Today, lawyers for AFSCME filed a Complaint for Injunctive Relief in Cook County Chancery Court, seeking to stop the planned staffing and pay cuts to the Office of the Public Defender. As you all are aware, Todd Stroger plans on laying off dozens of assistant public defenders, and has more recently notified us of his intent to impose 3-day and 4-day work weeks along with salary reductions. The Stroger plan amounts to a 30% work force reduction and a 25% salary reduction in 2007. Our lawsuit asserts that salaries and hours of employment are set by contract, the Collective Bargaining Agreement, and cannot be unilaterally changed by either party. The lawsuit has been assigned to Judge Maki, and further information will be posted here as the litigation progresses. Complaint
Also today, the Executive Board published an open letter to the legal community in the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin. Open Letter The Executive Board is calling on the legal community to take notice of the crisis in this Office, and support our cause to maintain this County’s commitment to the requirements of the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Should you have any ideas about further action to garner support, contact Brendan Max or Bob Galhotra.
Finally, we continue to work with County Commissioners to try to inform them of the devastating effects of the proposed budget cuts, and work to get assistant public defender jobs put back in the budget. Members of the Executive Board met face-to-face with Commissioners in the last 2 weeks, and representatives of AFSCME Council 31 have been conducting ongoing meetings as well. As the budget amendment period gets underway, we will keep you informed of amendments that affect our Office.
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