Government of Cook County, Illinois
The government of Cook County, Illinois, is primarily composed of the Board of Commissioners, other elected officials such as the Sheriff, State's Attorney, Treasurer, Board of Review, Clerk, Assessor, Cook County Circuit Court judges and Circuit Court Clerk, as well as numerous other officers and entities. Cook County is the only home rule county in Illinois.[1][2] The Cook County Code is the codification of Cook County's local ordinances.
Organization
Board of Commissioners
The Cook County Board of Commissioners is the county's legislative body. It made up of 17 commissioners who are elected by district for four-year terms. The county board sets policy and laws for the county regarding property, public health services, public safety, and maintenance of county highways.[3] It is presided over by the County Board President, currently Toni Preckwinkle.
Sheriff
The Cook County Sheriff's Office is the sheriff. All Cook County Sheriff's Deputies have police powers regardless of their particular job function or title. Like other Sheriffs' departments in Illinois, the Sheriff can provide all traditional law-enforcement functions, including county-wide patrol and investigations irrespective of municipal boundaries, even in the city of Chicago, but has traditionally limited its police patrol functions to unincorporated areas of the county.
The Cook County Department of Corrections operates the Cook County Jail, the largest single-site jail in the nation.
State's Attorney
The Cook County State's Attorney handles criminal prosecutions.
Circuit Court
The Circuit Court of Cook County, which is a State agency funded, in part, by Cook County, accepts more than 1.2 million cases each year for filing.[4] The Cook County Juvenile Detention Center, under the authority of the Chief Judge of the State court, is the first juvenile center in the nation and one of the largest in the nation.
Other agencies
The Cook County Public Defender provides legal representation in the areas of felony and misdemeanor criminal cases, delinquency, abuse/neglect, some appeals, post-conviction and traffic (non-petty) cases throughout the county. It is the largest Public Defender System in the United States. It is the largest State Public Defender's office in the country.
The Cook County Public Guardian acts as the guardian of disabled adults, as well as to act as attorneys and guardian ad litem for abused and neglected children in the county.
The Bureau of Health Services administers the county's public health services and is the second largest public health system in the nation. Three hospitals are part of this system:
The Cook County Highway Department is responsible for the design and maintenance of roadways in the county. These thoroughfares are mostly composed of major and minor arterials, with a few local roads. Although the Highway Department was instrumental in designing many of the expressways in the county, today they are under the jurisdiction of the state.
The
The Cook County Law Library is the second largest county law library in the nation.
Cook County Department of Public Health and the Cook County Medical Examiner's office.
Former offices and agencies
The
The Cook County Recorder of Deeds, from 1872 until 2020, recorded, stored and maintained land records and other official documents in perpetuity for public and private use, facilitating home ownership and mortgage lending. The Office is a statutorily-authorized repository for federal military discharge records (Form DD-214), which are held as private records available only to those authorized by law. The office was merged with the Clerk's office in 2020.
Budget
Cook County is the fifth largest employer in Chicago.[5]
In March 2008, the County Board increased the
Politics
Year | Democrat | Republican |
---|---|---|
2020 | 74.22% 1,725,973 | 24.01% 558,269 |
2016
|
73.90% 1,611,946 | 20.80% 453,287 |
2012
|
74.00% 1,488,537 | 24.63% 495,542 |
2008
|
76.48% 1,582,973 | 23.05% 477,038 |
2004
|
70.25% 1,439,724 | 29.15% 597,405 |
2000
|
68.63% 1,280,547 | 28.65% 534,542 |
1996
|
66.79% 1,153,289 | 26.73% 461,557 |
1992
|
58.21% 1,249,533 | 28.20% 605,300 |
1988
|
55.77% 1,129,973 | 43.36% 878,582 |
1984
|
51.02% 1,112,641 | 48.40% 1,055,558 |
1980
|
51.99% 1,124,584 | 39.60% 856,574 |
1976
|
53.44% 1,180,814 | 44.69% 987,498 |
1972
|
46.01% 1,063,268 | 53.41% 1,234,307 |
1968
|
50.56% 1,181,316 | 41.11% 960,493 |
1964
|
63.18% 1,537,181 | 36.82% 895,718 |
1960
|
56.37% 1,378,343 | 43.33% 1,059,607 |
The
The county has by far more
The 1970 Illinois Constitution allows the controlling party to redraw voting districts; the Democrats have done so several times, most recently in 2011, effectively gerrymandering to gain additional seats in the state congress from Republicans in the 2012 election.[8][9][10]
In the 1980s, Cook County was ground zero to an extensive
Secession movements
To establish more localized government control and policies which reflect the often different values and needs of large suburban sections of the sprawling county, several secession movements have been made over the years which called for certain townships or municipalities to form their own independent counties.
