Good Evening
The executive board had a meeting directly after the Governor’s press conference today. Also earlier in the day the Illinois Supreme Court issued an order for court procedures during this shutdown. I have attached it to this email. TO make a long story short, neither of these two directives really changes much of what we are already doing.
What we have been hearing from the various worksites is that the numbers of people coming in off the streets and in custody, in most places, seems to be diminishing. Also in most places cases are being dismissed, pleas of out of custody are being relayed, I-bonds are being issued and people are being released. As the numbers of clients in the courtrooms goes down we are pushing management to modify the schedule to remove as many of the attorneys out of the court as possible. Some locations have already modified the schedule this week. So keep sending us the numbers you get each day.
We will be having a conference call with the County and Council 31 this week Tuesday or Wednesday and there are three issues that rise to the top of many. One, there are still too many people in the courtrooms from other agencies that don’t need to be there, 2 there is still no effective protective products available and we want to press on the county on clearing of the courtrooms, 3 getting in place the video conference equipment in place right away.
Use your best judgment to keep yourself safe and healthy. the Union will back you up in your decisions. We can’t represent out clients if we’re sick.
If you got an accommodation email from Asia Cobb and you are still on a court rotation schedule contact the assigned board member . IF you got one and are not on a court schedule you can file it away.
THe support staff wishes to express their appreciation for members of this local that advocated for them to be on a duty schedule. They are now on a duty schedule and working at home as much as they can.