tainted taskforce (1)

8/2/2019 Tainted Taskforce (1)

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The Tainted Task Force


How Lobbyists, Campaign Donations, and Special InterestsDominate Toni Preckwinkle's Appointments

An Examination of Appointmentsby Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle

to the Cook County Unincorporated Task ForceAnnounced November 4th, 2011

March, 2012 Page 1 of 16


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http://www.civicfed.org/sites/default/files/CookCountyModernizationReport.pdfhttp://www.chicagonewscoop.org/preckwinkle-faces-pushback-on-tax-hike/http://www.civicfed.org/about-ushttp://lobbyist.cookcountyclerk.com/Public/FirmDetail.aspx?id=146http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/departments/index/lobbyist/lobbyist_search.htmlhttp://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/ilcs3.asp?ActID=465&ChapterID=6http://blog.cookcountygov.com/2011/11/04/preckwinkle-announces-taskforce-to-tackle-unincorporated-cook-county-services/


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The Civic Federation Connection

A position summary of the Civic Federation's Cook County Modernization Report take onunincorporated Cook County can be summed up in two words: Eliminate it.

Pages 136-141 of the Modernization Report acknowledge only three possibilities to deal withunincorporated areas:1) Push for annexation by surrounding suburbs . Result: Cook County no longer has any

responsibility for providing services there (although no mention is made of reducing anyproperty tax levy on the residents once this change takes place.)

2) Pay surrounding suburbs to perform all the services Cook County is currently responsiblefor providing, at a subsidy if necessary. Result: Cook County no longer has anyresponsibilities to the unincorporated residents, but a new bureaucracy is born to managethe resulting myriad intergovernmental contracts, and any so-called savings disappear.

3) Impose SSA (Special Service Area) taxes on unincorporated residents to generate morerevenue for Cook County. Result: Cook County no longer has any responsibility for properly

funding and budgeting services for unincorporated residents.

Unnatural Annexation

A common stated goal of all these Civic Federation schemes is to encourage, drive, force, ordirectly subsidize annexation of unincorporated areas into surrounding suburbs.

No consideration is given to the idea that as these areas have all been unincorporated for 181 years(since Cook County was founded in 1831) it may be better to allow natural annexation to occur as it alwayshas. Natural annexation has occurred (and will continue to occur) as population densities, potential taxrevenues, and infrastructure issues make annexation both attractive and financially viable for a suburbanmunicipality.

What if it is cheaper and more effective to leave areas unincorporated during these times ofextraordinary financial problems?This question is not asked; you are instead expected to swallow theCivic Federation's premise that unincorporated areas somehow need to be eliminated.

Making suburbs take areas they do not want is an easy fix for abandoning responsibilities (andexpenses) the County has. The biggest cost among those responsibilities: Police services to unincorporatedresidents provided by the Cook county Sheriff's Police Department.

It is no extraordinary coincidence that the amount the Civic Federation purports to save bywholesale elimination of all services to unincorporated Cook County is almost exactly the same as theannual budget of the Cook County Sheriff's Police Department.

What they don't tell you is the Sheriff's Office generates $25,587,000 in revenue14 and $6,000,000 incigarette tax enforcement, while the Cook County Building and Zoning Department adds $2,100,000 fromunincorporated areas. Wheel tax stickers (the unincorporated Cook County version of city vehicle stickers)pile another $3,540,000 on. That's a total of $35,337,000.

Compare that to the 2012 total operating cost of the Sheriff's Police (just like that of a largesuburban city with 100,000+ residents): $36,886,944.15

14 http://blog.cookcountyil.gov/budget/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/12-Revenue-Estimates-Pres-Rec-R1.pdf FY 2012

15 http://blog.cookcountyil.gov/budget/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/V-SHERIFF.pdfSheriff's Police Line Item

http://blog.cookcountyil.gov/budget/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/12-Revenue-Estimates-Pres-Rec-R1.pdfhttp://blog.cookcountyil.gov/budget/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/V-SHERIFF.pdfhttp://blog.cookcountyil.gov/budget/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/12-Revenue-Estimates-Pres-Rec-R1.pdfhttp://blog.cookcountyil.gov/budget/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/V-SHERIFF.pdf


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The difference between that revenue coming in and what the Sheriff's Police costs is $1,549,944,and that's without counting a single penny in Cook County property taxes yet.

What it would cost per mooching household to make up that $1.5 million between revenue and

expenditures? (Toni Preckwinkle said unincorporated households are mooching off the rest of CookCounty in a Sun Times article of November 28th, 2011.)16

Spread across a conservative estimate of 30,000 mooching households in unincorporated CookCounty, the amount of property tax each would have to pay to make up the difference is $53.17.

