Cook County Public Defenders Association

On April 14, 2009, an arbitrator ruled that “The Public Defender Salary Schedule shall be modified to provide an additional 1% increase for Public Defenders at Step 3 or above effective June 1, 2008…”

In the last contract negotiations, AFSCME proposed an additional step and a 2% increase for all assistant public defenders at Step 3 and above in addition to negotiated wage increases.  The County flatly rejected the proposed additional step, but made a counter proposal offering a 1% increase.  In response, the Union dropped it’s request for another step and proposed a 1.5% increase.  The 1% counter proposal was never retracted during the negotiations.  On June 1, 2008, the County started paying the additional 1%.  But a few weeks later, the County claimed that the parties had never agreed to the 1% increase and reduced paychecks accordingly.

The Negotiation Ground Rules state that “All Tentative Agreements will be reduced to writing, initialed and dated by the Spokesperson of each Party.”  No tentative agreement prepared by either party referenced mutual assent to the 1% increase.  For this reason, the County argued that the additional 1% proposal inadvertently “fell of the table” without mutual agreement.  However, Tentative Agreements were formalized and jointly signed off during the negotiation process onlywhen there were structural changes in a pay plan.  Other contractual changes were adopted without a sign off  The 1% increase is not a structural change in the plan such as adding a new step to the pay grid.  Further, the 1% appeared in the salary schedule prepared by the County during negotiations.  Both parties reviewed the salary schedule and made corrections, but the 1% increase was never changed.  Thus the parties reached a binding, mutual agreement and the 1% increase is a part of the contract.

M.S.

This New York Times article from April 6, 2009, discusses the steps New York is taking to deal with unreasonable public defender case loads

Click here: Public Defenders’ Caseloads to Be Capped in New York City – NYTimes.com

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On April 1, 2009, retired Judge Abishi C. Cunningham, was sworn in by the Presiding Judge of the Sixth Municipal District, Marjorie Laws, as the Public Defender of Cook County.   Judge Cunningham brings with him a commitment to uphold the Bill of Rights for the indigent citizenry of Cook County.  A brief biography is available online.

Judge Cunningham’s predecessor, Edwin Burnette will leave an important legacy, that of two recent cases that bear his name:  Burnette v. Terrell and Burnette v. Stroger.   These two cases, which came down within the last few weeks and are reported under the Hot Legal Topics tab of this website, gave meaning to the statute that made the public defender an independant office, not under the jurisdiction of the Chief Judge.  The two cases establish the autonomy of the Public Defender and make clear that it is the Public Defender who controls his office, not the President of the Cook County Board.  As Ed Burnette’s attorney, Victor Henderson was quoted as saying, “[b]ut for his courage in standing up to Todd Stroger, it is likely that he would have been appointed for another six-year term.  There is a price to pay for justice and this case that price was Ed’s job.”  Well said Victor,  and best of luck to Ed Burnette.  At least he was able to complete his term with his head held up high.

I have had several conversations with Judge Cunningham and believe that he has the best interests of the office in mind.  He obviously comes with a substantial amount of experience from the bench, a first for the Public Defender, and therefore is sure to garner respect from the judges we appear before.  He has stated that he wants to work with us on many issues that our office faces.  Moreover, he wants to be more hands on and visit job sites and talk to the assistants in the courtroom and even pick up a file and try a case.  On behalf of the local and membership, I extend a warm welcome to Judge Cunningham, the Public Defender of Cook County.

In Solidarity,

K. S. Galhotra

President, Local 3315

The appellate court issued a 32-page opinion, according to today’s (3/30/09) Chicago Daily Law Bulletin, written by Justice Robert E. Gordon that holds ” (1) The public defender is an entity capable of bringing suit; (2) Burnette had standing to contest Stroger’s actions; (3) Stroger lacked authority to impose unpaid furlough days on designated member’s of Burnette’s staff; and (4) Stroger lacked authority to select who would be laid off”.  It is also reported that Stroger’s attorney and the Special Assistant State’s Attorney representing the Law Office of the Cook County Public Defender are working on crafting a settlement in this case before his term expires tomorrow.

Read the case by clicking this.

