Progress Report: First 100 Days of the New Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County
On December 1, 2020, Iris Martinez took office of Clerk of the Cook County Circuit Court. The Clerk plays an essential function as the “official record keeper” for the court, responsible for collecting and disbursing all filing fees and fines, managing legal records for all court divisions, and attending to the public access of those records. Over the years, the Office of the Cook County Circuit Court Clerk has faced numerous scandals and inefficiencies, including a federal corruption probe; repeated missed deadlines for launching a digital filing system; inability to effectively upgrade the case management system in the Criminal Division; and more.
Before Clerk Martinez was elected, Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts, the Chicago Council of Lawyers, and the American Constitution Society hosted a forum to give candidates the ability to explain their plans for addressing these issues. Then, in September 2020, we joined with the Civic Federation to publish New Directions for the Office of the Clerk of the Cook County Circuit Court, whichprovided a specific outline of recommended improvements for Martinez to make in her first 30 days, first 6 months, and first year in office.
Today we release our first progress report, examining the status of operations, technology, and public access and accountability in the first 100 days of Clerk Martinez’s administration.
More than four months after assuming office, our findings show that Clerk Martinez has yet to initiate many of the reforms that our coalition recommended last year. The recommendations spanned multiple areas for reform, including, but not limited to management, technology, transparency, ethics, and public access. We recognize that we provided an aggressive timeline, and that Clerk Martinez inherited many longstanding structural and operational deficiencies, as well as immense challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, we are disappointed by the lack of progress that appears to have been made by the new Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County in her first 100 days.
Specifically, we recommended as an essential first step an office-wide audit to identify opportunities to more efficiently deploy human and technological resources within the Clerk’s Office. The Clerk’s staff stated that they are discussing a scope of work to begin the audit, but have not taken concrete steps toward completing the audit. We also recommended creation of three new positions to increase public accessibility and data transparency — Chief Accessibility Officer, Chief Public Service Officer, and FOIA Officer — but the Clerk’s Office has not created those positions or indicated that it will make improvement of accessibility and transparency a priority.
Then-Senator Martinez campaigned on transparency, introducing a bill in February 2020 to “define the clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County as a public body subject to FOIA.” Unfortunately, after winning the election and assuming office, Clerk Martinez championed a stripped-down version of that bill, which removes FOIA oversight. In addition, the Clerk has not yet agreed to be subject to oversight of the Cook County Office of the Independent Inspector General. Clerk Martinez promised to “make the office more transparent and responsive to public needs.” Her office has a long way to go to achieve those goals.
Our first of three progress reports was delayed by nearly three months due, in part, to delayed responses from the Clerk’s Office; Clerk Martinez has not agreed to meet with us. This experience underscores the need for the reforms we suggested in New Directions and more.
Community access to the information that the Clerk’s Office manages is fundamental, and the continued inefficiencies and lack of transparency from the prior administration show a troublesome trend. In May of 2018, the Chicago Reader documented the human consequences of an inaccessible, unaccountable, and nontransparent Circuit Clerk:
Allen has been waiting for three years to have his day in court with this new evidence after Brown’s staff was unable to locate his full trial record. […] Allen is far from the only [potentially wrongfully-convicted] defendant whose post-conviction proceedings have been stalled because [Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy] Brown, the guardian of more than a million boxes of Cook County criminal and civil case records, has delayed in finding or failed to supply requested files. Currently some 25 other defendants represented by the Appellate Defender’s office are in the same situation, and some delays have dragged on for more than a year.
“Hundreds of Illinois Prisoners Languish Behind Bars Waiting for Dorothy Brown to Do Her Job” by Maya Dukmasova for the Chicago Reader (May 24, 2018)
Five years prior, the Better Government Association reported that the Appellate Defender “had 128 outstanding requests for records with Brown’s office, 18 of which had been out for more than a year.” Though both of these examples preceded Clerk Martinez, they underscore the inefficiency of the Clerk’s Office that Martinez was elected to fix. Reforms, such as a functional case management system, are desperately needed. The Clerk’s Office has not provided any insights on the specific steps that they are taking to fix this issue.
While there are plenty of campaign promises yet to be fulfilled, we do recognize the size of this task and the unique challenges that are present by assuming this position during a global pandemic. In line with our recommendation to “establish an emergency remote operations plan,” we are heartened that the Shakman Compliance Administrator has reported the Clerk’s Office is finalizing a Telework Policy. This policy has not yet been made publicly available, so we have no comment on its substance, but the Clerk’s Office’s willingness to work effectively with the Shakman monitor is a positive sign.
Chicago Appleseed, the Chicago Council of Lawyers, and the Civic Federation will continue to publish progress reports through, at least, the first year of Clerk Martinez’s time in office. Going forward, we hope that Clerk Martinez will recommit to her campaign promises. In particular, we strongly encourage Clerk Martinez to initiate reforms that create a Clerk’s Office that is more transparent, efficient, and accessible to all people. Our report serves as recognition of the work done in the first 100 days — and as a reminder of the work that remains to be completed.
Contributor: Anthony Ciraci is a fourth-year student at Northwestern University studying Political Science with a minor in Economics. As a Chicago Appleseed intern, he works on public policy issue and helps contribute research towards a more equitable legal system