County Board discusses public communication and engagement

The agenda for the Feb. 10 meeting of the Cook County Board of Commissioners was relatively limited, but it included an update from county Administrator Kristen Trebil-Halbersma, summarizing a work session for the commissioners held between regular meetings.

Trebil-Halbersma said that a central topic of conversation for the commissioners was town hall meetings. She said that she anticipates that the county will hold more town hall meetings in the future, and that the recent one focused on SGSDs brought forward the need to communicate with the public on two fronts.

First, Trebil-Halbersma said that the board agreed that bringing the public into conversations early on is important in ensuring that the commissioners understand their constituents’ views from the beginning. Second, she said that the board discussed how best to explain the type of public feedback they were seeking. In this case, that means drawing a clear distinction between a public hearing, where comments are entered into the public record, and a town hall meeting, where the structure is more informal.

“We even talked about perhaps changing it from a town hall to a different a different title, such as a listening session or community feedback or something like that, so that it’s more so that it’s clear that the intent is really to have a discussion with the community about a particular issue, but it’s not a time for formal comment,” she said.

The work session included limited discussion about SGSDs themselves, but after a lively town hall meeting, Commissioner Dave Mills suggested forming a work group that would include members of the public. Trebil-Halbersma said that the public can expect to hear more about that plan during the next Committee of the Whole meeting on Feb. 17.

On the subject of community communication, Trebil-Halbersma said that the board was also exploring ways to change how the commissioners communicate with the public when concerns are expressed. Under the current system, when a resident raises an issue during the public comment period of a board meeting, the commissioners are not allowed to respond directly to that individual at that time.

“The conversation was around, are there ways that we can ensure that as we hear concerns, that we are addressing them?” Trebil-Halbersma said. “So trying to think about, how can we be creative, knowing that the public comment period is not one where it has that back and forth dialog, but there might be other ways that we can ensure that we’re communicating and addressing concerns.”

The work session, according to Trebil-Halbersma, also included information for the board about how the internal communication works when it comes to employee concerns. “We are working on ensuring that our staff are engaged and supported,” she said. “We are addressing concerns as they’re raised, as well.”

WTIP’s Kirsten Wisniewski spoke with Administrator Kristen Trebil-Halbersma. Audio of that interview, which also touches on a plan for the sale of the Superior National Golf Course, and the beginnings of 2027 budgeting, is below.

Kirsten Wisniewski February 13, 2026