Cook County commissioners question state's attorney's staffing request and jail overtime

Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke asked county commissioners on Thursday for 70 additional positions in next year’s budget, and commissioners questioned both her request and overtime spending at the county jail.^{1, 2} Neither office faces major cuts or changes in the proposed budget, ABC7 Chicago reported.²

The state’s attorney’s request

O’Neill Burke presented the plan to the County Board’s Finance Committee as part of her office’s proposed fiscal year 2027 budget, according to FOX 32 Chicago, which based its report on a release from her office.¹ The positions include prosecutors, digital evidence analysts, mental health and victim specialists, and paralegals.^{1, 2}

Her office describes the plan as budget-neutral and says it would save about $5 million a year by relying less on outside legal counsel and overtime.¹ A central piece would add 10 attorneys to the civil actions bureau so the county can handle more civil cases in-house.¹ The county has spent more than $8 million on outside counsel over the past two years because of limited staffing, according to the office.¹

About 50 of the 70 positions would be paid for by savings from the civil bureau and from a new unit meant to end weekend overtime pay at first-appearance court, the office said.¹ The other 20 would be funded through adjustments to the office’s employee turnover rate.¹ ABC7 reported the request’s cost at $7 million.²

“We recognize that the county faces difficult budget decisions, and our proposal reflects that reality,” O’Neill Burke said in the release.¹ The plan also calls for expanding the office’s ability to analyze cellphone and video evidence, including its first dedicated digital forensics laboratory, according to FOX 32.¹ The office expects 77 law school graduates in November, its largest incoming class of bar takers, FOX 32 reported.¹

Commissioners’ questions

Commissioner Scott Britton asked how the county would pay for the request.² “Where in this budget that is now balanced am I supposed to find 7 million dollars to increase your request,” Britton said, according to ABC7.²

O’Neill Burke answered that shifting civil cases to new in-house attorneys would make the request cost-neutral, and said she plans to cut weekend overtime by creating new shifts to cover weekend court appearances, ABC7 reported.² She said her office has hired nearly 300 new prosecutors to fill vacancies since she took office.²

Jail overtime

Commissioner Jessica Vásquez told Sheriff Tom Dart that his office has the most overtime in the budget among the county’s criminal justice agencies, according to ABC7.² Dart said absences drive the cost.² Of about 1400 correctional officers across three shifts, about 450 call in sick on an average day, he said.²

“We’ve tried everything from home checks to go knock on doors and see if people are really sick, and we’ve tried incentives at the jail,” Dart said.²

What happens next

The state’s attorney’s proposal remains subject to the county’s budget process, FOX 32 reported.¹ County Board President Toni Preckwinkle’s budget is expected to pass with little difficulty, though county officials suggested future budget discussions could become harder, according to ABC7.²