was that the other governmental entities (cities/towns, schools, libraries, park districts, etc.) who depend on property taxes have significant additional costs if the tax bills do not go out on time.

Recorder of Deeds

Deputy Recorder Darlena Williams-Burnett made the presentation because Recorder Eugene Moore was home recuperating.  Most of the presentation was a defense that the Office needed to continue to be independent.  Comm. Fritchey, separate from this proposed budget, has proffered that the duties of the Recorder should be placed under the County Clerk and the separately elected office of Recorder eliminated.  Since Mr. Moore has stated that he is not going to run for reelection in 2012, Comm. Fritchey has stated that this is the perfect time to eliminate this elected position.  He said that he expects savings of $800,000 to $1 million, and that he now believes the merging of the offices could be done in a matter of a few months.  Comm. Fritchey says he plans to offer a proposal to the full Board of Commissioners which would place the issue of eliminating the Recorder of Deeds position before the voters in 2012.

There was no discussion of the proposed budget of the Recorder.

Nov. 3, 2011 Public Hearing on the Budget at the County Building

Those Testifying Generally Either Against Proposed Fee and Tax Increases or For More Spending to Save Jobs and Services

The Nov. 3 hearing in the County Building is one of four public meetings being held to obtain citizen input on the proposed budget.  The Board was left in a quandary:  if they don’t enact the proposed tax and fee increases, they will need to either increase other revenues or cut the proposed spending further, which means more jobs lost.  And in order to save some of the jobs that will be lost under the proposed budget, more revenues or other cuts will be needed.  But with about 70% of the budget covering employee costs already, there isn’t much left to be cut that doesn’t entail cutting jobs.

Commissioners who were there (Daley, Fritchey, Silvestri, and Suffredin throughout; plus, for a portion of the time, Butler, Gainer, Gorman, Schneider, Sims, and Tobolski) heard business owners complain about the proposed expansion of the cigarette tax to cover all tobacco products, the proposed increase in the alcohol tax, the proposed increase in the use tax on the sale of boats, and the proposed tax on amusement devices (such as juke boxes, pinball, and video poker machines).  The president of a homeowners’ association in unincorporated Cook County spoke against the proposal to create special service areas to cover the incremental costs of the Sheriff providing police services.

They also heard from very emotional employees in such areas as the offices of the State’s Attorney and Public Defender who have already received layoff notices in anticipation of the proposed budget being passed.  Doctors also appeared seeking more money for the Health & Hospitals System.  One woman testified that she was a 29-year employee at the information desk at 26^th & California who had received notice that she was being laid off.  She has just one year to go before she could take retirement.  Some of the employees expressed disappointment that there weren’t more Commissioners there to hear them.

The Civic Federation also testified in support of the overall budget, explaining that it had just issued a 77-page report on the budget.

Chairman Daley asked those testifying against fee and tax increases if they had suggestions as to where additional revenues might be found.  Comm. Suffredin mentioned that the County might have to look at the property tax levy, which hasn’t been raised since the early 1990’s.  Chairman Daley pointed out that none of the elected officials had spoken in favor of maintaining the sales tax when the Board voted to reduce it last Feb.   

Chairman Daley mentioned that the Finance Committee is expecting to vote on the proposed revenue increases on Nov. 14.

--  reported by Priscilla Mims

Nov. 2, 2011 Budget Departmental Budget Meetings

Chicago Board of Election Comissioners; Cook County Board of Commissioners; Independent Inspector General

Chicago Board of Election Commissioners

Under the proposed budget, this Election Board, which has jurisdiction over all elections within the City of Chicago, will receive $17.4 million from the County.  This covers only 4 employees: the Chairman and 2 Election Commissioners, plus the Executive Director.  In addition, the County pays the fees for election judges and other related expenses as set forth in the statute which created the Board.  The rest of the expenses for conducting elections in 2012 (the primary and general elections), including the salaries and benefits for all other employees, will come from the City and amounts to another $14.2 million for a total of $31.6 million.  The City has about 1.4 million voters, about the same as the suburbs in Cook County, which fall under the election jurisdiction of the County Clerk.  Comm. Schneider noted that the Clerk was asking for $24.6 million, and wondered why the City’s Election Board needed $5 million more.  Chairman Landgdon Neal explained that the County Clerk is able to call upon services of other County Departments, while the Election Board had to provide its own IT, purchasing, and legal counsel, etc.  (Not asked or answered was why the Election Board couldn’t look to the City to provide some of the services the Clerk receives from the County.)

Chairman Neal said that in order to compare the 2012 budget, one should look at the last year in which there was a presidential election; namely, 2008.  The 2008 budget was 1% greater, and included $3 million from the Help America to Vote Act.  A chief reason for the reduction for 2012 is that the Election Board intends to reduce the number of precincts by 20%, which amounts to about 500 less precincts.  Because of Early Voting and “no-fault” Absentee Voting, there are fewer people actually voting on election day, which allows this consolidation without creating long lines.  Fewer precincts mean fewer election judges and fewer sites that have to be rented.

The Election Board is not proposing to add any new touch-screen equipment, and, in fact, the company that supplied what both the City and County have, no longer makes that model.

Chairman Neal touted the 2,000 high school and 2,000 college students who have been helping on election day, and he says that no other election authority in the country can boast so high a number of young people participating.

