A recent report by the Illinois Supreme Court raises significant concerns about Cook County’s pretrial services. The Cook County Pretrial Services Department (PSD) was established in 1990 to address a host of concerns, not the least of which was overcrowding. While inmate crowding at the Cook County Jail first garnered major media and legislative attention in the 1960s and 1970s and culminated in a federal consent decree in 1974, the County’s jail capacity problems go back much further. Since…
In 2013 President Preckwinkle formed a blue-ribbon commission of local leaders to develop the Next Century Conservation Plan to help provide vision and guidance to the Forest Preserve District of Cook County (FPDCC) for the next 25 years. In January 2014, the commission presented the plan to President Preckwinkle and shortly after it was accepted by the Cook County Forest Preserve District Board of Commissioners. The plan develops a series of strategies and action plans to achieve…
Last week the Civic Federation marked the end of the FY2014 budget season with a blog that summarized the proposed budgets for the eight local governments the Federation monitors. These governments include the City Colleges of Chicago, Chicago Public Schools (CPS), the City of Chicago, Cook County, the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), the Forest Preserve District of Cook County, the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (MWRD) and the Chicago Park District. This blog…
On December 11, 2013, the City Council approved an ordinance to establish the City Council Office of Financial Analysis (COFA), modeled on the independent agencies established in the cities of New York, San Diego and Pittsburgh. The Civic Federation commends the City Council, legislation sponsors Alderman Ameya Pawar, Alderman Michelle Smith and Alderman Pat Dowell, Budget Committee Chairman Carrie Austin and Mayor Rahm Emanuel for working together to give the City Council the tools and…
This editorial calls for the creation of a Forest Preserve Board separate from the Cook County Board, saying the current governing structure has held the Forest Preserves back in recent decades. The Civic Federation has long called for a separately elected, unpaid Forest Preserve Board that can focus more specifically on Forest Preserve needs.
The Civic Federation supports the City Colleges tentative FY2014 budget totaling $657.0 million for continuing the District’s exemplary work to improve its financial and operational health. The FY2014 proposed budget holds the property tax levy flat for the fourth consecutive year and reduces the unrestricted operating portion of the budget, the portion over which the District has the most control, by 6.9% or $21.1 million. Now in the middle stages of its multi-year Reinvention reorganization…
Proposed budget holds property tax levy flat and prepares for State’s uncertain fiscal outlook (CHICAGO) In an analysis released today, the Civic Federation supports the City Colleges of Chicago’s proposed FY2014 budget of $657.0 million which continues the District’s exemplary work to improve its financial and operational health. The full 44-page report is available at www.civicfed.org. “Under the leadership of Chancellor Cheryl Hyman and her team, City Colleges has consistently shown…
This story discusses the future of buildings that will be left vacant when school closings approved by the Chicago Board of Education on May 22 take effect later this year. The Civic Federation said the District needs to produce a long-term financial plan reflecting how projected costs and savings from the closings fit into a broader plan for addressing the District’s $1.0 billion projected deficit for FY2014.
This editorial supports a proposal by Alderman Ameya Pawar to create an independent budget office for the Chicago City Council. The Civic Federation recommended an independent budget office in its 2011 report, Recommendations for a Financially Sustainable City of Chicago, because it would allow aldermen to seek independent, professional expertise before considering major legislation, including the annual budget.
This article examines recent efforts to dissolve township governments in Evanston, Palatine and Wheeling. In its 2013 Legislative Priorities the Civic Federation recommends the General Assembly pass legislation to clarify township dissolution procedures and allow dissolution via referendum. Illinois has nearly 7,000 units of local government, far more than any other state.
