Next steps for county administrator hiring and ongoing projects

Kirsten Wisniewski | March 14, 2025

The Cook County Board of Commissioners held three meetings in as many days this week. On Tuesday, March 11, they held a regular business meeting. That was followed on March 12 by a special meeting during which the board interviewed candidates for the administrator position. Finally, on March 13, they convened another special meeting, during which they voted not to hire either candidate, and to reopen the administrator job posting.

Administrator hiring

Interim Administrator Rowan Watkins told WTIP that there was general alignment between the board, the opinion of the county Management Advisory Team (MAT), and feedback from the public following the interviews. He said, “I think with all three of those groups really being in alignment, it was a pretty clear decision that this is what the stakeholders want us to do.”

The board is seeking to expedite the recruitment process to some extent. They opted to continue working with HR consultants DDA, which allows them to use the same job description and some established framework. They discussed at the March 13 meeting whether the more drawn out timeline of the initial hiring process impacted which candidates stayed in the running, and whether a shorter process could help with candidate retention.

As the board continues to search for a permanent administrator, it will also be moving forward with a different interim administrator. Watkins told the board at the March 13 meeting that he would not be continuing in the role. When he initially agreed to the temporary appointment in October 2024, he expressed that he did not intend to be in the role long-term.

“As they make this transition where they’re going to now push it back out for hire, it feels like a good opportunity and gives the board a good positioning to make alternative arrangements, and so the timing just felt right,” Watkins told WTIP. “I’ve been here for six months. A lot longer than I thought, and that’s fine. It’s been a great experience, nothing but, you know, really good things to say about the staff and the board and working with everybody. But, you know, I have an MIS department that I’m the director of, and that I look forward to getting back to.”

The board will discuss options for filling the interim administrator position at the Committee of the Whole meeting on March 18.

Much of the board’s focus has centered on the administrator job over the past several meetings, but the business meeting on March 11 also included a Capital Improvement Plan Update and a public hearing.

Courthouse basement renovation

Watkins told WTIP that the county was moving forward with designs for renovating a space in the courthouse basement to build additional offices and reconfigure a break room and some storage spaces. He explained that though this particular plan aims to address immediate space needs for county employees, it fits into the greater CIP, but also addresses some deferred maintenance in the space. Watkins said that along with reconfiguring the space, the county will also conduct mold remediation. Mold in the courthouse basement was part of a water damage issue. Watkins said that while the seeping problem was addressed over a year ago, the mold remediation had yet to occur.

While the county considered renting office space to address the space shortage in the short term, ultimately, the decision was made to invest in an existing county space. “It makes more sense for us to reinvest in the infrastructure that we already have, and reconfigure kind of underutilized space,” Watkins said.

Transfer station

The Board of Commissioners has held public hearings during the past two business meetings. Both were regarding the county’s transfer station project, and the plan the board decided on in February for how to close the funding gap to move forward with infrastructure costs across several buildings. The county has partnered with North Shore Waste (NSW) on the project. While NSW will contract with the county to operate the facilities, the buildings will belong to Cook County.

In February, the board landed on a plan to levy a special assessment to property owners in the county, which would go toward the infrastructure costs associated with the project. Though the decision was made over a month ago, the board held public hearings in March to establish ordinances for the fee.

“Part of the need for the ordinance is in relation to securing tax exempt bonds,” Watkins explained. “When there’s a project of this size, it’s important to secure that. And so at the recommendation of the county’s bond attorneys, we moved forward to do that. And so it was really reaffirming what the board had already approved via motion in an ordinance form.”

The assessment is broken down into two categories depending on the property type. Owners of single family residential properties and vacant land will pay $50, and commercial and multi-family property owners will pay $100. At the March 11 meeting, several commissioners sought to clarify for the public what the fees would be going toward, as there was some confusion expressed by members of the public.

The main point to clarify is that the assessment will cover the infrastructure, and not the actual trash collection. NSW will continue to charge a separate fee when residents drop off trash or have it collected from their homes. Trash collection for commercial properties remains at a different rate than individual customers.

WTIP’s Kirsten Wisniewski spoke with Interim Administrator Rowan Watkins for updates on the county. Audio of that interview is below.