Welcome to civicfed.org, the digital voice of the Civic Federation. Here you can find our publications, as well as blog and multimedia content, all available free of charge. All Federation content is easily searchable by date, issue, content type and many other categories in the Library section of the website. This website also features a separate section for the Federation’s State of Illinois-oriented research institute, the Institute for Illinois’ Fiscal Sustainability (IIFS).
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100-Day Accountability Report
This 100-Day Accountability Report [link] gives a progress update on recommendations to reform Cook County that the Civic Federation made in its Cook County Modernization Report. The 100-Day Report provides an overview of key events in the transition to the new administration of Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, summarizes key findings from the Modernization Report, provides an update on the County’s budget since publication of the original report and includes detailed information on the status of all 36 recommendations.
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The Cook County Transparency Initiative provides citizens of the County access to transition reports, commissioner reports and research about attempts to reform Cook County. Its purpose is to improve the public's access to informationabout County programs.
With an estimated 5,287,037 residents, Cook County is the most populous county in the State of Illinois and the second most populous county in the United States, coming only after Los Angeles County in California.[1] The County is 946 square miles in size – of that only 15% is unincorporated by the City of Chicago or other municipalities. The role of Cook County government is to provide healthcare, court, and public safety services, as well as administer vital records and assess and collect property taxes.
County government touches each and every one of its 5.3 million residents, either through its collection of tax and fee revenue or in providing judicial, public health, public safety, and other services.
People who care about the following issues should care about making Cook County a more efficient, modern, and transparent unit of government:
Taxes:
Whether you and your family or friends require its services on a daily basis or not, the County’s inefficient operations and outmoded governance structure will continue to hit you in the wallet if major changes to County operations are not made.
Q: Why has the Civic Federation produced the Modernization Report?
A: Cook County’s ability to continue to provide to the public health services, law enforcement and judicial services, tax administration, and official records-keeping is jeopardized by its inefficient operations and outmoded governance structure.
The Illinois International Port District was created by the Illinois General Assembly in 1951 to promote commerce at the Port of Chicago. Since the early 1980s, however, the District appears to have functioned primarily as the manager of a recreational facility: Harborside International Golf Center. While Harborside is a productive use of a former landfill site and appears to be a successful operation, the Civic Federation believes that management of a golf course should not be the primary activity of a port authority.
The Civic Federation and Friends of the Forest Preserves support the creation of a separate elected Board of Commissioners to govern the Forest Preserve District of Cook County as detailed in this 2008 report. Due to an organizational structure that creates an inherent conflict of interest and inhibits proper oversight, the District suffers from numerous problems that would be improved by creating a separate governing body to oversee the Forest Preserve system.
