How Cook County Created a $253 Million Surplus: Inside the Staffing Crisis, Delayed Pay, and Institutional Alignment That Broke the Workforce

THE SURPLUS BUILT ON ABSENCE

Cook County’s $253.1 million surplus was not produced by efficiency or reform. It emerged from something far more structural, predictable, and financially advantageous:

The systematic disappearance of people.

Not the disappearance of spending.

Not the disappearance of administrative incompetence.

Not the disappearance of inefficiency.

Not the disappearance of waste.

The disappearance of the workforce itself.

Every dollar in the surplus traces back to:

•   positions funded but never filled,

•   wages owed but never paid or paid on time,

•   injuries sustained but never compensated promptly,

•   tiers covered by one officer where three to six are required,

•   entire divisions operating outside PREA compliance with no consequence.

Illinois statute 55 ILCS 5/6-1009 states that any funds “not required for immediate disbursement” may be invested.

This means:

•   Vacancies generate investment capital.

•   Delayed pay generates investment capital.

•   Stalled IOD benefits generate investment capital.

•   Payroll corrections generate investment capital.

•   Step delays generate investment capital.

This created the central equation of this report:

Vacancies → Idle Salaries → Investable Funds → Surplus

Officials celebrated “fiscal stability.”

Inside the jail, officers absorbed collapse

No one at the top - not the Sheriff, not the Board, not the Treasurer, not the oversight bodies, and not the union - intervened. Because the system rewards them when the workforce suffers.

Tens of millions in unpaid wages effectively operated as idle balances that, under 55 ILCS 5/6-1009, flowed into the Treasurer’s investment pool, where the County earned $72.4 million in investment income.

This is not about numbers.

It is about incentives - incentives that turned the absence of workers into a revenue engine.

C4 is publishing this because silence is complicity.

THE SURPLUS MACHINE - HOW MISSING OFFICERS BECOME MONEY

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The County’s own Annual Comprehensive Financial Report (ACFR) confirms the scale:

“Personnel expenditures were lower than budget by $246.9 million.”(ACFR FY2024, official language and page confirmed)

A quarter-billion in labor appropriations never reached correctional officers, despite being fully budgeted and authorized.

1. Authorized vs. Actual Staffing

FY2025 budget documents authorize 2,699 correctional officer positions.

Based on C4’s analysis of internal staffing records, schedule data, and vacancy logs, only about 2,051 were filled.

Meaning: 648 salary lines were funded but unused.

Each empty post becomes a financial instrument:

•   salary funded but unpaid.

•   benefits funded but unpaid.

•   pension contributions budgeted but unissued.

•   all converted into idle cash under 55 ILCS 5/6-1009.

2. Vacancy as Investment Capital

Under 55 ILCS 5/6-1009: “The county treasurer may invest any funds not required for immediate disbursement.”

Vacant salaries are not required for immediate disbursement.

Thus: vacancies become investable cash.

3. PREA Violations Become Budget Relief

28 C.F.R. §115.13 requires adequate staffing.

Cook County fails to meet this requirement on a routine, ongoing basis.

But:

•   PREA has no financial penalties

•   understaffing reduces expenditures.

•   reduced expenditures expand the surplus.

4. Board Rules Reward Underspending

Board Rule V §2(f) mandates hearings for overspending.

There is no requirement for hearings when underspending is severe or dangerous.

Overspend → punishment

Underspend → praise

Understaff the jail → surplus

5. The Machine Summarized

Cook County built a fiscal engine on:

1. Positions it has no incentive to fill

2. Wages it has no incentive to pay on time

3. Oversight rules that reward underspending

4. Statutes that convert idle funds into profit

This is the architecture behind the $253.1 million surplus.

ATTRITION ECONOMICS — WHEN LOSS CREATES REVENUE

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FOIA data for 2024–2025 revealed:

•   118 resignations

•   512 IOD claims

•   493 batteries on staff

Every one of these events leads to:

•   a salary line not disbursed,

•   benefits not paid,

•   contributions not issued,

•   investment capital increasing.

1. Step Delays — A Built-In Annual Withholding

CBA Article 6 §2 states: “Employees shall advance to the next step on the first full pay period following their anniversary date.”

This “following pay period” delays each raise by two weeks.

Two weeks × 25-year career = 50 weeks of pay withheld.

2. Roll Call Theft - 60 Hours at Half Pay

15 minutes/day × 5 days × 52 weeks = 60 hours.

Rookie pay should total $1,983.60 annually.  The stipend is roughly $1,000. The County retains the difference.

3. Payroll Errors Always Run One Direction

The “errors” officers report:

•   incorrect steps

•   incorrect rates

•   missing retro

•   delays “next cycle”

•   wrong anniversary dates

These errors never benefit the worker and always create idle funds.

4. IOD Delays - Financial Suffering as a Mechanism

IOD delays produce:

•   weeks without checks

•   stalled medical approvals

•   IME disputes

•   financial crises

Unissued wages remain investable.

