So you think it’s hard to get government to cut spending?

Try cutting an entire government.

Illinois has more independent units of local government than any other state except Pennsylvania: 102 counties, 1,291 municipalities, 1,431 townships, 934 school districts and 3,145 mosquito-abatement, community college and other special-purpose districts, by one count. And each and every one of them spends your money on its own staff, office, phones, letterhead stationery, etc.

In a state facing huge debt, you might think lawmakers and other officials would be rushing to do something about that. As Gov. Pat Quinn found out last year when he called for consolidating some of those school districts, lawmakers are interested in doing something: running away. Mr. Quinn’s proposal to save $100 million a year in bureaucratic spending got punted to a study commission.

Still, some stubborn types keep trying to do the right thing. Which leads us to Cook County Commissioner John Fritchey, who is pushing a plan to merge the Cook County recorder of deeds’ office into the county clerk’s office.

Cook County is one of just three of the 10 largest counties in the U.S. to have an independently elected recorder of deeds, Mr. Fritchey says. Even here in Illinois, a lot of counties did away with the office long ago.

Merging the two would allow the county to do away with dozens of jobs, saving taxpayers at least $1 million a year that could be put to other uses (or allow a tax cut), according to the Civic Federation, a local private watchdog group. The timing may be perfect, since incumbent Recorder Eugene Moore is retiring after the November election and the county building is buzzing that incumbent Clerk David Orr may hang it up soon, too.

“If we don’t do it now, it never will happen,” Mr. Fritchey says.

So guess what happened when the board’s finance committee met last week to consider Mr. Fritchey’s proposal. It couldn’t act because it didn’t have a quorum.

If you think it was a coincidence that all those board members went AWOL, I’ve got a bridge to sell you. Even some of those who did show up for the meeting aren’t exactly on board.

One theory is that patronage players—Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, to name the biggest—have put out the word to leave “their” jobs alone. Another is that the recorder’s office has become pretty much an African-American political base, held before Mr. Moore by Jesse White (now Illinois’ secretary of state) and by Carol Moseley Braun in the days before she went to the U.S. Senate.

In fact, Mr. White gave a different reason when he showed up at the hearing to oppose passage. According to a spokesman, Mr. White’s view is that “an office that raises that much money ($40 million a year) ought to be directly accountable to the taxpayers” via an election.

Of course, in Mr. Fritchey’s plan, the clerk would still be elected. But it’s an argument.

One of the commissioners there, reformer Larry Suffredin, says he’s opposed because the county can’t just “abandon” the recorder’s post. “It hasn’t been really thought out,” Mr. Suffredin adds, urging more time.

Another reform-minded commissioner, Bridget Gainer, says she’s concerned that this plan could delay a bigger consolidation of the several county units that handle property taxation. That matter is—surprise!—under study, by a commission appointed by Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle. But Ms. Gainer says she backs Mr. Fritchey’s bill.

Mr. Fritchey, who’s no political fool, is offering to stretch out the transition term for a merger. Translation: A slow merger would give Mr. Orr time to retire and give the Democratic nominee to succeed the retiring Mr. Moore—state Rep. Karen Yarbrough of Maywood—a better shot at succeeding Mr. Orr in what would be a bigger job.

Look for Mr. Fritchey’s bill to come up again when the finance committee meets on March 1. Change is possible. Mayor Rahm Emanuel recently merged a series of city departments, saving an estimated $3.7 million a year. But in this game, Team Status Quo generally routs the Reformers.

Link to full article

As governments struggle to balance their budgets in lean times, the rest of us are asked to sacrifice. Workers get furloughs, benefit cuts and layoffs. The public gets higher taxes, higher fees and service cuts.

So we hope when Cook County commissioners meet Tuesday as a committee of the whole, and then Wednesday as a board, they’ll agree the county needs to merge some of its elected offices. Unless there’s support for an even bigger consolidation, a proposal to merge the county clerk and recorder of deeds offices, which could save $1 mil­lion a year, is a good place to start. A yes vote would send the idea to voters in November.

Both offices are administrative. The clerk maintains birth, marriage and death records and runs suburban elections. The recorder keeps track of property transfers, liens and other documents. Having separate elected offices primarily benefits politicians, who get one more position to slate.

Cook County hasn’t eliminated an elected office since the ’70s, when an appointed medical examiner replaced an elected coroner.

It’s time to consolidate again. The Cook County Board owes it to the rest of us.

Link to full article

January 25, 2012 (CHICAGO) (WLS) — The crisis deepens at the Cook County morgue where hundreds of bodies have been piling up for months and medical examiner Nancy Jones is under fire.

The ABC7 I-Team has learned that new legislation is in the works to allow easier removal of the medical examiner.

The medical examiner, who oversees autopsies and manages the morgue, is hired by the county board president but under current law can’t be fired the same way. On Thursday morning, the I-Team has learned, Commissioner John Fritchey will file legislation that would change that. Fritchey says that the medical examiner’s job shouldn’t be like that of a Supreme Court justice who serves for life.