Not yet counted are revenues solely from businesses and industries in unincorporated areas.

So where does Toni Preckwinkle divert the property tax that is actually received from eachunincorporated Cook County property?

No amount of research has turned up a single property tax bill that was $53 or less .... so where does it go?

Aggregate Unincorporated Areas: A Large Suburban City

Despite its geographical distribution, unincorporated areas together total over 100,000 residentsand over 67 square miles including schools, cemeteries, factories, churches, hospitals, restaurants,homes, and everything else one expects to find in a large suburban city.

This may not be a big number compared to the City of Chicago, and not impressive to Preckwinkle,but the aggregate size alone is a third of the size of Chicago.

In contrast to other large suburban cities, unincorporated Cook County as a whole seems right athome.

Civic Federation Board Members

In addition to Laurence MSALL and Adrienne ARCHIA, task force appointee Scott SAEFis a board member of the Civic Federation.

Scott SAEF is an attorney and partner in Sidley Austin LLP17. He is on the Board of the CivicFederation18and is also past chairman.

That's a total of 3 Civic Federation board members on the task force, hardly an impartialstart to examining the issue at hand. But Preckwinkle wasn't finished stacking the deck there; she evenadded a direct contributor to the Modernization Report (next section.)

16 http://franklinpark.suntimes.com/news/8395578-418/county-would-lay-off-more-than-1000-under-preckwinkle-

budget.html

17 http://www.sidley.com/saef_scott/

18 http://www.civicfed.org/sites/default/files/FY2013%20State%20Roadmap%20Press%20Release.pdf(Left Column)

http://franklinpark.suntimes.com/news/8395578-418/county-would-lay-off-more-than-1000-under-preckwinkle-budget.htmlhttp://franklinpark.suntimes.com/news/8395578-418/county-would-lay-off-more-than-1000-under-preckwinkle-budget.htmlhttp://www.sidley.com/saef_scott/http://www.civicfed.org/sites/default/files/FY2013%20State%20Roadmap%20Press%20Release.pdfhttp://franklinpark.suntimes.com/news/8395578-418/county-would-lay-off-more-than-1000-under-preckwinkle-budget.htmlhttp://franklinpark.suntimes.com/news/8395578-418/county-would-lay-off-more-than-1000-under-preckwinkle-budget.htmlhttp://www.sidley.com/saef_scott/http://www.civicfed.org/sites/default/files/FY2013%20State%20Roadmap%20Press%20Release.pdf


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Modernization Report Contributors

H. Woods BOWMAN is an appointed task force member and Associate Professor atDePaul University's School of Public Service19.

He is the former Chief Financial Officer of Cook County (1990-1994.)

Bowman was directly credited with contributing to the Civic Federation's Cook CountyModernization Report20. He has also contributed to Preckwinkle's political campaign21.

That's at least two conflicts of interest for Bowman his campaign contributions alonedocument a predisposition of tacit political support for Toni Preckwinkle.

Other direct contributors to the Modernization Report (who are not members of the task force) are:

M. Hill Hammock (a Preckwinkle campaign contributor and member of the Metropolitan

Planning Council, both features he shares with task force appointee King HARRIS); and

Susan McKeever(vice-chairman of the Civic Federation, a Preckwinkle campaign contributor,and wife to Lester McKeever. Susan and Lester are principals in the accounting firm ofWashington, McKeever, and Pittman22, a significant receiver of County funds.)

M. Hill Hammock and Susan McKeever: Between them and their spouses they contributed a total of$12,500 into the campaign fund of Toni Preckwinkle.

(Washington McKeever & Pittman is a $255,000 audit subcontractor under the contract 11-88-031from Dec. 2011, signed by Toni Preckwinkle. See pages 30, 36, and especially 63 for more details of theirinvolvement. Page 40 of contract 11-88-031 certifies no lobbying was done to get the County's business.Preckwinkle's signature is on page 47.) 23

19 http://las.depaul.edu/sps/About/OurFacultyStaff/FullTimeFaculty/bowman.asp

20 http://www.civicfed.org/sites/default/files/CookCountyModernizationReport.pdfsee page 221 http://elections.il.gov/CampaignDisclosure/ContributionsSearchByCandidates.aspx Woods Bowman > Toni Preckwinkle

