Cook County Clerk Monica Gordon.

Okay, ready.

Good afternoon, Chairman Daly and members of the Finance Committee who are also my former colleagues.

It's great to be here with all of you today, and I thank you for your continued commitment to our county government.

I am excited to share the progress we have made to strengthen the Cook County Clerk's Office and deliver better service to the residents who rely on us every day.

Over the past year, we have continued to modernize our operations, invest in technology, expand access to our services, and work to build greater public confidence in our agency.

Whether administering secure and accessible elections, preserving vital public records, supporting veterans, or helping residents with property tax matters, our focus remains on delivering efficient and responsive services.

While important work remains ahead, our mid-year budget reflects a strong financial position and demonstrates that we are well prepared to continue moving this office forward with a fiscally responsible approach.

The administration of secure, accessible, and transparent elections remain at the heart of our mission.

And I am proud to report several significant advancements in election innovation and infrastructure.

First and foremost, and thanks to your continued support, we fulfilled our commitment to deploy smart ballot drop boxes at all 55 early voting locations throughout suburban Cook County for the March Gubernatorial Primary Election.

Equipped with built-in surveillance cameras and advanced ballot tracking technology, these devices strengthen ballot security, improve chain of custody monitoring, and provide voters with greater transparency throughout the voting process.

We also achieved another major milestone with the launch of Election Lens, a first of its kind real-time election analytics prep platform delivered in partnership with No Inc., our trusted election technology provider.

Election Lens provides live insight into voter turnout, ballot activity, and polling place operations, allowing our election team to identify emerging needs and respond quickly.

We have another headline coming out of our elections department, and this one involves the monsters of the midway, our beloved Chicago Bears.

I am thrilled to report that our new high school early voting program has exceeded all expectations.

We didn't just score a touchdown, we scored a touchdown and spike the ball.

This past election, we partnered with the Chicago Bears in 24 suburban high schools to bring early voting directly to students.

More than 125 students were trained to serve as election judges.

And in a single day, more than 1,100 students cast their ballots through this innovative program.

But the numbers only tell part of the story.

For many students, this was their very first opportunity to vote.

Inside the same school where they are spent they had spent years learning about history and civics.

They didn't just learn about democracy in a classroom.

They experienced it firsthand by voting and serving their classmates as election judges.

Those are lessons that can inspire a lifetime of civic engagement.

The Chicago Bears have been outstanding partners.

Their executives met with students to discuss discuss civic engagement.

Players recorded videos encouraging first-time voters, and together we created an experience that made partnership meaningful and memorable.

The success of this program has earned national recognition.

While we are grateful for these national honors, the greatest reward is seeing young people discover that their voices matter and that they can help shape the future of their communities.

I hope all of you will consider visiting a school in your district when we conduct the program in the November election.

Now, our vital records, recording operations, and real estate and tax departments are not only our largest customer-facing departments, they are also the primary drivers of revenue for the clerk's office.

As you can see in the mid-year budget review, actual revenue has exceeded budget projections by 4%.

This growth has been driven primarily by increased demand for real ID related documents and vital records needed for school enrollment.

To meet that demand, while continuing to strive for excellent service, we have remained focused on modernizing our systems and technology.

One of our most exciting initiatives is the development of AI-assisted tools that can read handwritten and type request forms, helping automate portions of the document intake process.

These enhancements will accelerate processing for both in-person and mail requests, reduce manual data entry, and shorten processing times.

We are targeting implementation during the first quarter of fiscal year 2027.

In our vital records department, I am pleased to report that we have begun using the Clerk Cashiering System, a cashier and mail tracking platform that was successfully introduced in our recording operations department last year, formerly consider called the Clerk Recording System.

As the system continues to roll out, Vital Records customers will soon be able to track the status of their mail requests online by simply entering their last name or address through our website, providing greater transparency and improved customer service.

What makes this achievement especially noteworthy is that the system was designed and developed entirely in-house by our talented information technology team.

