While observing eviction court proceedings last year, I witnessed a landlord and tenant who both spoke Spanish in the process of negotiating in front of Judge Alison Conlon. A court interpreter stood between them, translating what each said to the other for a patiently attentive Conlon. It seemed that the parties were coming to an agreement, with the landlord leaning toward letting the tenant stay in her apartment a little longer before moving out. Suddenly, the interpreter stopped translating, and turned to Conlon: “Judge, could you please tell them they need to sort this out on their own? I had to be in the courtroom next door for another hearing five minutes ago.”
Facing a $200 million budget shortfall after the repeal of the sweetened beverage tax, Cook County Board president Toni Preckwinkle demanded 10 percent budget cuts across all county agencies last fall, and identified more than 300 positions to be eliminated. More than half of them were in the Office of the Chief Judge, which employs some 2,700 people, including interpreters, probation officers, and forensic experts. In late November Evans sued the county, claiming Preckwinkle didn’t have the authority to tell him who to lay off. Some of the positions targeted by the president fell within the jurisdiction of 13 unions that represent workers in the chief judge’s office. Others were senior, nonunionized management staff.
Pat Milhizer, a spokesman for Evans, said Wednesday that “the furlough plan is needed to ensure that the Office of the Chief Judge has a balanced budget. Chief Judge Timothy C. Evans has urged the unions to embrace the furlough plan so that no employees lose their job, and the justice system can maintain current service levels.”
Milhizer disputed the interpreter’s descriptions of the short staffing at domestic violence courtrooms. “The Domestic Violence Courthouse is staffed with three Spanish interpreters and one Polish interpreter. This is adequate staffing for this courthouse,” he wrote in an e-mail. “Our information is that the lack of availability of an interpreter for a case has been a rare occurrence.”