“I’m looking at legislation which would allow the medical examiner to be removed at the direction of the president but with an affirmative vote of the board of commissioners,” said Fritchey.

“This is not something that is aimed at Dr. Jones. I think this is the right policy regardless of who the medical examiner is.”Intended to force out medical examiner Nancy Jones or not, Jones would likely be the first to fall under Fritchey’s proposal.

Jones is already under the scrutiny of a top county manager, deployed to oversee her operation by county board president Toni Preckwinkle. President Preckwinkle has publicly stated her dismay with the medical examiner’s management.

As the I-Team exposed last week, hundreds of bodies have been piled in the county morgue for months. M.E. Jones claims it is the result of state funding cut for indigent burials.

But photos of the bodies have angered county officials, including commissioner Fritchey who says there need to be some immediate changes.

“We need to complete a review from top to bottom of personnel, policies and procedures, and that’s clear that’s going to be done,” said Fritchey. “It’s difficult to find a morgue anywhere that’s going to look like one out of a TV show where everything is shiny and spotless. But there is no excuse for the photos we’ve seen on your broadcast.”

“It’s clear that something isn’t working the way it should at the morgue. Right now the president has put her staff in there to understand what the problem is, what we can do to fix it, and we will take those steps as soon as we can,” he continued. “It doesn’t make sense that we should treat a medical examiner the same way we treat a United States Supreme Court Justice,”

Medical examiner Nancy Jones has not replied to ABC7′s request for comment about the legislation that could affect her job. A spokesperson for the county board president says Dr. Jones is not doing interviews.

The victims in this situation are not only dead people.

One south suburban family says they repeatedly called the county morgue about their missing brother to see if the man had actually died and was in the cooler.

Link to full story

CHICAGO (CBS) — The Cook County Board President’s office says a staggering 44 bodies have been in the morgue cooler for 10 months or longer, awaiting burial.

As WBBM Newsradio’s Steve Miller reports, county Commissioner John Fritchey (D-12th), has pushed for reforms in the burial of indigents, and to say he is troubled by the revelation would be an understatement.

“I’m neither surprised nor alarmed,” Fritchey said. “I’m deeply disturbed and concerned.”

Fritchey said reforms are needed at the county Medical Examiner’s office, and they’re needed right now.

“First and foremost, we have to look at the systems that are in place and see where the problem is. There’s no reason why we should be having backlogs of burials going more than 10 months in time,” Fritchey said. “We need to figure out how those systems need to be changed, change them, and get these changes put in place as soon as we can.”

And it shouldn’t be a huge ordeal to implement the reforms, Fritchey said.

“This is not rocket science,” he said. “We can look to other jurisdictions to see how they do this. They don’t have the problems that we do. So obviously something isn’t working the right way.”

The report of the backlog of bodies comes on the heels of numerous other complaints about conditions at the morgue. Last week, a funeral director called the state of the morgue “horrendous.”

The funeral director talked about one recent incident where he had arrived at the Medical Examiner’s office recently to pick up a body.

“They brought out a body,” he tells WBBM Newsradio. “It was 400 pounds and decomposed, in three inches of liquid. And I said, ‘Now what do you want me to do with this?’ And everybody disappeared.

WBBM Newsradio has been told that the Medical Examiner is not doing interviews right now.

But Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Nancy Jones said last week that a recent rise in the number of bodies at the morgue has happened, in part, because the State of Illinois has slashed aid to help pay for burials, the Sun-Times Media Wire reported.

County Board President Toni Preckwinkle has sent a team to the medical examiner’s office to look at the system.

Link to full article

Jefferson Township is currently open for appeals with the Board of Review, and will remain open until February 8, 2012.  (If you are unsure of which township you live in, you can find it listed on the upper right hand corner of your property tax bill).

To help you in the appeals process, I, along with other local elected officials and Cook County Board of Review Commissioner Michael Cabonargi, will be hosting another set of workshops in our series to answer any questions you have and to assist you with filing an appeal on-site. Events are listed below in the order they will occur.

Details are as follows:

When: Thursday, January 26, 6:00pm

Where: Copernicus Center – King’s Hall, 5216 W. Lawrence

Co-sponsors include: 45th Ward Alderman John Arena, 38th Ward Alderman Tim Cullerton, State Senator John Mulroe and State Representative Joe Lyons.

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When: Thursday, February 2, 6:30pm

Where: Sulzer Regional Library auditorium, 4455 N. Lincoln Ave.

I will be co-sponsoring with 47th Ward Alderman Ameya Pawar.

**Please remember to bring a copy of your most recent property tax bill to whichever workshop you attend**

For more information on any of the events listed above, please call Bridget at 773-871-4000 or email bridget@fritchey.com

A Cook County Homeland Security initiative wasted millions of dollars in taxpayer money without improving public safety, according to a report released today. Cook County Commissioner John Fritchey joins The Roe Conn Show with Richard Roeper to discuss this story.

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