By leveraging the expertise of our own staff, we avoided millions of dollars in outside development costs while creating a solution tailored to the unique needs of our office.

This innovation was also recognized nationally with the NACO Achievement Award last year.

Looking ahead, once the Tyler Technologies implementation is complete, we plan to integrate the system into our real estate and tax services department to further improve processing speed and customer service.

As for the Tyler Technologist Technologies Project, responsibility for managing the clerk's office portion of the implementation is transitioning from the Bureau of Technology to our internal team.

We are engaging a dedicated project manager and reallocating resource to resources to ensure the project remains on schedule and meets our operational goal.

We would keep will continue to keep this board informed of our progress throughout implementation.

And I'll just say this now.

I mean, of course, we have three weeks to do our part.

We have already completed and sent it to the municipality, so we'll just wait for that, and then we'll be able to pass the baton by July 31st.

Our real estate and tax services department has also made significant process with the launch of a secure online portal that enables tax buyers to electronically file take notices.

The application provides a comprehensive end-to-end solution by allowing users to upload data, generate mail merge notices that comply with state law, and receive electronically stamped and indexed documents that are securely stored online.

Following the next property tax sale, we look forward to reporting measurable results that demonstrate how this new system is approving efficiency and streamlining operations.

Community outreach has also remained a major priority.

Through our popular property after death program and many other community events, we have already served more than 6,000 residents this year while averaging eight outreach events per month.

Our veteran services division continues to connect veterans and their families with benefits and resources.

We have also initiated partnerships with the Chicago White Sox and the Chicago Wolves to provide discounted ticket offers to the veterans who are enrolled in our discount card program.

We remain on track to reach 14,000 residents next year through direct engagement, webinars, and continuing education initiatives.

Before I conclude, I want to recognize the dedicated employees of the Cook County Clerk's Office.

I continue to be amazed by their commitment to public service and the energy they bring to the workplace.

One example of that commitment is the work our staff performs behind the scenes to develop training materials, operational manuals, public reports, and other essential resources entirely in-house.

This includes our election judge manuals.

I know you all of you guys have received this.

That is released to the public after each election.

And our continuity of operations plan, our COOP.

By relying on the talent and expertise of our own team, we improve our operations and make responsible use of taxpayer dollars.

While there is still important work ahead, I am proud of what we have accomplished together.

Thanks to the dedication of our employees and the continued partnership of this board, we are well positioned to continue delivering efficient, innovative, and fiscally responsible services to the residents of Cook County.

Thank you, and I'll be happy to answer any questions.

Thank you, Chairman.

Thank you, Clerk Gordon.

It's good to have you back in the this chamber.

And uh it's not that I don't get a chance to text with you probably four times a week.

But I do want to say thank you, and I want to say thank you to your outstanding team for your partnership, um collaboration.

You know, it's been amazing partnering with you day to day relative to the govern governance piece of what we do, whether it's a resolution or an ordinance, uh such as the Jackson Voter Protection Ordinance we're working together on now.

Um it's just fun to try to do, and I don't try to do to do impactful things which will uh be generational in effect, and that's really what your office features each and every day.

Um just looking at some of the team members who are here, Christina.

It's great to work with you closely, uh Cedric always.

Uh I saw Delio hanging out with y'all, so I don't know what that's about, but you know, kind of crazy about him too.

Um Melva, you're amazing.

In fact, Melva represented me at the retirement uh readiness committee meeting at NACO due to a law legal conflict I had.

And I got word from some of those folks who want Melva to be the vice chair of the committee instead of me.

Thanks for doing a great job, Melba.

Um thanks also for uh your partnership, uh Clerk Gordon in the community.

Uh, every year when I do my annual men's and family health fair, you're there uh with property after death, and that's one of the most popular features of that entire day.

And I look forward to having you there the last Thursday of September with me again.

Thanks for the town hall collaboration when we talk about voter rights protection and the maintenance of democracy, something that all of us better take very seriously.

So I just look forward to our continued uh work together.

Um I often call you my sister.

Well, you are pushing me.

