Cook County Public Defenders Blog

There was a huge union turnout for the Public Hearing in Markham last night (January 23, 2007). Union members filled the meeting hall, and overflowed outside the hall. This is the type of turnout we need at all of the upcoming public hearings. AFSCME was able to obtain the first slot at the Markham hearing for the opening comments, and AFSCME’s lead negotiator Mike Newman used this time to criticize 17% cuts and layoffs. Public Defender Union President Tom Stoval also testified on behalf of assistant public defenders.

AFSCME reps will appear at every public hearing to get the message out. In the meantime, AFSCME reps continue to meet with County Commissioners and other elected officials to try to turn political support away from indiscriminate 17% cuts. AFSCME officials also continue to coordinate with all of our locals, and other supportive organizations, to gather a huge turnout for Monday’s (January 29) rally at the County Building. It is important for as many assistant public defenders as possible to show up for this rally and support our cause.

In addition, assistant public defenders should download the attached Petition. Petition We ask that you gather as many signatures as possible in support of our cause. Please do this soon, and get your completed petitions to Brendan Max or Bob Galhotra.

Finally, as we continue to fight layoffs in our office, and as we continue to strive to keep you informed of the budget battle, feel free to become more involved in this communication process. If there is information you would like to see on the website, let us know. If there are questions that you want answered on the site for all to see, ask us. We hope that all assistant public defenders have access to as much information as possible.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 24th, 2007 at 12:51 pm and is filed under In The News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.