5. Resignations Increase Surplus

When officers resign:

•   salary ceases

•   benefits vanish

•   vacancy remains

•   budget obligation decreases

•   surplus increases

Attrition is not a crisis.

It is revenue.

WHO PROFITS — FOLLOW THE MONEY UPWARD

1. Treasurer’s Office (Maria Pappas)

The Treasurer’s Office institutionally benefits from idle funds because 55 ILCS 5/6-1009 requires that all unused balances be invested.

According to the County’s ACFR FY2024, this framework helped produce approximately $72.4 million in investment income.

2. Sheriff Tom Dart

Large surpluses allow the Sheriff to claim:

•   fiscal discipline

•   strong financial management

•   budget stability

The institution benefits politically while officers suffer operational collapse.

While officers collapse, the County’s financial narrative strengthens Sheriff Dart’s political position.

3. The Director Class

Cook County employs 100+ directors costing taxpayers $13 million annually.

They face:

•   no payroll delays

•   no dangerous posts

•   no PREA exposure

•   no understaffing

The frontline collapses. Directors remain insulated.

The frontline breaks.

Directors continue to be protected from the consequences of that collapse.

4. Teamsters Local 700 Leadership

IRS Form 990 shows:

•   $8.3 million in revenue

•   only $143K used for member benefits

CCDOC officers contribute an estimated $3 million yearly.

This aligns leadership toward stability over confrontation.

5. Pension System

Vacancies reduce:

•   total payroll

•   employer contributions

•   long-term liabilities

Short-term financial gain, long-term pension decline.

6. OIIG

Under §2-284, OIIG has broad investigative power.

Yet it has not:

•   audited staffing

•   audited payroll failures

•   audited director inflation

•   audited IOD delay

Its inactivity materially benefits the County’s surplus structure.

7. Operation Greylord — Historical Context

The FBI’s Operation Greylord exposed:

•   systemic corruption

•   multi-agency alignment

•   embedded misconduct

•   political protection networks

Cook County has a history of institutional alignment that rewards silence.

The surplus system fits that history.

THE SILENCE OF OVERSIGHT - ALIGNMENT, NOT ACCOUNTABILITY

Oversight bodies appear neutral.

In reality, they are structurally aligned with the surplus model.

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1. OIIG - Authorized but Inactive

OIIG’s statutory mandate includes waste, mismanagement, and fraud.

Yet no investigations exist on:

•   648 vacancies

•   PREA staffing failures

•   payroll delays

•   director bloat

•   budget patterns

2. PREA — Violated Routinely

28 C.F.R. §115.13 requires adequate staffing.

Conditions reported by officers and reflected in internal schedules indicate that these staffing requirements are routinely not met.

28 C.F.R. §115.13 has no financial penalty.

Noncompliance reduces expenditure.

Reduced expenditure increases surplus.

3. Statutory Gaps

The current legal and contractual framework allows the County to:

•   rely on 55 ILCS 5/6-1001 for broad flexibility

•   invest all idle funds under 55 ILCS 5/6-1009

•   use CBA step delays

•   operate within Wage Act timing gaps

•   apply Board Rule V §2(f) in a way that rewards underspending

The system is designed to be unjust without being illegal.

4.  Risk Management

Delays produce financial benefits.

This is structural, not accidental.

5. Board Rules

Overspend → hearings

Underspend → praise

The County is rewarded for harming the workforce.

CORRUPTION BY INCENTIVE? - A SYSTEM THAT REWARDS HARM

No direct accusations are needed.

The system itself is the indictment.

It demonstrates corruption by structural incentive.

When:

•   idle wages grow investments,

•   underspending increases praise,

•   surpluses increase political capital,

•   union leadership gains stability,

•   oversight avoids conflict,

•   vacancies generate cash

The outcome is not random; it is the foreseeable result of these incentives.

1. South Side Weekly

Their investigation documented:

•   retaliation

•   suppression

•   administrative misconduct

•   whistleblower targeting

•   abuse of authority

This culture is the soil in which the surplus machine grows.

2. Operation Greylord

Greylord proved:

•   corruption can be normalized

•   silence can be coordinated

•   misconduct can last decades

Cook County has not escaped this legacy.

3. Teamsters Local 700

Financial incentives run opposite worker advocacy.

Local 700 benefits more from stability than advocacy.

Thus, officers are unprotected.

4. The System

This is not traditional bribery.

It is, at minimum, a system whose incentives make it functionally indistinguishable from corruption for the people living inside it.

THE HUMAN EQUATION - THE REAL COST OF THE SURPLUS

While the County celebrates fiscal health, officers endure:

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1. Working Alone in Dangerous Units

One officer covering:

•   three tiers

•   100+ detainees

•   no secure barriers

•   no backup

This configuration is inconsistent with PREA’s staffing standards and basic human safety.

2. Psychological Collapse

Officers face:

•   trauma

•   hypervigilance

•   burnout

•   moral injury

•   anxiety

•   sleep disruption

3. Families Pay the Price

Delayed wages cause:

•   rent delays

•   missed bills

•   emotional strain

•   debt

•   instability

4. Detainees Become Collateral Damage

Understaffing increases:

•   fights/extortion

•   negligence

•   suicides

•   civil-rights violations

5. Taxpayers Unknowingly Fund Collapse

648 phantom positions = millions wasted on paper staffing that does not exist.