You want me to be um you want me to serve on a state and national level as well.

So I'm gonna do what you told me and uh do my very best.

But I appreciate you, you're doing an excellent job.

You got a wonderful team, and um I look forward to continued work closely, closely with your office.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I also appreciate your leadership and mid swordship.

Thank you, Commissioner.

Thanks very much.

Hello, Clerk, how are you?

Hi, hey Christina.

Um I wanted to just check in.

The last time we spoke, um, we spoke about the ability to get tax certificates out of Tyler.

And I know that that it's in some ways a sore point because it's a complicated thing for us to do, and uh your staff was incredibly creative, very innovative, basically created a manual process for us to pull those out because that is how we the land bank not only takes these vacant properties and turns them into things that are you know someone's treasure again, uh, but it also generates income for the county.

We had a discussion earlier in the process around whether or not we keep going at course and speed with the Tyler implementation, or is there some way to think about a workaround?

Because at some point, the the amount of parcels that the land bank needs doesn't really work with the manual process.

It's just gonna, I believe, create problems later because the ability to kind of keep track of all this stuff.

Um what are your thoughts?

And then what do you think the timing is based on your observations and participation in the implementation of a moment in time where we would be able to kind of have a more fully automated tax certificate transfer process?

Um, I know we mentioned talking about developing solutions in-house, and I wanted Carolyn Ella B deputy clerk of real estate to address that.

Good afternoon, commissioners.

Um, Madam Clerk, Deputy Clerk Carroll and Allah B Real Estate and Tax Services Division.

So I'm happy to announce that our in-house IT team has developed a forfeiture calculator for us.

This is going to, in the meantime, um, replace what we were getting from MIS and what we are not getting right now from I from the IPTS system.

Um, once that calculator is developed, um, fully we we're testing, we're in UAT right now, and we're trying to break the system.

And so far, so far, so good, we haven't been able to break it.

Excellent.

So we will be in business.

We are currently now for the land bank.

We are researching the next group that we receive from land bank to make sure uh we issue certificates on properties that have not been uh redeemed.

So we are working on the last group that we received from them.

Great.

Well, listen, Carolyn, I know you've been at the cool face on this, so I really appreciate everything that you have done through all the ups and downs.

Um but I do want to be mindful of a process that isn't overly cumbersome for you guys and actually works and it doesn't create kind of a uh a record keeping nightmare after the fact because the the ability to maintain the ownership on land, we all know how important that is.

Um so if Jessica mentioned earlier that they need about 3,000 parcels, and I know the group we gave before was first a hundred and then uh the others.

Where what do you think the timeline is based on this that we could come to a scenario where those numbers are are doable and not overwhelming for your office to handle on a manual basis?

So we're hoping to be finished.

That's the that's the group we're working on right now.

So we're hoping to have that completed by the end of August.

Okay.

Um that allows us enough time according to you know the the forfeiture uh calculator that we have, the manual parts that we have in place because we're not sure if we will be live in in Tyler yet, but we have everything in place to get the certificates out to the land bank, and so we're working on the 3,000 now.

So I'm hoping once our extenders fin finish, because we're they've been focusing on that piece, we've been focusing on the implementation of Tyler, and um now we're taking on the property man the uh project manager portion of it as well.

So I'm hoping by the end of August we will have everything over to land bank.

So that would be great and keep focused function functioning.

That's amazing.

Because coming on the heels of that is obviously what we're trying to do with the dismantling of the taxone, and I know you know that's coming down the pike.

So thanks very much uh for that work around it.

Hopefully um other departments will follow your lead and take the take the charge.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Good evening, clerk.

Good evening, Commissioner.

Thank you for uh uh coming in and giving our presentation today.

And also thanks for partnering us, partnering with us on the uh death after what's it called again?

Property property after death.

Thank you.

Uh I just have a question about um uh the uh birth and death certificates.

Uh I know your responsibility is to the residents of Cook County.

I got that.

