Dorothy A. Brown: Candidate Profile

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Note: Answers provided have not been edited for grammar, misspellings or typos. In some instances, candidate claims that could not be immediately verified have been omitted. Jump to:BioQA Bio City: ChicagoWebsite: www.friendsofdorothybrown.orgTwitter: Candidate did not respond.Facebook: Candidate did not respond.Office sought: Cook County Clerk of the Circuit Court Age: 62Family: Dr. Benton T. Cook III â#8364;#8220; husband, Detris Brown â#8364;#8220; daughterOccupation: Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook CountyEducation: I am a Certified Public Accountant, an MBA and an Attorney. My educational background is as follows:- Harvard Business School of Government, 5 day class- Chicago-Kent College of Law, Juris Doctorate, 1995- DePaul University, Master of Business Administration â#8364;#8220; Finance, 1981- Certified Public Accountant, February 1977- Southern University, Bachelor's Degree â#8364;#8220; Accounting/Computer Science, Baton Rouge, LA, 1975Civic involvement: â#8364;cent; Chair â#8364;#8220; Cook County Integrated Criminal Justice Information System Committeeâ#8364;cent; Board Member and Board Secretary â#8364;#8220; COGIC Charities, Incorporated (National) (2002 to Present)â#8364;cent; Board Member (Trustee) â#8364;#8220; King of Glory COGIC (1997 to Present)â#8364;cent; Board Member â#8364;#8220; First Jurisdiction of Illinois, COGIC, Incorporatedâ#8364;cent; Board Member â#8364;#8220; Moriah Community Development Corporationâ#8364;cent; Board Member â#8364;#8220; Citizen's Action Illinois (2003 to Present)â#8364;cent; Past Chair â#8364;#8220; State of Black Chicago Summit, 2013â#8364;cent; Past Chair â#8364;#8220; Illinois Integrated Justice Information Systems Implementation Boardâ#8364;cent; Past Treasurer â#8364;#8220; Working in the School, Chicago Public Schoolsâ#8364;cent; Founder and Chairman â#8364;#8220; Dorothy Brown Scholarship Community Development Fundâ#8364;cent; Past Board Member â#8364;#8220; Jobs for Youth, Chicago â#8364;cent; Past Board Member â#8364;#8220; First Jurisdiction Bible College (1998-2005)â#8364;cent; Past Board Member â#8364;#8220; Illinois CPA Society (2003 â#8364;#8220; 2005) Member â#8364;#8220; NAACPâ#8364;cent; Member â#8364;#8220; Operation PUSHâ#8364;cent; Member â#8364;#8220; National Association of Black Accountantsâ#8364;cent; Member - Chicago Bar Association â#8364;cent; Member - Cook County Bar Association â#8364;cent; Member - Black Women Lawyers Association â#8364;cent; Member - Delta Sigma Theta Sorority â#8364;cent; Member - King of Glory Tabernacle Church of God in ChristElected offices held: Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County, since 2000Questions Answers If you expect to ask for an increase in appropriations during the next four years, what areas would you want to put more money into?I would use new appropriations to fund technology initiatives in the Clerk's Office, which are discussed under the questions below. First, I would continue to raise revenue by improving the efficiency of financial operations in the Clerk's Office. I have successfully:- Introduced credit card payment system for bail bondsâ#8364;#8221;thus reducing jail overcrowding. - Strengthened past-due collections strategies by creating a Financial Compliance Unit and lead the implementation of a new law permitting the use of collection agencies.- Led the passing of a law to permit State Income Tax Refund interception for court fees. Also, I would continue to lobby for fee increases instead of tax increases to fund the court system. The major pieces of legislation that I supported and was enacted by the Illinois General Assembly include:- Late payment penalty in criminal cases: For unpaid criminal fines, the Clerk's Office can charge a late payment of 5% after 30 days, 10% after 60 days and 15% after 90 days.- Use of bail bond money for court costs: Requires that bail bond deposits should be applied toward child support obligations, attorney fees, and court costs first.- Late payment penalty on civil cases: For unpaid civil fees, the Clerk's Office can charge a late payment of 5% after 30 days 10% after 60 days and 15% after 90 days.- Use of third party fund facilitators: Permits the Clerk's Office to enter into agreement with 3rd party fund facilitators, service providers, and/or fund guarantors.List any relations (including those related to you by marriage, and nieces/nephews) who are on the public payroll in Illinois, their jobs and who they work for.Regina King, Administrative Assistant and Byron Arthur, Manager, are relatives of my husband. They both work for the Clerk of the Circuit Court; however, they were employed prior to our marriage.How can the flow of cases through the Cook County court system be speeded up?To improve case flow, I will increase automation capacity, update existing management processes and promote 100% user acceptance of existing e-technology. I will:1. Purchase a state-of-the-art case management system that permits attorneys to file electronic draft orders and motions directly with judges, as well as permits judges to review orders and motions and rule on them electronically. 