WHAT C4 DEMANDS - STRUCTURAL REFORM

C4 proposes the following reforms:

1. Quarterly staffing audits from oversight completely independent of Cook County

2. End step delays

3. Full pay for roll call

4. Interest restitution for delayed pay

5. Director reduction and reinvestment

6. Federal whistleblower channels

7. Mandatory PREA staffing compliance

8. CRIPA review under 42 U.S.C. §1997

9. Eliminate the surplus structure built on absence

FINAL DECLARATION -  THE SURPLUS IS A WARNING

Cook County’s surplus was not created through innovation. Under the current leadership - including Sheriff Tom Dart, Board President Toni Preckwinkle, Budget Director Tara Stamps, and Treasurer Maria Pappas - it has been driven by one unmistakable equation:

Vacancies → Idle Salaries → Investable Cash → Surplus.

This is not achievement.

It is warning.

A warning that the County can profit when its workforce suffers.

A warning that silence from Teamsters Local 700, OIIG, the Board, and the Sheriff’s Office sustains the system.

A warning that “balanced budgets” are being built on the collapse of the people inside the jail.

C4 will not allow this structure to hide behind another press release.

Not one more year of revenue built on the absence of officers.

Not one more surplus built on delayed pay.

Not one more institutional celebration built on human suffering.

This report is not a request.

It is notice.

_Citations

_{(All links verified as of November 2025)}

_{STATUTORY LAW}

_{55 ILCS 5/6-1001 - County Budget Act}

_{https://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/fulltext.asp?DocName=055000050K6-1001}

_{55 ILCS 5/6-1009 - Investment of County Funds}

_{https://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/fulltext.asp?DocName=055000050K6-1009}

_{820 ILCS 115/3 - Illinois Wage Payment and Collection Act}

_{https://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/fulltext.asp?DocName=082000150K3}

_{28 C.F.R. §115.13 - PREA Staffing Requirements}

_{https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-28/part-115/section-115.13}

_{42 U.S.C. §1997 - Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act (CRIPA)}

_{https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title42-section1997&num=0&edition=preli}

_{COOK COUNTY GOVERNMENT & BUDGET DATA}

_{Cook County Annual Comprehensive Financial Report (ACFR) FY2024}

_{https://www.cookcountyil.gov/service/annual-comprehensive-financial-report}

_{Cook County FY2025 Budget (Volume II – Public Safety)}

_{https://www.cookcountyil.gov/budget}

_{Cook County Code §2-284 - Office of the Independent Inspector General (OIIG)}

_{https://library.municode.com/il/cook_county/codes/code_of_ordinances?nodeId=TIT2ADPE_CH2AD_ARTIVOFIN_DIV2OOININGE}

_{Cook County Board Rules - Rule V §2(f) (Overspending Hearings)}

_{The rulebook is embedded inside the legislative portal here:}

_{https://cook-county.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=6265611&GUID=8B877657-7A08-4F88-B28F-B87C6C43D601}

_{(This is the County’s official portal. It links directly to the governing Board Rules.)}

_{UNION & FINANCIAL DATA}

_{Teamsters Local 700 - IRS Form 990 (2023)}

_{https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/364477244}

_{Teamsters Local 700 - Contract Portal (Archive of all CBAs)}

_{https://teamsterslocal700.com/contracts}

_{OVERSIGHT & INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM}

_{South Side Weekly - Sheriff Retaliation Investigation (2024)}

_{https://southsideweekly.com/lawsuit-accuses-sheriff-of-retaliation-over-fraud-investigation/}

_{FBI - Operation Greylord (Official Case Archive)}

_{https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/operation-greylord}

_{Civic Federation - Cook County Budget Analysis}

_{https://www.civicfed.org/civic-federation}

_{Fitch Ratings - Cook County 2025 Credit Review}

_{https://www.fitchratings.com}

_{C4 PUBLICATIONS REFERENCED}

_{C4 Homepage}

_{https://www.c4cookcounty.org/}

_{Broken on the Job - Injured Officer Investigation}

_{https://www.c4cookcounty.org/blog/broken-on-the-job-silenced-on-the-record-how-cook_county_treats_injured-officers}

_{Corruption Exposed - C4 Investigation}

_{https://www.c4cookcounty.org/blog/corruption-exposed}

_{Cross-Watching Crisis - Staffing Failures at Cook County Jail}

_{https://www.c4cookcounty.org/blog/sheriff-tom-dart-and-the-cook_county-jail-cross-watching-crisis}

_{FOIA PORTALS}

_{Cook County Sheriff’s Office (CCSO) FOIA Portal}

_{https://ccso.gov/foia}

_{Cook County Government FOIA Portal}

_{https://www.cookcountyil.gov/service/foia-requests}

© 2025 Cook County Corrections Coalition (C4)

Authored by Jabril Gushiniere

All Rights Reserved

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