Caught off guard by a growing budget shortfall, officials are contemplating cuts in services and staff at the Cook County Forest Preserve District in anticipation of a deficit that could be as large as $20 million.
Although several County Board members said it’s too early to predict which services would be affected or how many of the district’s 1,150 employees might be laid off, they said the deficit in their $145 million budget necessitates dramatic steps.
Those officials, including Commissioners John Daley, Bobbie Steele, GreggGoslin and Mike Quigley, said they were worried that the district’s budget problems would tarnish the financial reputation of county government as a whole.
Meanwhile, County Board President John Stroger said he was worried that the problems at the Forest Preserve District could jeopardize the county’s bond rating, which was recently upgraded.
After years of financial surpluses in the late 1980s, the Forest Preserve has been running in the red since 1991, with the deficits pushed over from year to year and growing larger. The cumulative deficit stood at $10 million in 1998 but jumped to $16 million in 1999. The exact amount of the 2000 deficit won’t be known until the Forest Preserve District’s audit for last year is released months from now.
“We’ve got to stop the hemorrhaging,” said Steele, who heads the committee that oversees financial affairs.
Critics say the deficit highlights antiquated accounting and management practices that make it difficult to accurately assess how the agency spends its money.
The Forest Preserve District, which oversees 67,000 acres of preserves, is controlled by the County Board but operates with a separate budget and staff.In relative terms, the district’s budget problems are far more severe than money problems at the county, where Stroger moved to close a projected $20 million deficit in the $2.7 billion spending plan for 2001 by pushing through a new parking tax.
The Forest Preserve District’s $145 million budget for 2001 pales in size compared with the county budget, yet the deficit carried over from last year is about as large as the one that led to the parking tax increase.
How Stroger and the board will erase the red ink at the Forest Preserve District remains unclear. The district is subject to a state-imposed tax cap, limiting the ability of the board to increase property tax levies. Stroger has said he may seek help from the legislature to lighten the district’s financial burden.
Stroger said he is determined to make changes to improve the district’s financial picture and won’t hesitate to remove top personnel, even those with political ties to his 8th Ward Democratic organization.
“It has nothing to do with my political organization,” Stroger said. “I am going to correct that situation notwithstanding my politics.”
To manage the mounting deficits, the district has shifted money between various funds, including money set aside for maintenance, officials said.
Nevertheless, the shortfall has raised serious questions about the financial operation of the agency.
Myer Blank, director of policy analysis for the Civic Federation, points to other area forest preserve districts that clearly detail the costs of their operations in their budgets. Blank said the Lake County Forest Preserve District, for example, knows to the penny what it spends on fertilizer and fungicide for its golf courses.
In the Cook County preserves, officials can only guess at what they are spending, he said.
“It is becoming apparent that there is a need to reduce expenditures,” Blank said. “In order to do that, there needs to be a full explanation of the cost of operations.”
But Blank said determining what the Forest Preserve District actually spends on a given activity is unclear from reviewing its financial statements.
Erma Tranter, executive director of Friends of the Parks, said the audit and lack of detail in the Forest Preserve District’s financial documents are cause for concern.
Tranter questioned how county officials could continue approving larger budgets year after year when the deficit also was growing.
“There must be some checkpoints along the way,” Tranter said.
Commissioners said they are embarrassed.
“We voted on a budget that I thought was balanced,” Daley said. “It’s not a good feeling … I would say there are some serious problems when board members don’t have accurate figures.”
Stroger agreed that the financial management of the Forest Preserve District needs dramatic improvement.
In an uncharacteristic swipe at forest preserve staff members, Stroger said Finance Director Mezell Williams, who is member of Stroger’s ward organization, and General Supt. Joseph Nevius were lax in keeping tabs on the district’s month-by-month financial condition.
“I am prepared to … remove individuals who are in supervisory positions if I think that’s what we need to do,” Stroger said.
Williams could not be reached for comment. Nevius, however, said Stroger “has made it clear” he wants the deficit issue resolved.
Stroger has formed an advisory committee, which includes former banker and longtime political supporter Clark Burrus, to address the agency’s financial woes. But Quigley, who has released his own study on ways to improve the agency’s finances, said the ultimate results might yet be beneficial.
“This can be seen as a time to make positive changes to fulfill the Forest Preserve’s mission because this kind of fiscal threat wakes everybody up,” Quigley said.