22 http://www.wpmck.com/contact.html Susan and Lester McKeever

23 http://www.cookcountygov.com/taxonomy2/Purchasing%20Agent,%20Office%20of%20the/Contracts/11-88-031.pdf

http://las.depaul.edu/sps/About/OurFacultyStaff/FullTimeFaculty/bowman.asphttp://www.civicfed.org/sites/default/files/CookCountyModernizationReport.pdfhttp://elections.il.gov/CampaignDisclosure/ContributionsSearchByCandidates.aspxhttp://www.wpmck.com/contact.htmlhttp://www.cookcountygov.com/taxonomy2/Purchasing%20Agent,%20Office%20of%20the/Contracts/11-88-031.pdfhttp://www.cookcountygov.com/taxonomy2/Purchasing%20Agent,%20Office%20of%20the/Contracts/11-88-031.pdfhttp://las.depaul.edu/sps/About/OurFacultyStaff/FullTimeFaculty/bowman.asphttp://www.civicfed.org/sites/default/files/CookCountyModernizationReport.pdfhttp://elections.il.gov/CampaignDisclosure/ContributionsSearchByCandidates.aspxhttp://www.wpmck.com/contact.htmlhttp://www.cookcountygov.com/taxonomy2/Purchasing%20Agent,%20Office%20of%20the/Contracts/11-88-031.pdf


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Questions Not Asked by the Modernization Report

Q: What are the criteria for determining when reform needs to take place?

Comment: The report implies that reform is needed when agencies, government methods, and

practices are not modern and/or inefficient. This just leads to more questions.

Q: So when is a practice not modern enough?

Comment: There is no set criteria defined for what is modern. Most of us see many young civilservants, new computers, updated equipment, and web sites everywhere, but we are expected to accept itwhen the Civic Federation tells us we are not modern.

Q: When is a practice inefficient?

Comment: An argument can be made that seeking maximum efficiency is a constant ongoing effort.

An academic example is when anyone drives a four-seat automobile with only one person in it, they

are only using one-fourth the capacity of the car inefficient, right? Only until you realize that the physicalmaximum efficiency is only met by owning four cars, each of which holds 1, 2, 3, or 4 passengers andyou just drive the one you need depending on how many people are traveling!

Efficiency is an ongoing compromise between resources available and their effective allocation, notthe need to buy four cars for different numbers of passengers but the Civic Federation wants you to fall fortheir definition without asking the follow-up question: When is a practice efficient enough?

Q: Once a practice is reformed, when is it reformed enough?

Comment: Again, the Civic Federation does not address this issue. Like all the previousunanswered questions, they simply ask you to take their word for it.

Q: What are the hidden costs of all this annexing, special taxing, and paying suburbs to dothe County's work?

Comment: The Civic Federation does not want you to look behind the scenes here.

Encouraging suburbs to annex will require paying them to take unprofitable areas.Result: Higher tax costs now to come up with millions in incentives.

Paying suburbs to do the County's work in policing, housing, or other services stillcosts money.Result: A new bureaucracy administering scores of labyrinthine County servicecontracts that require near-constant attention to renegotiate terms and costs as theyexpire. Wasn't Preckwinkle's campaign based on consolidation, not complication?

Adding Special Service Areas (SSAs) to impose additional taxes on unincorporatedCounty property owners.Result: Residents and property owners can veto any proposed SSA by a 51%majority on a simple petition.24 While they are rejecting this new tax, they will beasking Where does Preckwinkle divert the property taxes I pay now?!

24 http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/ilcs4.asp?DocName=003502000HArt.

+27&ActID=596&ChapterID=8&SeqStart=82000000&SeqEnd=84300000 Illinois SSA Law

http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/ilcs4.asp?DocName=003502000HArt.+27&ActID=596&ChapterID=8&SeqStart=82000000&SeqEnd=84300000http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/ilcs4.asp?DocName=003502000HArt.+27&ActID=596&ChapterID=8&SeqStart=82000000&SeqEnd=84300000http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/ilcs4.asp?DocName=003502000HArt.+27&ActID=596&ChapterID=8&SeqStart=82000000&SeqEnd=84300000http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/ilcs4.asp?DocName=003502000HArt.+27&ActID=596&ChapterID=8&SeqStart=82000000&SeqEnd=84300000


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The CMAP Connection

The Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) was formed by passage of Illinois Statelegislation25 in 2005.

Randy BLANKENHORN is the current CMAP Executive Director26. By an amazingcoincidence, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle is a member of CMAP'sCouncil of County Board Chairs27.

Two more connections exist to task force appointees: The spouses of task force membersBarry NEKRITZ (Elaine Nekritz)and Hon. Henerson YARBROUGH (Karen Yarbrough)both legislatively sponsored the creation of CMAP28.

Again, Preckwinkle finds people to populate her task force that have direct conflicts ofinterest.

