Cook County Public Defenders Association

By the Union’s count, the Public Defender Office is down to 434 frontline attorneys. This is way below the 467 attorneys provided for in the 2007 county budget. Through layoffs, attrition, and members taking advantage of the county pension buyout, our staffing levels are too low.

The Union is not waiting for this situation to rectify itself. This week, members of the Union board will be attending meetings to try to get some action. We will seek to have the remaining attorneys on layoff brought back as soon as possible, and will also seek to have our Office immediately begin hiring additional attorneys to bolster our numbers. Stay tuned for more information.

The union is hosting a reception from 6pm to 7:30 pm following the first day of the two day mandatory MCLE for attorneys in the Office of the Cook County Public Defender.  The seminar will take place on September 6th and 7th  at the Lakeside Center of McCormick Place and is mandatory for attorneys who have a last name between A-M.

Four bartenders will be serving cocktails, wine, beer, bottled water and soft drinks or juice for your pleasure.  Each full share attendee will receive  two tickets that they can present to the bartenders for their drink of choice.  The bartenders are also operating a cash bar for those who give away their tickets or use them up.  Drink responsibly and enjoy the reception!

The union is pleased to inform the membership that the following laid off attorneys are being notified to present themselves for a physical exam so they can return to work and be recalled from layoff.  Those union members are:

Mychal Luther,

Christopher Nathan,

Loveleen Ahuja,

Roseanne Scarimbolo,

Takanya Nixon,

Jerry Byerly, and

Dolorita May.

If your name appears above and you have not been notified, please contact Mary Maldonado immediately in personnel. 

We expect the attorneys who pass the physical to start back to work on August 20, 2007.

It makes sense that both prosecutors and public defenders are paid the same for what they do. In the years since we gained a collective bargaining agreement, public defenders have seen their pay incease and surpass that of their counterparts due primarily to excellent negotiation by AFSCME and sacrifices and hard work by our members. And, in the past, prosecutors would get the same cost of living and health care that we negotiated at the table.

The last contract we negotiated gave us around 12.75% over four years and a $500 bonus, but the wage increases were not given to either management in our office or the state’s attorneys. This was something we as a union did not expect but reminded us of the benefits of being organized.

Now the prosecutors want parity and should get it. So should the supervisors in our office.  The prosecutors claim they were promised 12.75% during the budget talks and now the promise has been broken by the board. (Remember how President Stroger wanted to take away 4% of our salary with furlough days and we had to go to the Circuit Court to get them to back off)? The board says that they couldn’t deliver because property at Oak Forest hospital hasn’t been sold to fund it. So yesterday, July 10th, hundreds of prosecutors did a job action and flooded the county board meeting with signs in their hand that said “12.75%”. They even cheered when their boss, Dick Devine, walked in to advocate for parity. The same Devine who for years has said that unionization for ASAs was “unconstitutional”.

Here’s our message to Cook County Prosecutors:

Get a union.

You want parity? Organize and pay your dues.  And don’t go shooting yourself in the foot by going to the press and saying it would be illegal for you to form a union.

Nobody considers the Will County or Rock Island County State’s Attorneys to be a bunch of outlaws- yet they are unionized. The union contract for the Will County ASAs even gives them a $750 annual clothing allowance!

The time is right to get the Cook County Board to pass an ordinance that allows you to unionize.  Get an ordinance. Get respect and you will have parity. And get your boss, Dick Devine, to back your efforts to organize. When he does, maybe assistant public defenders will applaud him too.

So forget about “promises” from the board. Unless of course you just want the money and not real rights for ASAs. Rights that prevent your wing commanders from bricking prosecutors who make jokes about bosses at retirement parties, firing career prosecutors because they are seen as “broken toys” who are taking off too much family time, and promoting favorites with impunity. Maybe prosecutors would rather forget the idea of a union and just continue trying to ride on the coattails of assistant public defenders. Just remember the old saying, “Union begins with U” and the choice is yours.

WBEZ investigative reporter, Ben Calhoun, continues with his series on the effects of the county budget cuts. Today, the piece was about the public defender’s office. Check out the podcast on the WBEZ website.

The AFL-CIO is having a presidential candidate forum on Tuesday, August 7, 2007 at McCormick Place West.  Tickets are free but are going fast.  If you would like to attend, please call brother Paul Bellendir (HTF) at 773 869-6310 and leave your name, phone number, and email address on his voicemail.  The deadline is July 9, 2007 so please pick up the phone and call.  We would like at least fifty members to attend this forum as there is space for as many as 7000 attendees.  You cannot attend the event without a ticket.

The local has chosen Eaglewood Golf Course as the site for its 2007 annual golf outing.  As usual, the union pays for your round of golf, a cart, refreshments, dinner and door prizes – and you enjoy a day off from a hard day’s work at the office/court.  Members only.  All guests should write a check to either AFSCME LOCAL 3315 or the Jack Carey Scholarship Fund in the amount of $60.00 (sixty dollars).  No fair share members allowed. Call APD George Grzeca at 773 869-5072 for a tee time. For more information, go to their website at http://www.eaglewoodresort.com/default_.asp .

        The union boat cruise has been shipwrecked

The local sponsored Rereational 12 inch softball team, Public Offenders, starts its season on Wednesday, June 13 at Roberto Clemente H.S., 1147 N. Western.  The game against the Thunderbunnines begins at 9:30 pm and is organized by steward Kevin Ochalla (FTD).   Kevin can be reached at 773 869-3217 for more information. 

The schedule for the rest of the season is as follows:

6/20   BK Bombers v. Public Offenders  9:30 pm

6/27   Public Offenders v. Hurricanes 87:30 pm**

7/11   Public Offenders v. Denim Venom 78:30 pm**

7/18   Public Offenders v. Tech Lighting 7:30 pm

7/25    INDY team #7 v. Public Offenders  6:30 pm

8/1     Fired Up v. Public Offenders 6:30pm

So please, be sure to bring out your family and friends to show your support for our team.  See you on wednesdays at Clemnte H.S.!  **Stanton Park, 618 W. Scott.

As many of you know by now, Todd Stroger made some secret and inappropriate moves with the Public Defender budget: he hired another high-paid “advisor” and hid the salary on the Public Defender budget.  At a time when assistant public defenders have been laid off due to budget reductions, this move is unacceptable.

The union has been in contact with County Commissioners about this situation, and some have expressed outrage about this budget slight-of-hand.  Our hope is that the Commissioners see Stroger’s latest move, and many others like it, as a improper disregard for the budget process and the will of the County Board.  We are trying to keep Commissioners’ attention on this issue and on the plight of our office as a result of the layoffs.  We have sent a Letter to Commissioners seeking action.  If anything good comes of this, we will let you know.