But many of our county residents who live here weren't born here, and getting a birth certificate or a death certificate from other counties around the country is very challenging.

Do you think it's possible at all that your office could somehow put together some initiative or be creative and could help facilitate uh citizens who live here who are seeking to get help in other communities across the country to get birth and death certificates?

Is there any kind of like central database because is is very cumbersome.

So that would mean uh partnership is like you stated with um various offices or databases like a central database.

I'll allow my clerk, deputy clerk a vital record, Sharice Williams take that.

Good afternoon, commissioners.

So um that's a great idea.

Thank you for that.

Um our office is actually um working on what we're calling a one community plan.

So we're actually um thinking on ways how we can partnership with communities um around the country and around um the state and being able to be helpful for residents.

As of right now, if we have residents who are Illinois residents um and out of in other parts of the country, we we have we help them immediately.

So if you're speaking specifically about non-Illinois residents, is that the question, right?

Yeah, yes.

Um so legally we cannot help non-Illinois residents.

We're only responsible for residents born in Cook County.

Um, but we are working on partnerships regarding just bigger access to vital records, period, and that's something that um we're negotiating or we're discussing in our office with kind of a bigger plan on how we can just be helpful partners.

Um I get calls all the time about assistance with death certificates, assistance with yeah.

Well yesterday, I believe we had a call.

Um I think I was with Commissioner Casco when someone asked us about how we can't do that.

Well, death death certificates are are private records, so legally we're only responsible for those who have passed in Cook County.

Okay.

Yeah, yeah, it's it's it's a complicated situation.

Um just like Commissioner Lowry just said, trying to get a deaf certificate from a different county out of state.

It's like pulling teeth.

You have to literally get on a plane and go down there to get it.

So it's just maybe we could work through NACO.

I don't know.

Maybe it's something that we can do across the country to make this an easier transition.

You can lead the effort and be famous.

You can lead it with me.

All right, thank you.

Thank you, Chair, and uh I want to say a special hello to my uh Cook County Board classmate.

And it's always good to see you.

Good to see you.

Awesome commissioner.

And I also want to uh comment on the before I ask my question, I wanted to comment on the uh Commissioner Moore's um uh request because I had a I had an experience a couple of years ago where I needed to get my father's birth certificate from the state of Oklahoma.

My father was born more than 100 years ago in Oklahoma.

Uh it took me I think six months to get a reply from them.

Um they requested that I send them my birth certificate and my father's death certificate.

And it took me more time standing in line in the basement of this building than it did to actually get once I got in the office, got both right away.

Sent them to Oklahoma, and it took them another over a year to send me back his birth certificate.

Uh so I'm uh I am amazed at how efficient efficiently your office works, how helpful your office is.

Um, and it's a perfect example of the the kind of heroin experience you can have trying to get the same sorts of uh um uh documentation from other states.

Uh but also I I just wanted to uh uh ask about, given that ask about um services for people who um can't necessarily come downtown uh to get paperwork.

I know that you have some satellite offices, the one in Rolling Meadows closed long before I think you were in office.

Uh and some of the satellite arrangements you have, like for instance with Paletine Township, you can get some of the basic things done, um, but you still have to come downtown to get a lot of the other things um uh the other types of documentation.

Do you have any plans or is it in your budget somewhere uh to try and expand those services to suburban locations, uh particularly some of the more far fun places that we're getting downtown is a little bit difficult.

Um thank you for breaking that up.

And the thing is at the clerk's office, our goal is to make things more efficient and accessible for all our residents.

Now, when you asked about a budget, that's up to you guys.

But I'm gonna let my deputy clerk also address what we have in a pipeline to try to corner that concern.

Uh thank you, Commissioners.

Umuded to, we actually have been um really trying to address accessibility throughout the county.

So we're looking at various options regarding um similar to like having kiosk um in partnership with um various communities across the county.

Um we're also looking at expanding our services and partners seeing with the different um local registers throughout the county too.

So again, uh it's a bigger plan that we're calling the one county plan um and being able to um uh partner with the different uh local registers so that residents do not have to necessarily travel downtown or travel with one of our four offices to do that.