Other Members of the Task Force

Barry NekritzNekritz is campaign contributor and husband of Elaine Nekritz, a member ofthe Illinois State House of Representatives. The campaign fund Citizens forElaine Nekritz has also donated to the current Cook County Board Presidentscampaign fund.

Michael Kreloff, who is the chairman of Citizens for Elaine Nekritz, has deemedit necessary to donate to the current Cook County Board Presidents campaign

fund as well. He also received a check from Cook County on December 29, 2011 in the amount of

$30,000.Nekritz clearly is a tacit political supporter of the current Cook County Board President andhas many shared interests.

Carol TeschkyTeschky is currently the Maine Township supervisor and has worked for MaineTownship since 1989. According to records obtained from the task force, sheattended two separate task force meetings, one with Des Plaines and anotherwith Glenview. Based on notes from those meetings, those meetings had themost instances of guesswork of population figures and lack of knowledge ofCook County building code regulation. She should have been in perfect positionto answer those questions or provide a resource that could reply. There are two

possible reasons, either her voice is not recognized by the chairman of the task force, or she is

ineffectual and unable to provide any insight into Cook County government, even though her job isto provide that bridge.

25 http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/ilcs3.asp?ActID=2731&ChapterID=15

26 http://www.cmap.illinois.gov/staff-directory/biosketch-rsb

27 http://www.cmap.illinois.gov/council-of-county-board-chairs

28 http://www.metroplanning.org/news-events/article/5657 Elaine NEKRITZ and Karen YARBROUGH

http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/ilcs3.asp?ActID=2731&ChapterID=15http://www.cmap.illinois.gov/staff-directory/biosketch-rsbhttp://www.cmap.illinois.gov/council-of-county-board-chairshttp://www.metroplanning.org/news-events/article/5657http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/ilcs3.asp?ActID=2731&ChapterID=15http://www.cmap.illinois.gov/staff-directory/biosketch-rsbhttp://www.cmap.illinois.gov/council-of-county-board-chairshttp://www.metroplanning.org/news-events/article/5657


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The Tainted Task Force King HarrisIn addition to being named the chairman of this task force, he is also thesingle biggest campaign contributor to the current Cook County BoardPresident.A self described public policy wonk 29 he also sits on the board ofdirectors of Metropolis 202030 (now Metropolis Strategies), along with thechief of staff to the current Cook County Board President. He also is on the

the board of the Chicago Community Trust

31

(CCT) which benefited greatly from money received byCook County in 2011, receiving $125,000.00 on April 29, 2011, $27,500 on November 3, 2011 (theday before the formation of the task force was announced) and $192,500.00 on November 29,

2011.32 It not is not clear why the non profit Chicago Community Trust, with well over a billion

dollars in assets, needs County business.

He has apparently close ties to the administration, as he contributed $10,000 to it33, andafter receiving $345,000 for the CCT, is its biggest benefactor named to the task force. He hasattended every meeting cited in this report, and is just as freely as he receives Cook County money;he suggests it to be spent. He has no knowledge of law enforcement, has a vague understanding ofhow government works, and is a questionable addition to this task force. His donation of $5,000 toPreckwinkle's campaign exactly a month to the day after the announcement of the task force couldbe interpreted as a Thank You.

David BENNETT is the Executive Director of the Metropolitan Mayor'sCaucus, which has close ties and regularly collaborates with CMAP and KingHarris' MPC.

He is the apparent author an defined coordinator of the Mayor's Caucussurvey that exclusively targets the Sheriff's Police on Preckwinkle's behalf.

Task Force Work to Date

Des Plaines MeetingThe task force meeting held with officials from The Village of Des Plaines February 13 2012. Theseare actual quotes from that meeting.

[The task force deliberately arranged their meeting without including representatives from theSheriff's Office or any other County office.]

-We have no ideahow active housing code enforcement is in this area, but wesuspectthe current inspection programs do not meet actual needs

The Cook County Board President announced the formation of this task force on November4th, 2011, and they could not answer this simple question in 101 days.34 This meeting wasattended by Maine Township Supervisor (and task force appointee) Carol TESCHKY, who

spearheaded an active code enforcement program in unincorporated Maine Township. Thisprogram services (among others) unincorporated Maine Township and unincorporated Glenview.