2. Work with the judiciary to install large screens in courtrooms. This would enable judges, attorneys, parties to cases, and jurors to see electronic images of documents, evidence and exhibits on large screens and computers.3. Expand the Interactive Order System (IOS). Currently in a pilot phase, IOS allows judges to enter court orders directly into a computer to produce dispositions for the Clerk's electronic docket and various official court documents, such as half-sheets, bonding and warrant documents and agency draft orders.4. Work with the judiciary to ensure speedy trials by assigning criminal cases based on the type of crime. For instance, felony murders take a longer time to adjudicate than class 4 felony for marijuana possession. The two types of cases would be assigned to different court rooms to reduce processing time for less serious cases. 5. Continue to press the Illinois Supreme Court to make the electronic record the official court record. This will permit court cases to move forward expeditiously because there would not be any papers to process.6. I will continue promoting 100% user acceptance of existing electronic processes, including e-filing, e-notices, e-plea, e-tickets and e-mitts.Compared to some collar counties, the Cook County court system is antiquated in terms of online access to case files. What do you intend to do about that?Du Page County currently shows electronic images to attorneys, regardless of whether they are attorneys-of-record to a case or not. This is against the current electronic access policy of the Illinois Supreme Court, however, they must have some special exemption from the policy.I already have almost 200 million electronic document images and the related technology that could permit the images to be shown on the internet today, however, in order to do so I need the followings: (1) A local court rule authorizing me to show the images to attorney of record for a case and the party to the case (Currently have a request in to the Chief Judge to issue this rule); and (2) A special exemption from the Electronic Access Policy of the Illinois Supreme Court, to show images to attorneys who are not of record to a case.Please list any elected office you have ever run for and what the result of that election was. Have you ever been appointed to fill an unexpired term?I have been elected Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County four times â#8364;#8220; 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012.I ran for the following offices, but did not win the elections:- Treasurer, City of Chicago, 1999- Mayor, City of Chicago, 2007- President, Cook County Board of Commissioners, 2010What other issues, if any, are important to you as a candidate for this office?I will continue to implement an aggressive community outreach program for the mortgage foreclosure surplus funds and annual Expungement Summit. - About $21 million in mortgage foreclosure surplus funds sit in an interest-bearing account maintained by the Clerk's Office. I directed my technology staff to develop a searchable database of the available surpluses on foreclosed properties, which is available online at www.cookcountyclerkofcourt.com. Since I took office we have disbursed over $16 million out of this fund. A well-funded, community outreach program is needed to notify citizens of these funds.- Since 2005, the Clerk's Office has hosted an annual County-wide Expungement Summit to help eligible individuals clear their criminal records. More than 12,000 ex-offenders have participated in the Summits. The Expungement summits have proven successful and have led to community-based expungement seminars. In 2015, the Clerk's Office co-hosted or participated in expungement seminars in the Little Village neighborhood of Chicago and other locales. I will continue to promote Expungement Summits and seminars.Also, I will continue to urge the Illinois Supreme Court to permit the Clerks of Court of Illinois to show electronic images to attorneys on the internet, regardless of whether it is their case or not. In 2016, with the approval of the Chief Judge, I will make imaged documents available over the internet to attorneys of record and the related parties to a particular case.Please name one current leader who most inspires you.Congressman Danny K. DavisWhat is the biggest lesson you learned at home growing up?The biggest lesson I learned at home growing up was to always tell the truth and to do unto others as you would have them do unto you.If life gave you one do-over, what would you spend it on?If life gave me one do-over, I would spend it on fighting for all youth to have an excellence education regardless of their race, creed, color, ethnic origin, sexual orientation or where they live.What was your favorite subject in school and how did it help you in later life?My favorite subject in school was accounting. It has helped me understand budgeting for the office, and it has helped me be very disciplined, detail and meticulous.If you could give your children only one piece of advice, what would it be?The one piece of advice I would give my child is to always respect yourself, and carry yourself in a respectful manner, and others will also respect you.