In the late 1970s, a movement started which proposed a separation of six northwest suburban townships, Cook County's
In 2004, Blue Island Mayor Donald E. Peloquin organized a coalition of fifty-five south and southwest suburban municipalities to form a new county, also proposing the name Lincoln County. The county would include everything south of Burbank, stretching as far west as Orland Park, as far east as Calumet City, and as far south as Matteson, covering an expansive area with a population of over one million residents. Peloquin argued that the south suburbs are often shunned by the city (although Chicago is not bound or required to do anything for other municipalities) and he blamed the Chicago-centric policies of Cook County for failing to jumpstart the somewhat-depressed south suburban local economy. Pending sufficient interest from local communities, Peloquin planned a petition drive to place a question regarding the secession on the general election ballot, but the idea was not met with success.[12]
Talk of secession from Cook County amongst some outlying communities again heated up in mid-2008 in response to a highly controversial 1% sales tax hike which has pushed the tax rates across the county communities up amongst the highest in the nation. Some border towns in particular had been outraged, as people can take their business across the county border (paying, for instance, 7% in Lake County instead of Palatine's 9.5%).[13] The secession issue eventually died down from the nominal tax increase.
In 2011, two downstate Republican State Representatives, Bill Mitchell of the 87th district and Adam Brown of the 101st district, proposed statehood for Cook County. Mitchell said that Chicago is "dictating its views" to the rest of the state and Brown added that Chicago "overshadows" the rest of Illinois.[14]
See also
References
- LCCN 95-46017.
- ^ Members, Illinois Association Of County Board. "Illinois Association Of County Board Members | Forms of Counties". Illinois Association Of County Board Members. Retrieved 2023-12-10.
- ^ About the Cook County Board of Commissioners Archived 2008-01-01 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "CIRCUIT COURT OF COOK COUNTY AN INFORMATIONAL GUIDE" (PDF). 2008. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 1, 2007. Retrieved December 16, 2008.
- ^ "All the extra cost will be no small change". Chicago Tribune. 2008. Archived from the original on March 2, 2008. Retrieved March 2, 2008.
- ^ "Chicago's Largest Employers". ChicagoBusiness. Archived from the original on 2008-03-02. Retrieved 2013-07-12.
- ^ "Cook County Board 'rejects' sales tax increase repeal". Chicago Tribune. July 22, 2008. Retrieved July 23, 2008.
- ^ Howley, Kerry (Nov 6, 2012). "Tammy Duckworth Wins in Illinois, as Does Gerrymandering and Deadbeat-Dad Shaming". Slate. Retrieved 11 November 2012.
- ^ Bazelon, Emily (Nov 9, 2012). "It's Appalling that Gerrymandering Is Legal". Slate. Retrieved 11 November 2012.
- ^ Greenbaum, Mark (June 8, 2011). "Democrats' revenge in 2012: a radical Illinois gerrymander". Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved 11 November 2012.
- ^ Cleveland, Charles (September 1977). "Carving another county out of Cook". Illinois Issues. Archived from the original on 2006-09-08.
- ^ "Blue Island mayor wants to create "Lincoln County"". WLS-TV News (abc7chicago.com). June 25, 2004. Archived from the original on June 29, 2011.
- ^ "How It Works - Online Lookup". Retrieved 2013-07-12.
- ^ "2 GOP legislators propose separating Cook County from Illinois". SJ-R.com. November 22, 2011.
External links
- Official website
- Cook County Code from Municode