The Cook County Commission on Human Rights held its regular meeting on July 14, 2026, at 11:06 a.m., adjourning at 12:21 p.m. Chair Sohel presided with a quorum of five members present and three absent. The meeting covered the director’s quarterly report, updates on policy and outreach, approval of the FY2025 annual report, adoption of procedural rule amendments, and approval of multiple investigation extension requests.
I call this meeting to order at 11.06 a.m. roll call, please. I'll just get loud. Commissioner Reverend Tolliver. Commissioner Ratner. Commissioner Isaacs. Present. Commissioner Sherma. Present. Chair Sohel. Chair, you have a quorum of five members present and uh three are absent. Wonderful. Four correction for asked. Any statements from the general public. Thank you so much. Chair takes a motion to approve today's agenda. Thank you. May I have a second, please? Sorry. All those in favor, please say aye. All those who oppose, please say nay. Agenda is approved. Chair changed the motion to approve in January 29th, 2026. We'll move. Yeah, second, please. All those in favor, please say aye. All those opposed, please say nay. Regular meeting opening this are approved and let the record reflect that uh commissioner is also in attendance. Any commissioner updates seeing the director's report. So we can share. So I'll note that uh we did go through the through the first uh full quarter of the year. Um the total cases pending across all stages. This is something that we're adding um so that it's clear kind of all the active cases that we're working on at a given time. So the total for the first quarter is 240. I believe the current as we stand now is around that amount as well. And then uh 260 inquiries, fairly consistent with last the last quarter of fiscal year 25 and 112 new cases or new complaints filed in the first quarter. Note that that is uh 32 more than the last um uh quarter of the fiscal year of 2026 or the last quarter of the fiscal year 2025. Uh investigations closed 80. And of those uh that were closed, 18 were duplicate cases. Uh note that sometimes the duplicates are individuals we notice are filing uh the identical or substantially similar complaints. Um sometimes different investigators are working on those, so sometimes there is work that's being done on them before it's identified as a duplicate. Then I'll note that one of the cases were was resolved after administrative hearing, two cases settled, and the known total uh settlement amount is 700. So when you say two uh staff are working on the same case, do they know they are working on the same sometimes? It's not apparent right away. Um so as they're talking about the cases, uh of course working with the deputy director to my right, uh it becomes apparent that these are the same. And what we've seen as well is that it's not always readily apparent uh that it's a duplicate. Sometimes we see complainants who are filing what appears to be a duplicate, but it's maybe like a different respondent or there's some additional claim, and so there is work involved in identifying. So then do I mean to come to a consensus of what the outcome is? Sure. So generally, and I can let my speak to this a bit more, but in working with Tamaya, she will direct them on kind of the steps to take from there in terms of either sometimes it's a consolidation of a complaint if it's the same claims but two different respondents or three different respondents, uh, or uh dismissal of the duplicate if it's just completely duplicate, dismissal of the duplicate one of the duplicate complaints, and then they proceed with the other.