The Office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County saw a change in leadership for the first time in 20 years in 2020. The change in administration presented an opportunity for meaningful reform of an office that had been notorious for corruption, delays and substandard constituent service. The Civic Federation, in partnership with the Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts and the Chicago Council of Lawyers, issued a series of recommendations prior to the 2020 November election for…
Click here to read the full report.Click here to read the press release.Click here to read the 2020 recommendations.Click here to read the 100 days update.INTRODUCTIONThe change in administration within the Office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County in December 2020 represented an opportunity for meaningful reform of an office that has been notorious for corruption, delays and substandard constituent service. Prior to the November 2020 General Election, Chicago Appleseed Center for…
On April 21, 2021, the City of Chicago adopted Substitute Ordinance 2020-5902, which requires the Department of Finance to publish monthly reports of Corporate Fund revenues. This amendment to the Municipal Code also requires the Department to coordinate with the City’s Office of Management and Budget to collect revenue data and produce a report comparing current revenues to budgeted revenues and the previous year revenues for the same period by category. The ordinance instructs the Department…
UPDATE - February 23 2022: This blog has been updated with corrections to the information about other states where court data is subject to disclosure through FOIA laws or court rules, under the section “How Illinois FOIA Law Compares to Other States.” Because the judiciary in Illinois is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), data disclosure and responses to requests for information are discretionary, despite the fact that individual case files are a matter of public…
The multiplicity of local units of government, many of which are funded predominantly by property taxes, is often cited as a reason for high property tax rates in Illinois. Local government consolidation, cooperation and dissolution has therefore become a focus for many government leaders and civic groups as a way to reduce duplication and the cost of government. This is particularly true at a time when local governments are facing severe revenue shortfalls as a result of the coronavirus…
At a meeting on September 24, the Cook County Board approved changes in the operations of the County’s Inspector General’s Office, including recommendations made by the Civic Federation to improve public understanding of the office’s reports. Among other changes, the amendments to the ordinance governing the Office of the Independent Inspector General require that responses from agencies be included in public reports about investigations into waste and mismanagement. Longtime Inspector…
In advance of November 3 election, organizations urge reforms in transparency and provision of services COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS–Chicago Appleseed, the Civic Federation, and the Chicago Council of Lawyers today released New Directions for the Office of the Clerk of the Cook County Circuit Court: Recommendations for Planning and Transitioning to New Leadership. In advance of the inauguration of a new Clerk of the Circuit Court on December 1, the report provides joint recommendations for the next…
UPDATE: READ THE 100-DAY PROGRESS REPORT HERE UPDATE: READ THE ONE YEAR PROGRESS REPORT HERE Cick here to read the full report. Click here to read the press release. Click here for an Executive Summary one-pager. INTRODUCTION The Circuit Court of Cook County is the largest of the 24 judicial circuits in Illinois and the second largest unified court system in the United States. The Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County is responsible for most of the administrative functions of the…
Changes could be coming to Cook County’s pretrial electronic monitoring program as the Cook County President’s Office looks to hire a consultant to examine best practices and potential alternatives to the way the Sheriff’s electronic monitoring program is currently run. While the number of people detained in the Cook County Jail has decreased significantly since pretrial reform efforts in Cook County began in 2013,[1] the number of people ordered to Sheriff’s electronic monitoring (EM) as a…
The spread of the COVID-19 virus and the measures put in place to reduce the transmission of the virus have forced states and localities across the country to quickly adjust to a new way of governing. Either through executive-branch action or legislative changes to statutes, states have altered their laws surrounding open meetings in an effort to allow state and local governments to continue to govern transparently while also promoting social distancing. On March 16, 2020 Illinois Governor JB…