Unlike past years, none of the Commissioners raised the question about cost savings should the election duties of the Chicago Board of Elections and the County Clerk be merged under one entity.

Cook County Board of Commissioners

While this meeting supposedly was to cover the departments of the Secretary to the Board and each of the County Commissioners, only the budget for the Secretary to the Board was discussed.  Surprisingly, several of the Commissioners took this public meeting time to ask the Secretary, Matthew DeLeon, about any changes in procedures as a result of Mr. DeLeon and part of his staff moving to a different floor from where the Commissioners have their offices. 

The other main area of questions was directed to the two new positions for legal counsel and administrative assistant called for in the budget.  Many of the Commissioners seemed to have forgotten that they had voted to amend the 2011 budget to add these 3 positions.  This was done in the late hours of the day prior to final passage of the budget, which is why the Commissioners may have forgotten about it.  Another reason may be that the positions have still not been filled.  This is due to the fact that they would be exempt from the Shakman decree (which prohibits the hiring and firing based on politics) and so the County had to seek court approval for the positions before filling them.  There were some questions about the need for these positions and whether they could be eliminated in order to provide some money for salary increases for Commissioners staff whose salaries are proposed to be frozen from 2011.

Mr. DeLeon stated that new cameras for the Board room were being purchased that should allow Board and Committee meetings to be broadcast live on the County’s web site.  Commissioners Suffredin, Tobolski and Silvestri all suggested additional equipment, such as tote boards (for recording votes), screens and projection equipment so the audience in the room (and watching on Channel 900 or on the web) could better follow what is occurring.  This is an issue the League recently raised with Commissioners in letters to all and meetings with many of them.

Even though there was no discussion about the Commissioners’ budgets, which the President is recommending be kept at $360,000 for each (same as that in 2011), this observer noted that the President is also recommending that the number of FTEs for Commissioners Collins (1^st) Steele (2^nd), Murphy (6^th), and Gorman (17^th) be reduced to 1 (just themselves and no staff).  I verified with Commissioner Tobolski that this is not a typo in the budget book.  Expect this to change, but obviously, the President was sending a message.

Independent Inspector General

Patrick Blanchard, the Independent Inspector General, has one of the few areas where the number of employees and overall budget is proposed to be increased.  He explained that his office is dealing with an increase of about 10% in complaints, and he expects to add 2 more people to deal with Shakman decree-related oversight.  He stated that he expects that the Federal Court to find that the County and Forest Preserve District (which his office is also dealing with through an inter-governmental agreement) and Recorder of Deeds’ office to be in compliance with the Shakman Decree in 2012, in part because of the oversight to be provided by his office.  If so, the County will save significant money being paid to the Court-appointed compliance officers and other related costs.  (Note that the Sheriff’s office, the other area in the County that had been under court oversight, has been found to be in compliance by the Court earlier this year.)

Comm. Beavers questioned Mr. Blanchard about his investigation into the $90 million error in the County’s 2010 Annual Report.  Mr. Blanchard stated that there were numerous factors which resulted in the error and it was not appropriate to put the blame on a single person.  Comm. Beavers stated that he thought the President had done just that by firing two people, including the prior Comptroller.

-- reported by Priscilla Mims

Cook County Board of Commissioners Meeting, October 18, 2011

The meeting was called to order at 10:00 a.m. by President, Toni Preckwinkle. A retirement resolution was read for Kathleen McDonnell who worked in the office of the Clerk of CC.

Several Commissioners expressed concern about the new Procurement code change.  They wanted to be sure that the “bid box” will stay in the Board Room and not move to the Administrative offices. They were assured that the box and the opening bid process will continue to be handled in the Board Room.   Another Commissioner suggested that the process be taped and put on Cable TV.

All business handled during this morning meeting was voted on a pro forma basis and the Board meeting adjourned just after 11:30 a.m.  There was no discussion about Medicaid reimbursements or the status of the current or proposed budged except for the following:

·         The Commissioners were asked to ratify new contracts covering 1,900 Teamster employees for the period 2008 through 2012.  This is another of the issues that the President and Board inherited and covers employees working for the Circuit Clerk, Chief Judge, and in Preckwinkle’s administration.  However, the Administration is asking for this contract to be approved knowing that immediately it will ask all the County’s unions to reopen contracts to negotiate for 6 unpaid holidays and 2 furlough days in 2012.  Commissioner Suffredin questioned the reasoning of approval only to immediately ask for a change.  The Administration’s Human Resources Director was firm in her recommendation to follow this two-step approach.  She argued that the negotiated Teamster contract is a good one for the County and it needs to be finalized.  Further, unions including the Teamsters have signaled their refusal to go along with unpaid holidays and furlough days.  In the end, the Board voted to approve the contract.  President Preckwinkle stated that 500 layoffs are likely in either case, but the number will double without this concession.

·         Commissioner Earlean Collins proposed having department heads at committee meetings so that questions that arise can be addressed immediately.  The resolution was sent to the Rules Committee for review.

·         Commissioner Suffredin offered a resolution that would allow tickets issued by the Forest Preserve to be heard by a county administrative judge.  The resolution Passed.

·         Finally, the Board approved the appointment of Takashi Reinbold as Interim Comptroller until a permanent candidate can be appointed and approved.

Report Submitted by:

Diane Edmundson, LWV Chicago