Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle Sworn in for Second Term

Ambitious second term agenda includes robust economic development efforts

and continued reform of the county’s criminal justice and public health systems

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle was sworn in for her second term of office today by Chief Judge Timothy Evans. Preckwinkle was reelected to her position after running unopposed in the November 4 election.

In a speech following the ceremony, Preckwinkle highlighted the successes of her first term and outlined an ambitious agenda for the second term.

“In the past four years, we have overwhelmingly passed five budgets, cutting over $465 million in expenditures. We have implemented the first County-wide performance management initiative, creating a culture of data-driven decision-making,” Preckwinkle said. “We have begun laying the foundation for a public health system that is responsible to both patients and taxpayers. And we are shaping a criminal justice system that is more efficient and more responsive to individual circumstances. “

“Cook County is vital to the economic prosperity of our region. In my next term, we will focus on becoming a leader in advocating, organizing, and partnering across the region to promote economic growth,” Preckwinkle continued. “I firmly believe that we can play a role in ending the cross-border competitive, zero-sum game that occurs between municipalities and between counties. In turn, we can begin to unify our region, drive job growth, mobilize support for key industry sectors, and create a brighter, more sustainable future for our children and grandchildren.”

“Thanks to the Affordable Care Act and the creation of CountyCare, the Cook County Health and Hospitals System has more insured patients than uninsured for the first time in its history. The next four years will be about retaining and expanding our patient population. We will no longer be solely a health care system of last resort to those most vulnerable, but a provider of choice for all residents.”

“And we will continue our efforts to implement real, long-term, systemic changes to the County’s criminal justice system that reduce the reliance on pre-trial detention. I want every community in this county to be safe, and we can only do that by freeing up resources that are otherwise tied up in detaining so many accused of non-violent offenses,” said Preckwinkle.

President Preckwinkle pledged to release her full strategic plan for the second term in January.

The 17 members of the Cook County Board of Commissioners, including two new Commissioners, Richard R. Boykin and Louis Arroyo, Jr., were also sworn in by Evans on Monday. The full list of Commissioners is:

Richard R .Boykin - District 1

Robert B. Steele - District 2

Jerry Butler - District 3

Stanley Moore - District 4

Deborah Sims - District 5

Joan Patricia Murphy - District 6

Jesus G. Garcia - District 7

Luis Arroyo, Jr. - District 8

Peter N. Silvestri - District 9

Bridget Gainer - District 10

John P. Daley - District 11

John A. Fritchey - District 12

Larry Suffredin - District 13

Gregg Goslin - District 14

Timothy O. Schneider - District 15

Jeffrey R. Tobolski - District 16

Elizabeth Liz Doody Gorman - District 17