County Administrator talks navigating the end of the budget process

The Cook County Board of Commissioners has just one regular meeting remaining before the end of the year. While they will continue to discuss any number of ongoing county topics, they are also charged with finalizing the 2026 budget.

If the board is unable to agree on a budget during the Dec. 16 meeting, they will have the option to hold a special meeting to finalize the budget. Administrator Kristen Trebil-Halbersma said that she does not anticipate that the board will require any additional meetings.

Since the board first passed a preliminary budget with a levy increase of 7.57% in September, the proposed levy has decreased to 6.79%. Trebil-Halbersma said that a variety of factors have contributed to the decrease, including finalizing an agreement with the employees association on how paid family leave costs would be split, and examining line items in different department budgets to look for areas to cut back. She added that some budget items were able to be shifted to other funding sources that were not levy related.

The board is still looking for budget items that could be adjusted. “The commissioners are continuing to look at the budgets and assess the budgets to see if there are some changes that can be made,” Trebil-Halbersma said. “I have been meeting with a couple of the commissioners per their request to go through different items and have conversations about what perhaps could be changed as we move forward.”

This is Trebil-Halbersma’s first budget as Administrator. Though she has coordinated budget cycles in her previous role in the judicial field, she said that this process with the county has been a learning experience, and she is already looking to next year and how the approach could be adjusted. One item she expressed as a priority is looking at how information is being conveyed to the public.

Though a lot of focus is currently on completing the 2026 budget process, the county continues to work toward addressing the fallout of investigations into the conduct of several Public Health and Human Services employees earlier this year. This has included a search for a new director for the department. Since former Director Alison McIntyre resigned in August, Fiscal Supervisor Plamen Dimitrov has served as interim director. Early on in his tenure he stated that he was not interested in taking the position on permanently.

During the fall the county went through one round of recruitment for a replacement. Though they conducted finalist interviews, ultimately the hiring committee did not offer the position to any of the candidates. Now, after a second round of recruitment, Trebil-Halbersma said that the committee has completed another set of interviews, and she anticipates being able to offer an update on the director hiring process during the week of Dec. 8.

WTIP’s Kirsten Wisniewski spoke with Administrator Kristen Trebil-Halbersma following the Dec. 2 meeting. Audio of that interview is below.

Kirsten Wisniewski December 9, 2025