As this Crain’s story details, Cook County is putting in place a plan “to improve access to medical care for the needy while curbing massive financial losses.”

I strong support these proposed changes — and they are the very same measures for which I have advocated since 2005.

The story details the proposals:

The proposal calls for scaling back expensive inpatient care in favor of expanding the county’s network of clinics and specialty-care sites. It forecasts that visits to county outpatient facilities will increase more than 60% by 2015 — to 1 million patient visits from about 600,000 last year.

Two of the county’s three hospitals, both lightly used money-losers, would be converted to treat patients on an outpatient basis, helping ease current months-long waits for colonoscopies, surgeries and other treatments.

And the savings from ending those in-patient services — more than $70 million a year — would be plowed back into expanding tough-to-find specialties and primary care countywide.

I will continue to keep you updated as this plan is put in place. You can rest assured I will do everything in my power to continue fighting for access to quality, affordable health care from the county health system — while ensuring that your tax dollars are being spent responsibly by county health officials.

Last week, we passed an ordinance on the County Board to place a hiring freeze on the troubled Stroger Administration.

This move was necessary in the wake of numerous reports of questionable — and, perhaps, illegal — expenditures by the lame-duck administration.  These include purchases of new furniture for Todd Stroger’s office, pay raises given to several staffers, and a questionable expenditure given to a firm owned by Todd’s deputy chief of staff.

In a direct insult to the county taxpayers — Todd Stroger vetoed the hiring freeze ordinance we passed last week.

This is especially egregious, considering that some of the expenditures made by the Stroger administration may have violated the law.  In fact, Todd Stroger himself may have admitted as such in a Fox Chicago Sunday interview over the weekend.  This article in yesterday’s PrairieStater.com details Todd’s comments in further detail.

It is obvious that Todd Stroger will continue to defiantly thumb his nose at the County Board and the Cook County taxpayers.  He lost the Primary Election, his term is finished in November, and he apparently feels he can do whatever he wants during the final months of his term.

What further measures do you think the County Board should take to reign in Todd Stroger?  Please vote in our quick survey below:

In addition to the vigorous debate on the two issues I lay out in this video, following are some other points from yesterday’s Cook County Board meeting:

• I voted against retaining a Washington, DC-based $125K/year lobbyist, Mr Gibbs of Anable LLC, who for the last year has not sent any written report to Cook County or any of its agents regarding his activities or accomplishments. In fact, since he started about three years ago, Mr Gibbs has never sent the county any written reports. What exactly has he done to earn his money? I voted no on his contract renewal.   It was the only no vote.

• The Cook County Board President nominated a 27-year-old to be the new county Department of Revenue Director. She started at Cook County as an intern in 2002 while still at Loyola University, while her father worked at the Stroger Hospital. She never had any other government or private sector experience. Now, she is a $125K/year Director of Revenue. I voted no on her confirmation.

The Chicago media this week is a-flutter about news that now-Congressman Mike Quigley has called for an investigation of the misuse of funds for the troubled “Project Shield” homeland security program.

It’s about time.

I have been calling for such an investigation for years.

Mark Suppelsa (who was then at Fox Chicago News) had this great story from August 2007 (also embedded at the end of this post) about the massive problems with the Project Shield program.  After that story, I called for a federal investigation with formal request letters to every member of the Cook County congressional delegation.

Not a single member of Congress (or fellow commissioner) acted.

Then we had this May 2008 Crain’s Chicago Business story in which I am quoted about the many problems with the program.

Then there’s this CBS 2 Chicago story from November 2008 in which I’m quoted as saying:

“It’s very much a program that’s fraught with individuals who have taken advantage of the unregulated pot of cash.”

I proposed a measure to cut off funding to this troubled project.  My fellow commissioners did not support it.

Our efforts to get numerous Freedom of Information Act requests on the project were rebuffed.

Better late than never.  I hope now that this misuse of tax dollars — dollars that are meant to protect our citizens from a terrorist attack — is fully investigated.

The taxpayers deserved a full investigation years ago when we first brought this issue to light.  How much of their money has been wasted since that time?

Please watch the August 2007 Fox Chicago News report below:

The General Assembly’s Web site shows two proposals filed under Walker’s name in recent days. Walker said one would directly overturn the 1 percentage point sales tax increase approved by the Cook County Board to fill budget holes without more severe cuts, an increase that made the collective tax rate the highest in the country. The second, Walker said, would make it easier to overturn the county board president’s veto.

I support these efforts because they would mean tax relief for Cook County taxpayers.  I am simultaneously pushing my own ordinance to require a 2/3 supermajority of County Board members to pass any future tax hikes — because, unlike now, it should be more difficult for the politicians to raise your taxes than to repeal them.

The Chicago Tribune has a very insightful editorial this morning that raises some very serious questions about the ongoing investigation into the Stroger Administration:

Only the foolhardy think they can guess precisely why prosecutors resort to subpoenas in any given case. In this case, though, we have an excellent clue: The Tribune’s Hal Dardick and Matt Walberg report that Cook County prosecutors have subpoenaed county financial records in what sources tell the newspaper is a widening criminal investigation. The probe began with questions about Stroger’s 2008 hiring — and oddly rapid promotion — of steakhouse busboy Tony Cole: You’ll recall that Cole’s county salary shot from $48,000 to $61,000 in only four months.

And the Tribune editorial board rightly scolds those commissioners who previously thwarted attempts to look into this matter further:

The deeper Schneider and board members Larry Suffredin and Tony Peraica probed for explanations, the more Finance Chairman John Daley and other Democratic regulars tried to thwart them. Stroger apologists Joan Patricia Murphy and Deborah Sims even tried in desperation to adjourn the April 23 meeting rather than have appropriate questioning continue.

Now, as the county’s independent auditing firm alerts us that county audit records have been subpoenaed as part of a State’s Attorney investigation — we still get little information from the Stroger Administration.

No surprise from an operation that has operated in secret and fought transparency since it took office back in 2006.

We don’t know the full extent of this investigation, but the mere news of it is quite troubling — especially since it involves county financial records.  I have long raised questions about this administration’s handling of budgetary matters, specifically related to waste and fraud within county government.  This investigation obviously does not allay these concerns, and it should be of extreme concern to the Cook County taxpayers — who right now are paying exorbitant taxes to fill the county coffers that are controlled by this administration.

As President Stroger continues his scare tactics — threatening to close hospitals and health clinics — in order to justify his sales tax hike, we see the State’s Attorney investigating this administration’s handling of our funds.  Doesn’t instill must confidence, does it?

We need answers — and we need them now.  Hopefully, the State’s Attorney will produce some soon.