29 http://harrisschool.uchicago.edu/Blogs/HarrisView/?p=760 public policy wonk

30 http://www.chicagometropolis2020.org/5_5.htm King Harris (note his assistant, Nancy Firfer and her MMC connection)

31 http://www.cct.org/about/our-boardKing Harris32 https://datacatalog.cookcountyil.gov/Finance-Administration/Comptroller-Cook-County-Check-Register-FY2011/gck3-

p6tw Chicago Community Trust

33 http://www.elections.il.gov/campaigndisclosure/ContributionsSearchByCandidates.aspx King Harris > Toni Preckwinkle

34 http://www.mainetownship.com/services/code/ Maine Township Code Enforcement since 1997

http://harrisschool.uchicago.edu/Blogs/HarrisView/?p=760http://www.chicagometropolis2020.org/5_5.htmhttp://www.cct.org/about/our-boardhttps://datacatalog.cookcountyil.gov/Finance-Administration/Comptroller-Cook-County-Check-Register-FY2011/gck3-p6twhttps://datacatalog.cookcountyil.gov/Finance-Administration/Comptroller-Cook-County-Check-Register-FY2011/gck3-p6twhttp://www.elections.il.gov/campaigndisclosure/ContributionsSearchByCandidates.aspxhttp://www.mainetownship.com/services/code/http://www.mainetownship.com/services/code/http://harrisschool.uchicago.edu/Blogs/HarrisView/?p=760http://www.chicagometropolis2020.org/5_5.htmhttp://www.cct.org/about/our-boardhttps://datacatalog.cookcountyil.gov/Finance-Administration/Comptroller-Cook-County-Check-Register-FY2011/gck3-p6twhttps://datacatalog.cookcountyil.gov/Finance-Administration/Comptroller-Cook-County-Check-Register-FY2011/gck3-p6twhttp://www.elections.il.gov/campaigndisclosure/ContributionsSearchByCandidates.aspx


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In addition to TESCHKY's program, housing code is also enforced by the Bureau ofEconomic Development. The task force and the head of the Bureau of Economic Development areall appointed by the current Cook County Board President, and might have used these connections

to answer questions.

-We guessedthe Des Plaines police would have to add 30 additional people to handle the load,given the population density of the region and the higher than normal crime rate.

In addition to members of the task force, this meeting was attended by the Deputy Chief ofPolice for Des Plaines. No member of the task force in attendance thought about asking him howmany police officers he needs.

-We guessedthat entire unincorporated area of Maine Township west of Milwaukee might15,000to 20,000 residents.

This meeting was attended by the Maine Township Supervisor, who is a member of the task

force, and has the duty of providing services to unincorporated Maine Township. In the 101 dayssince being placed on this task force she could not find out how many constituents she serves.

-A bigger issue: Where to put them? The current Police department lacks spaces. Onepossible idea: build a new sub station right in the Dee Park area with Cook County dollars.

With the task force already conceding Cook County money for additional cars andequipment those in attendance seem very eager to suggest that Cook County spend more moneyand then not even attach a dollar amount to it.

This is a task force sponsored by the current Cook County Board President, and the bestthey can do is guess how many people a cut in service will affect. Even when they have the abilityto ask the Deputy Chief of Des Plaines how many officers he will need to cover newly annexedareas, or at least wait for an answer on a future date, they will guess how many police officersanother police agency needs.

This exhibition of complete lack of law enforcement experience and unwillingness to obtainanswers from sources right in front of them, shows they have a predetermined agenda that they willnot deviate from.

Glenview Meeting

The task force meeting held with Officials from the Village of Glenview on 9 January 2012. Theseare actual quotes from that meeting.


-The one service that Glenview benefited from, Saturday court processing of those arrested, wasrecently eliminated to cut County costs. Glenview has a jail that can hold 12 inmates. Glenviewsgoal is to process people quickly and send them to the county jail. Why? Concern about workerscomp and liability issues related to prisoners.

This statement perfectly demonstrates how the task force is out of touch concerning law



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The Tainted Task Force enforcement matters. No police officer or, citizen for that matter, would consider having a policeofficer go on a 45 minute road trip, process an inmate into the Cook County Jail, drive 45 minutesback to Glenview, on a weekend, to be a benefit. That would leave fellow officers short staffed, whoare charged with protecting citizens back on the beat. The other issue at hand is that the workerscomp and liability issues related to prisoners are just thrust on Cook County that much faster. Thatliability is greater and as the potential risk for serious harm from a prisoner is usually greater just

after the arrest.

-If we want to come up with a better estimate, then we need to get population statistics for thespecific census tracks in unincorporated Glenview.

This meeting was attended by Maine Township Supervisor, who is also a member of thetask force and represents unincorporated Glenview.

No police officer considers having his back up 25 miles away on a weekend a benefit, andwhile cost saving is commendable; it should not come at the risk of the safety of officers andcitizens wellbeing. This is a complete disservice to all residents of Cook County.

Lemont Meeting

The task force meeting held with officials from the Village of Lemont on February 3, 2012.These are actual quotes from that meeting.


