Cook CountyCandidato para Clerk of the Circuit Court

I do not know, nor can I explain why the office of Circuit Court Clerk of Cook County has not complied with federal court orders relative to United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois General Order 09-014 issued on June 5, 2009 by Judge James Holderman to modernize the clerk's computerized system, nor has that office complied with an amended case, General Order 14-0024, with even more stringent conditions issued on October 24, 2014 by Judge Ruben Castillo at which time the office was again ordered to modernize the system. These orders have obviously not been complied with, but should have been immediately at the time they were ordered. I have certified copies of both cases in my possession as evidence. When I worked as an Investigator in the Adult  Probation Department I was able to easily access this sort of information, filed on the same day in court in compliance with the federal court orders, online from counties such as DuPage and Carroll. 

A judge's order must be complied with, and I would absolutely commit to making the court statistics, related court data etc. available in compliance with the law as immediately as possible. That is one of the important elective duties of the position of Circuit Court Clerk. The public must expect their elected officials to abide by their oath of office, operate within the law and comply with all legal/judicial directives. Any and all contracts, data etc. must be available to the public for review so that they know where, how, with whom and how much was paid to every contractor for all contracts, no matter how small or large the amount. Transparency of government should be expected by the public. 

The court files are property of the judge and must be protected 100% of the time. If I were the Clerk of the Circuit Court I would hold every Deputy Clerk personally liable for the preservation and maintenance of every court file. If a file is missing, or contents have been removed or altered, it would result in immediate disciplinary action up to and including termination. In 2012 a 17 year employee of the clerk's offfice, Jeanette Niebauer, was arrested for shredding court files in her home.  http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2012/07/21/cook-county-court-staffer-held-on-750k-bail-for-allegedly-shredding-court-files/. bond  Based on my personal experience working in the courts for over 30 years, this is not an isolated incident. Often files were missing or necessary information was missing from the files I received to write up cases for probation or investigations.  Even more shocking is that often incomplete files from which documentation such as court motions and orders is missing and are sent to the Appellate Defender. This will not occur under my watch, and I will even assume personal accountability for the accuracy, integrity and maintenance of every file. 

If I am elected as the next Circuit Court Clerk of Cook County I will demand a complete forensic financial audit of the office from where the monies are banked, how they are collected and disbursed and what investment practices, or not, are being done up to and including the salaries, grade levels etc. of every employee by an outside agency. We will implement responsible fiduciary practices, such as zero balance budgeting, eliminate redundant, unnecessary positions and streamline efficiency saving precious taxpayer dollars. We will invest all collected funds in AAA bonds and other instruments.The results of the audit will be made public peremptorily upon completion. These records should have been available to the public without the need for a FOIA. If I am elected all financial records will be available online for all to all to see where taxpayer money is being allocated at all levels. 

If the office of Cook County Circuit Court Clerk had abided by the orders of Judge James Holderman in 2009 and Judge Ruben Castillo in 2014, as is duty of the office to comply with, this problem would have been eliminated long ago. The payment of fees, fines etc. should be able to be done simply and efficiently by being recorded in one system instead of in different ones which do not even recognize one another, regardless of where they are paid. If I am elected as the next Circuit Court Clerk I will obey these federal orders and any others issued pursuantly, and upgrade the computerized system. I have people prepared as part of my transition team who are computer experts to assist in expediting these matters. We will have a fully operational true computerized Windows based system where all monies may be paid in person or online and recorded immediately upon payment and deposit. 

When I worked in the Adult Probation Department I developed a simple system for preservation of my files which could be extrapolated to the clerk's filing system. If I had an APD file in my office at Grand and Central, for example, I kept the file there and at the end of every day would enter all information into the "computerized" system (I use quotations because the system is not a computer in the standard sense. It is a dummy terminal which connects to the main system downtown and is antiquated in the most accurate sense of the word) so that the record could be accessed immediately online. For cases of violation of probation I would have the officer keep their file, enter all data into the system at the end of the day, call the officer to apprise them of what transpired in court so that they could document it on the file in their office. If the officer wanted me to, I would keep their file safely protected and only when a case was disposed of would it be returned to the record room for the Probation Officer to retrieve. I always took personal responsibility for my own files because, unfortunately, the APD operated under the same lax standards. My system alleviated the need to transport files from location to location and none of my files ever went lost or missing, and if implemented countywide would eliminate the waste of fuel, wear and tear on vehicles and ultimately over time with computer efficiency we would be able to preserve the integrity of all files and eliminate the transportation of files. All information would be available on a video screen in every courtroom and day of filing imaging would be implemented.

This exact idea was suggested by me when I first ran for office in 2008 and again in 2012. I would support legislation for it 100% and even assist with crafting it if it were allowed. It would be my honor and privilege to be the last elected Cook County Circuit Court Clerk and the first Republican Circuit Court Clerk of Cook County. It would be my honor to supervise the modernization of the Clerk's office, clean house, end pay-to-play politics, implement cost saving measures, responsible fiduciary practices and commit to transition the office from elective to appointed office as is done at the Appellate and Supreme Court levels.