Foxx says state’s attorney office makes strides in hiring
Amid mounting criticism that her office is experiencing major attrition and turnover, Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx on Monday said hiring is on the upswing and that she’ll continue to be aggressive to solve the problem.
Foxx’s comments came during the state’s attorney’s annual budget hearing with the Cook County Board of Commissioners, where she also defended supporting state laws sponsors say will solve long-term inequities in the criminal justice system but opponents claim will lead to more crime across Illinois.
Foxx chastised some of the state’s attorneys in other counties who oppose the so-called “SAFE-T Act,” saying they are spreading “misinformation” about the highly politicized legislation that passed in 2021.
In the middle of her second term as state’s attorney, Foxx has faced criticism on multiple fronts, including that a larger-than-normal number of assistant state’s attorney’s and other staffers have resigned and morale in the office is low.
Foxx blamed many of the resignations as part of the “Great Resignation” that occurred nationwide as a result of the pandemic.
“The state’s attorney’s office has not been spared from the Great Resignation, in which we saw a number of people leave the office and — in fact the field — during the course of the last two years due to the pandemic,” Foxx said.
An attrition analysis from the county’s budget office recorded 237 vacancies in the office, an amount county finance Chairman John Daley, who has been on the board for three decades, said “seems a very high number to me in the years I’ve been on the board.”
Following the hearing, a Foxx spokesperson said that number represented vacancies “over time” and that as of Oct. 1 the office had 166 vacant positions out of the 1,432 positions budgeted for this year. Of 746 budgeted assistant state’s attorney positions, 107 are vacant, Foxx’s office said.
Foxx, who helped craft the SAFE-T Act, also called out fellow state’s attorneys who she said had politicized the legislation. The law passed roughly 18 months ago but only now are prosecutors raising objections, she said.