-It was noted that building and property codes do apply to unincorporated lands, they are just notenforced!

This enforcement is done by inspectors assigned to the Bureau of Economic Development,whose director was appointed by the current Cook County Board President. This department isdefined as a revenue generating agency by Cook County and is projected to bring in $2.1 millionaccording to the 2012 Cook County Budget.

After 3 months of existence, the giddiness the task forces parades about with in the suddenknowledge that Cook County is a real government with codes and laws, illustrates perfectly that thistask force is overwhelmed and incapable of obtaining the most obvious of answers that simplepreliminary research would provide.

Northlake Meeting

The task force meeting held with officials from the Village of Northlake on February 3, 2012.


-During that meeting a question was asked if the village uses Cook County Sheriff's Police Servicesfor special investigations and special operations. The answers to both questions were a single word:No. The reason that was given is that they work with the West Suburban Major Crimes Task Force(WESTAF.)

Cook County Sheriffs Police Department has officers assigned to WESTAF, as well



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The Tainted Task Force the South Suburban Major Crimes Task Force utilized by Lemont, MCAT utilized by 3 rdDistrict police departments, and NORTAF which is used by Glenview and Des Plaines.

COOK COUNTY SHERIFFS POLICE SERVICES

There have been a series of questions crafted by members of the task force in various meetings

with municipal leaders. These questions are leading at best and will not provide an accurate assessmentof what the Cook County Sheriffs Police Department does.They ask if the various towns utilize Cook County Sheriffs Police such as Vice, Gang Crimes, and

Bomb Squad, just to name a few of the numerous services they provide.The Cook County Sheriffs Police have a jurisdiction that covers the entirety of the county; many of

the municipalities have little or no idea that the Cook County Sheriffs Police have provided a service in theirtown. Many investigations that start in unincorporated Cook County lead to arrests in towns that providetheir own police services.

- Recent Statistics from 2011 Activities on File -

GANG CRIMESGangs do not have any jurisdictional limitations and operate countywide. Many gang crime

investigations that start in unincorporated Cook County lead to arrests in towns that provide theirown police services.

-In the City of Chicago the Cook County Sheriffs Police Department Gang Crimes Unit arrested 151offenders (38 felonies), seized 23 pounds of cocaine, and logged almost 5000 hours of manpower.

-In the Village of Maywood the Cook County Sheriffs Police Department Gang Crimes Unit arrested235 offenders as well as recovering 40 firearms.

-The task force held a meeting where the task forces own report claims The Village of Glenviewreceived very little benefit from the Cook County Sheriffs Police Department Gang Crimes Unit.This very little benefit is as follows; 43 total arrests (7 felonies) 1194.1 grams of cocaine seized (2pounds), $547,182 seized, and 372 total man-hours assisting the Glenview Police Department

[A recent article in the Chicago Sun Times dated February 26th, 2012 is entitled Chicago GangsGetting Pushed Out Of City, Into Western Suburbs mentions the Sheriff's role in curbing gangs.]35

BOMB SQUADWhile the duties of The Cook County Sheriffs Police Bomb Squad do not require them to activelyrender explosive ordinance harmless on a daily basis, unfortunately in todays climate they are anecessary entity of this department. In meetings held in with officials of Des Plaines, Glenview,Northlake and Lemont all 4 towns have used the services provided by the Cook County SheriffsPolice Bomb Squad. It is far better to continue to provide this service, than to need a Bomb DisposalTechnician and not have one available.

-The Cook County Sheriffs Police Bomb Squad provided 142 man-hours to the federal governmentassisting, The F.B.I, A.T.F, and The United States Secret Service.

-The Cook County Sheriffs Police Bomb Squad provided vital homeland security assisting railroads,in addition to once even providing support T.S.A in securing our nations airways.

-The Cook County Sheriffs Police Bomb Squad provided services to jurisdictions outside theCounty of Cook including; The Joliet Police Department, Johnsburg, IL (assisting in a death

35 http://www.suntimes.com/news/10859218-418/chicago-gangs-getting-pushed-out-of-city-into-western-suburbs.html

http://www.suntimes.com/news/10859218-418/chicago-gangs-getting-pushed-out-of-city-into-western-suburbs.htmlhttp://www.suntimes.com/news/10859218-418/chicago-gangs-getting-pushed-out-of-city-into-western-suburbs.html


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The Tainted Task Force investigation), Kane County Sheriffs Department, Lake County Sheriffs Department and WillCounty Sheriffs Department.

SPECIAL OPERATIONS/VICEThis service, among other numerous other services, entails arresting prostitutes as well providing

enforcement in the Cook County Cigarette Stamp Tax.