Um and Christina can also uh our deputy clerk of operations can talk a little more about that piece too.

Yeah, I wanted to um give you an update.

We did look and we are uh working on creating a project where we bring kiosks to different areas based on need.

Um we did uh make a request for capital uh capital improvement.

Um, and that was one of the projects that did not get uh or at least we are looking at uh the reports, and it doesn't look like it would get funded.

But uh we are very crafty and we're looking at doing it in-house.

And we have uh checked with a vendor um that would probably help us uh create the kiosks to lower costs.

We have our like we said, our wonderful IT um team that already stepped up and says we'll create the apps if you tell us what to do.

And what we are one of the hurdles is uh the allowance of printing the uh vital records in place.

So the kiosk would have to have a way to print the record on security paper, and so we we we do have all this plan, and we're hoping that maybe next year we'll bring something to your uh for your approval where we are actually solving this issue and putting kiosks that prints the records right there.

Um and also for customer service.

Uh people will be able to get to the kiosk, press a button, ask a question, scan the recording documents because that is one of the services that they absolutely have to come down to downtown.

But we're we're hoping that we can bring it to the to the resonance uh based on need.

Actually, following up on that, sometimes those the requests uh predate uh the computerization of some of these records.

Do you have any ongoing projects where you're digitizing earlier birth deaths, birth death marriage records?

Yes, actually, we just uh um uh are waiting for our procurement um for your procurement officer and the county to uh approve on uh a change and an order for one of our vendors to then continue digitizing.

Uh we had a contract, we have a contract with them, it ends in 2030.

I think in 2030, and what we did is that we amended the language of the contract to allow for digitizing on the vital record side.

Right now, they're digitizing all of our recordings.

So uh we do want them to digitize, but also we're gonna go one step further, and we're looking into getting those records that are being digitized, analyzed by AI, not generative, just direct analysis for pulling out information so people can actually go and do a search, even for historical uh purposes.

So, yeah, that is also in the pipeline.

We're working on the on the requirements and bringing that to the board for approval.

And kind of while I'm on the subject, are you doing any digitizing of board records?

No, we but we want to include that once we start with vital records, because that a lot of the records are uh in this uh they're they're disintegrating.

We want to we want to start digitizing that first.

And so the next step, the next amendment will be to include the actual cost for next year.

We already asked in the budget uh that we submitted, so we put some money there for that purpose.

Uh, and we are gonna be digitizing.

There's only most of the records for the journals, the board proceedings are already digital, and the ones that are older, we would digitize uh when we amend the uh when they finish with vitals.

Great.

Thank you.

Those are welcome.

Commissioner Stamps.

Thank you.

Hello.

Hi, Commissioner Stamps.

Hello, Clerk.

Did you get any sleeps?

We all just got in from NACO.

Um I just wanted to say first and foremost, congratulations on your award.

Um, I'm very, very proud of you and the work that you've accomplished in such a short amount of time with all of the upgrades uh in your office and all of the accessibility.

I've been able to also um have a property after death and and other things related to elections, as you know, uh you were also very instrumental in helping us to get 300 young people registered to vote and provisos.

So I thank you for so much of your innovation.

What I'm uh the question that I have for you is what have you put in place given the fact that uh the climate in our country right now around elections is unprecedented, and there are people who um because of the behavior of our countrymen and the leadership of this country may even be afraid to go out and cast their vote.

So, what are you putting in place at the actual polling places and what are you advising other um advising um members of Cook County to do in preparation for the upcoming election?

So I know that um thank you for that question, Commissioner Stamps, sister in advocacy.

Um I know that um Commissioner Larry mentioned before uh ordinance um that we're working on, um in terms of voter protection, specifically at the polling places.

Um that may not be in place this upcoming election, but my team um in conjunction with the sheriff's office, and we'll make sure to communicate everything to you guys at the commissioners, but we will have a plan, we have a plan in place to make sure that every voter is allowed to have their voice heard.

