The hearing on the proposed resolution to remove Ed Burnette has been cancelled. Upon information and belief, attorneys representing Ed Burnette have reached an agreement with attorneys for President Todd Stroger to resolve their differences in court through the pending litigation in Burnette v. Stroger.NO HEARING ON THE RESOLUTION WILL BE HEARD ON 5/20/08 SO DO NOT ATTEND THE COUNTY BOARD MEETING
The hearing on whether to terminate the employment of Edwin Burnette, Public Defender of Cook County is now set for next week on the 20th. As mentioned before, members are encouraged to attend the hearing but should put in for appropriate time off in advance of the date. It has been suggested that the proceedings will be behind closed doors, even though Mr. Burnette wants the world to see what is going on.As concerned citizens, we have a right to attend and at least let our elected commissioners know what we think of the allegations in the resolution. It is unlikely that the commissioners will “vote” on the removal, leaving the decision up to the President, but perhaps our presence will make him think twice about conducting a sham hearing. Please make an effort to attend the hearing.
Judge Riley entered an order enjoining the President of the Cook County Board from proceeding with a hearing to remove the Public Defender. The TRO was granted after Ed Burnette was allowed to intervene in the pending litigation in the Chancery Division where the litigation seeks declaratory relief as to the office’s independence from political influences in staffing by virtue of the public defender statute. As a consequence, please do not attend the previously scheduled hearing before the County Board which was going to be held on Wednesday, May 7, 2008. A hearing on whether the TRO will become a permanent injunction is set for 2 pm on May 9th, 2008 before Judge Riley.
ATTENTION ALL MEMBERS:
************TRO was reversed on appeal. Please see story in the In the News Section **********
To those who attended our general membership meeting this evening, this will provide a recap. To those who missed it, stop reading unless you are a local member. At the meeting, your entire executive board and staff representative from Council 31 were on hand to provide you with updates on the litigation in Burnette v. Stroger, our position on the pending resolution and a presentation from our People chair Joe Gump (RM) on the MVP program. Thanks to Arlene Floren and Jenny Nilsson for arranging the refreshments.After an engaging discussion ( I only wished Pragmatist and Justice Cardozo were in attendance), members wanted immediate access to information on contacting their commissioners so they can call, write or talk to them on the 7th or before. We’re talking about commissioners Tony Periaca, Pete Silvestri, Gregg Gosslin, William Beavers, Elizabeth Ann Doody Gorman, Joan Murphy, Robert Steele and Deborah Sims who introduced the proposed resolution. (Some of whom may have second thoughts by now). So for those who asked and those of you who don’ t know which district you live in, click map to find out. Need the number for your commissioner? Click here. Don’t forget to fill out a time off request form so you can attend the hearing which is scheduled to begin at 10a.m. Forgot what this was all about? Click this. Thanks for coming out to the general membership meeting and see you on the 7th.
The County Board will address the proposed resolution to remove the Public Defender on Wednesday, May 7, 2008. All members are encouraged to take time off to attend the hearing, which will probably be scheduled for 10 am, but when it will actually be heard is another matter. The official agenda for the meeting is not yet out but can be found a few days before the hearing on the County website. Please do not confuse the County Board’s hearing with the hearing that will take place two days earlier. That is the hearing before Judge Riley of the Chancery Division in the case of Burnette v. Stroger. Please come out and show your support for fairness.
The union has confirmed that the notice, given by the President of the Cook County Board to Edwin Burnette regarding the proposed resolution, has been withdrawn. A new date and time will be set and when and if it is, we will inform the membership on this blog.
DO NOT ATTEND THE MEETING ON APRIL 9, 2008 BECAUSE THE PROPOSED RESOLUTION WILL NOT BE HEARD ON THAT DATE.
