CALL IT DELAY OF CASE
Scramble to find outside counsel to represent county board against Evans’ suit forces postponement
The battle over the budget for the Cook County court system will remain in limbo until Tuesday after a hearing in Chief Judge Timothy Evans’ lawsuit against County Board President Toni Preckwinkle was postponed while the state’s attorney’s office seeks out private lawyers to represent the county.
Lawyers for Attorney General LisaMadigan, who represent Evans in a motion to block mass layoffs ordered by Preckwinkle’s office as part of a county budget that was revised to shore up a $ 200 million deficit, were prepared to argue their case Friday at the Daley Center.
But lawyers for State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, who represents the county board, said the case Evans filed late Thursday presents a conflict of interest for the office and still were scrambling to find outside attorneys.
Evans’ lawsuit argues that Preckwinkle’s cuts, including the layoff of 161 court employees, will hobble the county court system and that she overstepped her authority by targeting specific employees rather than letting the chief judge determinewhere to cut.
Judge Mitchell Hoffman, the Lake County jurist appointed by the state Supreme Court to hear the case — because of the conflict stemming from Evans’ status as a plaintiff and his post as Cook County’s top judge — granted the delay but urged both sides to continue budget talks.
‘‘ I’m urging the parties before Tuesday to continue the process’’ of negotiating, Hoffman said. ‘‘ This sort of litigation should be a last resort, not that it’s not appropriate. But it’s clearly appropriate for the negotiations . . . to continue.”
Preckwinkle’s chief spokesman, Frank Shuftan, said the board president would do just that.
‘‘ Recognizing the judge’s encouragement to engage in additional communication with the Office of the Chief Judge, we will continue to make ourselves available to the Chief Judge as we have throughout the budget process,’’ Shuftan wrote in an emailed statement.
Non- union county employees slated for layoffs are due to stop receiving paychecks as soon as next Friday.
The potential legal battle over the court budget is the latest ripple emanating from the repeal of the county’s controversial ‘‘ sweetened beverage tax,’’ which tacked a penny- per- ounce tax on sugary and artificially sweetened drinks.
The so- called ‘‘ soda tax’’ met with fierce opposition from softdrink companies and was, unsurprisingly, wildly unpopular with taxpayers, who balked at paying nearly $ 3 more for a case of Coke.
Preckwinkle had offered up the tax over evenmore unpopular measures, such as boosting the county sales tax, as a way to close a $ 200 million hole in the county budget.
The county board passed the tax last year, but backlash didn’t become overwhelming until the tax started showing up on grocery bills and vending machines in August.
In October, commissioners voted to repeal the tax, leaving it in place until Friday, and Preckwinkle mandated cuts across all county departments.
Evans argues the judicial system was especially hard- hit, absorbing nearly half of the 323 layoffs across all county offices despite representing less than 10 percent of the overall county budget.
Evans and Preckwinkle have been uneasy allies on some issues in recent months, partnering on reforms to the criminal courts, but have been rivals since Preckwinkle beat out Evans more than 20 years ago in a race for a City Council seat.