Um we also I wanted to point out because I know some people had concerns about um emergency planning, which goes hand in hand with that as well, protection at polls.

So I wanted I mentioned a couple in my speech, but I just want to show it to you.

This is not something we can pass out because um there's some confidential information in here, but um when I tell you that this is something that I've been working on diligently.

Um I've been at conferences and discussions, roundtable discussions, talking with election officials all over the country about how to make sure that we have a plan in place if anything occurs, and we're thinking about ABCDEFG.

This is part of my day-to-day duties is putting together various plans in case anything happens to make sure that we we are everyone is able to vote.

That's um in terms of any type of disaster, weather-related disasters, anything as you stated in this climate, when some people we don't know can have plans to do something unprecedented.

So we have various plans in place to address that.

When it comes to crisis management, my team does not take that for granted.

We want to make sure everyone feels confident to go to that poll, go to that booth, or submit that ballot, that mail-in ballot, whatever whichever way you vote, you will be able to vote.

So yes, we work on that constantly and consistently.

That that may include ice.

Yeah, absolutely.

Okay, absolutely.

Absolutely.

That's that, and I'll tell you what, um, honestly, even though you know we always worked on a coupe um since I've been in this role, but I would say since the beginning of this year, that has been something that we want to prepare for for the primary.

We were prepared for that.

So we're we'll continue preparation.

And to your point, even beyond ice, we don't know what to expect these days.

With everything that's been happening, I'm talking about the removal of the EAC commissioners.

We don't know what's gonna happen, so we have to think in that mind frame.

So, yes, uh, please believe that Shook County Clerk is committed to making sure.

So funny.

Thank you.

Mr.

McCaskill.

Thank you, Chair.

Yes, clerk, again, congratulations on all of the awards.

You have done a an uh an awesome job just being in that presentation.

And then thank you um for being one of the bureau chiefs that is actually um that is actually making a conscious effort to put services in the Southland.

It means a lot.

We see an increase in the number of election judges that are coming out of the Southland that are actually representing the Southland, and we're also this time around, we saw a lot more um people willing and wanting to become deputy registrars.

So that is um a testament to the work that you all are doing, especially on your outreach side, but um most importantly what you're doing with the youth with the defenders of democracy.

Um it is a big deal.

So continue to wear that cape and the children there, the the youth are the future.

So the more we pour into them, the more outcome we're going to receive.

So I appreciate that.

Well, and I'm looking for your partnership within the Southland, especially as I mentioned.

I want all the commissioners to visit a school, one of the schools in their district that's participated in this program when we schedule it early, because they usually do this, they operate the elections on um a day of early voting.

And I'm telling you, this isn't a mock simulation.

This this is the real deal.

They run the elections under supervised staff, of course.

So we want each of you to be a part of that process.

So um, I would love to get with you guys and see what school you can come attend during that time.

Monica, let me thank uh thank you again for the excellent job you've done.

Um needless to say, um family member of my dad was a county clerk.

The challenging times I have seen a lot of elections, but as members outlined, this this is really dangerous times for us.

You actually I have very sensitive sensitive position, protecting the rights of all, and you've done it too much.

Thank you, Chairman.

Your staff to Christina it is Cedric to to add a MOA and all of you and Carolyn from the election, Michael.

Michael, all of you.

The one thing you've done and continue to do.

And you have Delhi all right.

They're welcome.

But the one thing you always do is commend your staff.

You really protect the judges who are out there on election day.

You know the concern.

And as you said, you will protect the rights of all individuals who can come in that community.

Thank you.

And I want to say one more thing.

You heard about the election lands technology.

It's like a real time analytics platform, but that helps us troubleshoot and identify issues that are going on at the polling places.

All 1,430 precincts in real time.

So we're able to see what's going on, and when stuff happens, like concerns of election judges, we're able to see that and act immediately.

We had that hearing, it came out of the agreed appropriate.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank thank you to all the staff, Carolyn, everyone.

Thank you, everybody.