-The Cook County Sheriffs Police Vice Unit arrested 260 prostitutes in 16 different municipalities.The socio-economic nature of this offense means this is not a burden faced by some towns withinCook County. If any member of this task force had any law enforcement experience they would tellyou that prostitution related arrests routinely garner information which provide intelligence useful toGang Crimes Investigations as well as solving property crimes, in jurisdictions other than where theprostitution arrest occurred.

-Starting on 12 September 2011, the Cook County Sheriffs Police Special Operations Unit beganthe task of enforcing the Cook County Cigarette Stamp Tax, after a mandate from the Cook CountyBoard President. From that date until 30 November 2011 that unit, through their enforcement of aCook County Ordinance, issued fines in the approximate amount of $2,800,000 of which

$977,000 was contributed to the Cook County General Fund. It is projected to contribute anestimated $6,000,000 to the Cook County General Fund in 2012.

SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS/TASK FORCESThe Cook County Sheriffs Police Department has representatives on every multi-agency task forcein suburban Cook County.

-One question posed by the presidents task force at 4 separate meetings with suburban towns wasif they utilize the Cook County Sheriffs Police Department for special investigations. Those townscited that they use task forces for high profile investigations (NORTAF, MCAT, WESTAF, and theSouth Suburban Major Crimes Task Force.) With a detective section larger than most towns' policedepartments, The Cook County Sheriffs Police Department provides detectives and evidencetechnicians to every task force listed. This department nonetheless provides outside agencies withpersonnel to assist them in major investigations. Having a jurisdiction of Cook County thisdepartment has the unique ability to serve on every law enforcement task force. They provideinsight, knowledge and experience not readily available to smaller communities of suburban CookCounty.

-The Cook County Sheriffs Police Department is also a participating agency in the FBI's ChicagoRegional Computer Forensic Laboratory. This is a highly specialized unit that recovers digitizedevidence to assist criminal investigations and gather information that lead to theft, childpornography, and terrorism arrests. This agency not only serves all of Cook County but any lawenforcement agency in Boone, Carroll, DeKalb, DuPage, Grundy, JoDaviess, Kane, Kendall, Lake,LaSalle, Lee, McHenry, Lee, Ogle, Stephenson, Whtieside, Will, and Winnebago counties. A Cook

County Sheriffs Police Officer currently serves as director of the FBI-founded Chicago RegionalComputer Forensic Laboratory.

Those services provided and many more all come off the back of the patrol officer. Without havingan active patrol division, these portions of the Cook County Sheriffs Police could not do their job.



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POLICE WORK IS A PUBLIC SERVICE, NOT A BUDGETARY LINE ITEM

The task force is comprised of leaders of industry, public officials, and private citizens. They appearto be looking at police work from a dollar and sense perspective, rather than the duty of protecting the

citizenry and property, and enforcing the laws of the land.

Here is where private sector success turns to public sector failure:

Core government functions like police, fire, and the military are publicservices. They do not turn a net profit. They never will.

Everything that makes a successful private sector enterprise comes down to onething: Profit. Without it, no company survives.

The core mission for government functions: Public service.

This inherent shift in the core mission makes all the difference.

Public agencies do not make widgets in a factory. They cannot go out of business,because public safety is not a business. Public safety is a duty and a service that ourcitizens depend on, every minute of every day.

The Sheriff's Office generates $25,587,000 in revenue36 and is projected to bring in another$6,000,000 in cigarette tax enforcement, while the Cook County Building and Zoning Departmentadds $2,100,000 from unincorporated areas. Wheel tax stickers (the unincorporated Cook Countyversion of city vehicle stickers) add another $3,540,000. That's a total of $35,337,000.

Compare that to the 2012 total operating cost of the Sheriff's Police (just like that of a largesuburban city with 100,000+ residents): $36,886,944.37

____________________________________________________________________________If the task force were a dictatorship, they would propose creating a fee-for-service model wherenone currently exists: Charging residents directly for police services.

Imagine their world where a policeman hands you a bill after you called 911:

$5 for locating a missing child.

$10 for bomb defusing (per bomb, of course).

$2 for each mile on a taxi-meter to drive a stranded motorist home.____________________________________________________________________________

If Cook County enters into any deals for annexation and eliminates the Sheriff Police it willend up costing Cook County more money, create additional bureaucracies, and have hidden costs.