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We have collected most of the “Postcards to Todd” from our members but are still awaiting a few cards. If you didn’t get a card, please call Local 3315 Secretary Amy Thompson at 26th Street (6989). If you still have your card, sign it and send it in to Amy as soon as you can. Our plan is to hand deliver these cards to the County Board President to remind him to continue in contract negotiations with the County locals. Our scheduled negotiation session for Monday, March 30th was abrubptly cancelled a few days ago. And this occurs at a time when the union was reminding the County that it was expecting a wage proposal at the next meeting. There has been no wage proposal in over six months of meetings. Your signed card reminds the County Board President that we work hard and deserve a fair contract which includes reasonable wage increases and affordable, quality health care. This is a goal that is difficult to disagree with.

New Mexico is on the verge of abolishing the death penalty. The bill has passed the House and Senate, and is now on Gov. Bill Richardson’s desk. He has until Wednesday at midnight to either veto or sign abolition into law, and he’s requested to hear public opinion on the issue as he considers his decision. We all have a chance to let the Governor know how we feel about the issue and why abolition is so important — it doesn’t matter what state you’re from. There are three ways to get this message across:

1) Vote in the online poll at the Albuquerque Journal (which has actively opposed abolition):
http://www.abqjournal.com/

2) Call the hotline set up by the Governor to weigh in on abolition:
505-476-2225
Let them know you SUPPORT HB-285!

3) Send the Governor an email through his website:
http://www.governor.state.nm.us/email.php?mm=6&type=opinion
Urge him to support and sign HB-285!

I want to update the membership on a few topics. 

The Cook County Jail  Correctional Officers are having elections on MARCH 17 and MARCH 19 to decide which labor union will be representing them.  If they vote for AFSCME, they will help keep AFSCME the largest union representing  Cook County workers.  That strength in numbers (3000 additional members) can pay big dividents at the bargaining table. So it is in our interests to encourage them to vote AFSCME.  When heading to the jail for visits, don your sticker that says “VOTE AFSCME” – it should be available next to the jail sheets next week.  Need one? See me.

Speaking of bargaining table, most of you should have now signed a postcard that we will send to President Stroger to remind him we want a fair contract at the table.  So far, the County has only been talking about takebacks and have  presented no wage increase.  This is a job action folks.  The union wants complete participation.  It’s even easier than wearing a button or sticker to court –  and a lot easier than walking a line while holding a picket.  So please make sure you sign one and if you need one, call union local secretary, Amy Thompson at 26th street (869-6989).

The 1% arbitration went well on February 27th.  We were represented well by Catherine Struzsinsky of AFSCME.  The union called two witnesses, Mike Newman and Peter Schmaltz, who both handled the negotiations at the table during the last contract bargaining.  The County was represented by ASA Greg Vaci and he called one witness, Jonathon Rothstein, who was a special labor counsel to John Stroger at the time.  Due to time constraints, I cannot abstract the hearing here in this post.   But a decison from the arbitrartor is expeceted shortly and I am very optimistic about the outcome and  very satisfied with the testimony heard at the arbitration.

Our local elections are coming up on May 7th, 2009.  But first, there will be a nomination meeting at 3:30 pm on Thursday, April 2, 2009 at the cafeteria on the second floor of the Cook County Criminal Courts Administrations Building located at 2650 S. California.  Come and nominate a candidate of your choosing to run for union office.  You must be present to nominate someone.  The constitution is available on our website as a link under the Stewards and Grievances tab and notices were sent out by U.S. Mail to the address the local has on file.  The notices went out the week of 2/16; if you didn’t get it,  it’s probably an old address we have,  so please update your address in writing with the local.

And yes, it looks like A.C. Cunningham will be Ed Burnette’s successor.  I will have more to say about Judge Cunningham, in a future posting.

In Solidarity,

K.S. Galhotra

Here’s a link to a story about Jeffery Adachi, the  Public Defender of San Fransiscso who recently took on the Mayor, in his own way, after he was stiffed on money to hire additional attorneys to staff new courtrooms to handle minor cases – predominately homeless folks.

And here is a story about the head Public Defender in Frankfort, KY and the litigtion he has initiated to get more funding to handle the caseloads.