Cook County Public Defenders Blog

The union received notice on 3/29/07 that 15 of its least senior members are being layed off. The layoffs are to be effective 4/29/07. Many had predicted the number of layoffs that would affect our members and the Local’s leadership chose not to enter into the realm of speculation because we never knew what the County was up to.

Now that we have notice and will be taking measures to ensure compliance with the collective bargaining agreement. Please remember that this year marks the first time in the Local’s history that any member is getting a layoff notice. And this is the first time that the County is giving layoff notices in as many years as people can remember. Many of the collective bargaining agreements for the varioius locals that represent county workers have different layoff language and the county is clearly having difficulty navigating the waters of the different agreements. Rest assured, we will take all measures necessary to ensure our contract is followed.

We have received official notice from the County that the layoff notices that purported to be effective on March 19th are recinded. Therefore, anyone who received such notices in our Office can disregard those notices. If and when layoffs occur in the future, new notices will have to be provided to assistant public defenders.

With regard to when future notices may issue and how many assistant public defenders may be laid off, we are still not sure. As a matter of fact, Stroger’s office has not even finalized layoffs for our Office yet. In a letter dated March 13, 2007, Jonathan Rothstein (Special Assistant to Todd Stroger) stated the following: “We are in the process of finalizing the positions affected by the budget cuts imposed by the Board of Commissioners, and will provide you with additional notice as necessary.” Until the number of layoffs and notice dates are finalized, no one can say for sure what the layoff situation looks like in our Office. While one could reasonably believe that the official budget process which ended in February was the final and definitive word on layoffs in our Office, that is simply not the case. As we have stated here before, as soon as a definitive number and date for layoffs is available, we will report it here.

From a pool of 250 candidates, Local member Stuart Katz of the MDD division was voted an Associate Judge by the sitting Full Circuit Judges after being named as one of 62 finalists by the Associate Judge Nominating Committee. Stuart will be sworn in on April 11 along with Darren Bowden, Chief of the Child Protection Division of the Law Office of the Public Defender, former Assistant Public Defender Callie Baird and 28 other candidates. Congratulations to all! Local 3315 is proud to have them join other former Cook County Assistant Public Defenders now on the bench. An incomplete list of former Local 3315 members who are now Cook County Judges includes Terry Smith, Ramon Ocasio, Andrew Berman, Paul Stralka, Karen Shields, Jorge Alonso, Tim Chambers, Kathleen Pantle, Kerry Kennedy, and Noreen Love.

Please contact Debby Neisen or Stephanie Hirschboeck at MDD or Lisa Brean at 26th Street for information on a celebration for Stuart that is scheduled for April 5, 2007.

Despite repeated inquiries by the Executive Board, management is at a loss to explain why no letters have issued to any members notifying them of a layoff – even though several members were verbally told so nearly two weeks ago.  All we can tell you is that only non-union employees have been let go so far.  The union is entitled to notice of any layoffs and as of today’s date, we have received no notice.  Have any members received new layoff notices?  We don’t know.  But if you received a layoff notice, (not the unsigned Kim D. Gilmore variety which said layoff was effective as of 3/19/07) please contact one of the Executive Board members as soon as you can so we can file an appropriate greivance. 

Perhaps it comes as small consolation but, no news (at least as to layoffs) is good news.

And although this website is for Local 3315 members, we are not aware of any investigator union members receiving any layoff notices either. 

Please accept our apologies for any delay in notifying the members that nothing has happened yet.

Today, March 8, 2007, the union learned that members of management are having informational meetings with the ten least senior members of our local and informing them that layoff notices are going out any day with their names on them.  The union is entitled to written notice of each layoff and has not received any such notices to date. 

If you are one of the individuals who gets a layoff notice, keep in mind that the union will take every step to make sure the provisions of the collective bargaining agreement are followed chapter and verse.  This means an accurate determination of seniority, identification of eligible vacant positions in the County, and recall rights to name a few.

The union was also made aware that several employees of the Office of the Public Defender’s Policy unit, who are not members of any union, had their jobs summarily eliminated as of 3/2/07.  This should remind us all of the benefits of union membership and collective bargaining.

Throughout this budget process, many numbers have been thrown into the public eye as the accurate reflection of the number of assistant public defenders that will actually be laid off. These numbers have come from Mr. Burnette, from the County, from newspapers, and from other sources like rumor. We all want to know the final and accurate number of any potential layoffs as soon as possible. The sooner we know this, the better. As you can imagine, things would be much easier for the Executive Board if we were able to simply put this issue to rest and announce a definitive number.

The fact remains that a definitive number still does not exist, and we are still actively working to try to preclude the necessity for any layoffs. We continue to be involved in the budget process, working with Commissioners and others who may have effect in the current budget reconciliation process. For instance, on Thursday we requested a meeting with Mr. Burnette to discuss the ongoing budget error reconciliation process. The meeting took place Friday morning. We are aware that discretionary money is floating around that could be used to restore attorney positions, and we discussed this with Burnette, in addition to discussing other ideas for generating revenue that could save attorney positions in our office. If anything good comes of this activity, we will let you know.

While this step in the budget process (the error reconciliation process) is murkier than earlier steps, it nonetheless is a step in the process where layoff numbers are still being determined. We could stop now that the Commissioners have voted on a budget, resign ourselves to whatever outcome results, and save ourselves a lot of headache and work. But as long as we have a chance to save some jobs, we will continue to fight.

As for layoff numbers reported around town, we cannot control that, nor can we respond to every instance of someone claiming that they know the number. When we have a number that is worthy of reporting, we will announce it here promptly.