36 http://blog.cookcountyil.gov/budget/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/12-Revenue-Estimates-Pres-Rec-R1.pdf FY 2012

37 http://blog.cookcountyil.gov/budget/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/V-SHERIFF.pdfSheriff's Police Line Item

http://blog.cookcountyil.gov/budget/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/12-Revenue-Estimates-Pres-Rec-R1.pdfhttp://blog.cookcountyil.gov/budget/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/V-SHERIFF.pdfhttp://blog.cookcountyil.gov/budget/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/12-Revenue-Estimates-Pres-Rec-R1.pdfhttp://blog.cookcountyil.gov/budget/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/V-SHERIFF.pdf


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The majority of independent task force is filled with supporters of the current Cook CountyBoard President. They demonstrate little understanding of unincorporated Cook County and noknowledge of how law enforcement works.

From its inception, the majority of this task force was assembled to justify a position held bythe current Cook County Board President that has already failed when previously brought beforethe Cook County Board.

While it is easy to say annexation will only affect the patrol functions of the Cook CountySheriffs Police Department, this will affect Cook County as a whole. In every police depaprtmentnationwide, the patrol division is the core and backbone. It is the front line that provides support,intelligence, and security all enabling suppression of gang activity county-wide, assisting in everytask force, curbing prostitution, and standing ready with bomb disposal.

By farming out services it will affect not only Cook County but northern Illinois as well, byeliminating a bomb squad and a role in the FBI-founded Chicago Regional Computer ForensicLaboratory.

The annexation of unincorporated Cook County will assuredly cost the citizens of CookCounty more than its spending right now - through loss of revenue and no oversight as to how eachparticular town spends the money given to them. This task force appears to be trying to put a pricetag on a public service; thats dangerous to do by any measurement.

__________________________________________________________________________

FINAL CONCLUSION__________________________________________________________________________

Infrastructure & Building CodesThe task force has said unincorporated Cook County building codes are inadequate.

Compared to what? If one were to believe their unproven assertions, the newspapers should be fullof daily headlines about buildings falling down every day in unincorporated areas.

Why don't they use their lobbying power to improve building codes instead of creating morebureaucracies that will cost more money? They could open the Lobbyist Back Door that Preckwinklecreated to exert their benevolent influence.

Coming Soon: The Tainted ReportUltimately, this Tainted Task Force will report its recommendations, which will rubber stamp

and regurgitate Preckwinkle's agenda: Eliminate unincorporated areas without regard to cost bypushing annexation, or paying suburbs subsidies to do the County's jobs in those areas, or drivingfor additional punitive taxes & fees on unincorporated residents ... all based on an unprovenpremise. No consideration will be given to keeping anything unincorporated as it is (allowing naturalannexation to occur as it has since 1831) even if it's more cost effective.

Please ask yourself two final questions:1. As the Cook County Sheriff's Police Department is virtually self funded by existingrevenue from Sheriff's Office functions, why are Toni Preckwinkle and the Civic Federationso intent on eliminating it?

2. If the position of Toni Preckwinkle has so much merit, why the need to assemble soblatantly biased a task force that rubber stamps goals already set, rather than impartiallyexamining options and objectively reporting independent findings?



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TONI PRECKWINKLE

UNINCORPORATED COOKCOUNTY TASK FORCE*

BARRY NEKRITZ

Elaine Nekritz

CITIZENS FORElaine Nekritz

Michael KreloffChairman CFEN

KING HARRIS ADRIENNE ARCHIA LAURENCE MSALL

CIVIC FEDERATION

SCOTT SAEF WOODS BOWMAN

COOK COUNTYModernization Report

M. Hill HAMMOCK

Susan McKEEVER

Lester McKEEVER

Washington, McKEEVER,and Pittman

Chicago Metropolitan

Agency for Planning(CMAP)

HENDERSON YARBROUGH

Karen Yarbrough

RANDY BLACKENHORN

Metropolitan Planning

Council (MPC)

DAVID BENNETT

Metropolitan Mayor'sCaucus (MMC)

CIVIC FEDERATION

Recipient of County Money

PRECKWINKLE Campaign / Contributor

Lobbyist, Active & Registered

Related Individual

Modernization Report / Contributor

CIVIC FEDERATION / Board Member

LEGEND

CMAP Member / Legislative Sponsor

MPC / Executive Committee

MMC (Metropolitan Mayor's Caucus)

CMAP, MMC, and MPC have long-standing mutual goal relationships

1

1

* Task Force Members shown above:Barry NEKRITZ, Hon. Henderson YARBROUGH,Randy BLANKENHORN, David BENNETT,King HARRIS, Adrienne ARCHIA, Laurence MSALL,Scott SAEF, and Woods BOWMAN.

* Task Force members NOT SHOWN:Hon. Timothy SchneiderHon. Deborah SimsCarol Teschky, Maine Tsp. Supervisor

The remaining persons shown are not members ofthe task force.

tainted taskforce (1)

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