Well, so much for relaxing following approval of the 2008 budget. Here we go again with the political machinations of the Stroger Jr. administration. Rumors began yesterday, April 3, 2008 and were confirmed within hours that County Board President is scheduling a hearing on April 9, 2008 before the County Board to determine whether Edwin Burnette should be relieved of his duties for “good cause or dereliction of duty.”Now most unions don’t really take a position when it comes to such situations because we represent the members and are not beholden to Management. So why should we care who the manager is? Well the situation is a little different when the manager is doing everything he can to keep his office free from political influence and well staffed. Even if everything he can do includes suing his boss (Burnette v. Stoger 07 CH 33805).But that seems to be the very crux of the proposed resolution which cites six counts of alleged willful negligence. A clear example of the pot calling the kettle black.Although Burnette and his attorney can speak for themselves, (and if the hearing is not a sham, they will have an adequate opportunity to defend him) some of those counts are so outrageous that they deserve comment.Yes, sometimes clients spend years in jail waiting for trial. And it is entirely possible that 34 clients have waited for over 5 years for a trial. But there are many reasons for delay: interlocutory appeals, change in counsel, extensive and voluminous discovery, illness of judge or counsel, death of counsel, fitness for trial, delay in obtaining DNA testing, delay in obtaining documents, etc. Not to mention that a majority of the cases are death penalty cases which require experts and an extensive mitigation history workup. There are even times when attorneys wait for up to an hour at the jail to see their clients because of the lack of staffing at the Cook County Department of Corrections. Some of our clients are housed at facilities hundreds of miles from Cook County and their representation imposes logistical burdens that most people do not appreciate. Some of us work way more than 40 hours a week representing our clients. Some of us work less. But we all work consistent with our professional responibility- as we are contractually and professionally obligated to. And we are paid for working hours consistent with our professional responsibility, not for working 40 hours a week. If the Law Office of the Public Defender was solely responsible for hiring and staffing, then there would probably be no lawsuit captioned Burnette v. Stroger. To say that the public defender is responsible for the lack of staffing is insulting. Human Resources, under President Stroger, controls when someone is hired by the office. My understanding is that to this day, no postings are up at Human Resources for the hiring of entry level public defenders. The ones hired recently are from a batch who interviewed for the job years ago. As to managers, they are seriously understaffed and underpaid. I can only speculate that the reason supervisors are not being hired is because Mr. Burnette does not want our office to be the political dumping ground that we all fear. As to the Special State’s Attorney issue, it seems best left to the forum in which it is pending - Chancery Court. The resolution appears to be a retaliatory and collateral attack on the pending suit and is perhaps an effort to render it moot or at the least, intimidate the plaintiff.So here is the part where I am going to tell my brothers and sisters what I think you should do. Our job is to defend people. It shouldn’t be out of character for us to defend Mr. Burnette - especially when the allegations are as spurious as the ones contrived by Stroger Jr. & Co. At a minimum, we should ensure that the hearing isn’t a sham and has all the trappings of a proceeding where Mr. Burnette receives due process.On Wednesday, take time off to attend the hearing and show your support for Mr. Burnette. Also, make sure you call your commissioner and tell them how you feel. The commissioners who sponsored the resolution are: PERAICA, BEAVERS, GOSLIN, MORENO, SILVESTRI, MURPHY, SIMS, STEELE AND DOODY-GORMAN. Be sure to tell them to vote “no” on this resolution.
I think we can all relax now that the budget passed. Thanks to all the members and their phone calls to their commissioners, the Cook Count Board voted 9-8 to increase the sales tax by 1% and to also give the Bureau of Health Services to an independent board for management for the next three years. The vote on the actual budget was 10-7. The compromise which led to the deal on the final day was months in the making and appears to have been spearheaded by former public defender and commissioner Larry Suffredin. Commissioner Suffredin advocated for an independent body to manage the hospital system but many felt that was an issue that could be put off into the future. His insistence on this change and the President’s need for another vote for the tax increase is what led to the compromise. Now we have revenue and reform.
By law, the county needs to pass its budget ordinance by the 29th of February and as we have seen in recent days, they are still a vote shy of getting additonal revenue through a tax increase.Efforts were made by your local leadership to get a meeting with the Editorial Board of the Chicago Tribune so we could explain to them the dire straits our office is in — but the requests apparently fell on deaf ears at the ivory tower on Michigan Avenue.Brothers and sisters, you know that things today are more expensive then they were a few years ago whether it be your mortgage payment, the cost of a gallon of gasoline, or a gallon of milk in your fridge. In a Sun Times article by Cheryl Jackson today, it was reported that from 12/06 to 12/07 the cost of milk went up 22% and eggs 32.6%. Yet some people (like the folks at the civic federation) just don’t understand why a county that ran just fine in 1998 dollars can’t do so ten years later.True, there is some waste in County government. When a hospital system fails to pursue federal reimbursement for care and treatment of patients, the system begins to fail itself. Everyone knows of the tens of millions of dollars the hospital system has lost because of incompetence in billing. We lost anywhere between $40 million and $120 mililon from inept billing practices, according to a report issued last September by the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability. That report went on to predict that cuts in Medicare funding will total more than $500 million over the next five years.So what do we need? We need two things. First, we need a modest tax increase. If 1.25% is too much maybe it’s a good idea to try something a bit less. But commissioners who are categorically opposed to any new taxes need to face the reality that more revenue is not just a want, but a need. Secondly, we need to take the Cook County Bureau of Health Services away from the politicians and into the hands of a competent and professional Board of Trustees. This was exactly what was recommended in another report commissioned by the County. Those two things. increasing revenue and reforming the hospital system, are what you should ask your commissioner to do. Who is your commissioner? And which district do you live in? Just click and find out. And then make the phone call. Leave a message if they aren’t in. Real revenue and real reform. By law, it’s what this county needs.
For the information of our members, we are in another budget cycle, the results of which are uncertain right now. There have been hearings on the 2008 budget for weeks, and there are more hearings today (Friday, 11/30/07) that could have an affect on our office.
In preparation for the budget battle in general and for today’s hearings in particular, members of the union executive board have met in person with key county commissioners to make a pitch for our office. In addition, AFSCME has been working the budget cycle as hard as ever. While the outcome is still not yet clear, and we don’t know where the votes will fall for revenue generation or budget cuts, we continue to fight for our members in particular and our office in general.
All members are encouraged to follow the budget battle in the media and check our website for more information.