Five citizens were picked to work with the county board chair, vice chair, and Auditor/Treasurer Braidy Powers and administrator Jeff Cadwell on the 2019 county budget.
Selected to the Cook County budget committee were Arvis Thompson, District 1; Mike Carlson, District 2; Jim Boyd, District 3; Nick Burger, District 4; and Liz Wagner, District 5.
Commissioners voted to add these representatives to the committee, which will start work on June 19, at the Tuesday, June 12 Cook County commissioners meeting.
Members appointed will serve no more than two consecutive two-year terms from the date of their appointment without being off the board for at least one year.
The committee is slated to meet on the third Tuesday of each month from 1-3 p.m., with occasional meetings added throughout the budget season.
In the bylaws given to the new members it states, “The primary function of the committee will be to review the budget process, long-range financial planning documents and overall county budget priorities.
“The committee will be informed on statutory requirements and best practices for county administration; review, evaluate, and make recommendations on long-range planning documents and plans; work with staff to maintain the budget calendar and provide public opportunity for comment and involvement as required, and as planned; serve as advocates by developing each District’s understanding of Cook County’s programs and activities; and advise the committee about community needs or services which would benefit Cook County.”
“We are pleased to welcome additional public representation on the budget committee to help inform these tough decisions,” said Board Chair Ginny Storlie. “This is a great step in citizen engagement, and we look forward to getting down to work together as a committee on the 2019 budget. We thank all who applied and value the input they will bring to this process.”
Citizens appointed to the budget committee will serve in an advisory role.
This isn’t the first time Cook County has added citizens to the budget committee. Auditor/Treasurer Braidy Powers said that in the late 1990s and early 2000s several citizens served on the county budget committee. Why the citizen portion of the committee was discontinued, Powers doesn’t exactly remember, but he said it could have been that the people on it were tired of serving or that when the new commissioners were elected, the new board wasn’t interested in continuing it.
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