Cook County Circuit Court clerk reports progress on transparency promises
New Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Mariyana Spyropoulos released a progress report Monday claiming her team is already digging out from a backlog of reports, unfiled civil court documents and 'serious financial management issues.'
Spyropoulos campaigned on running a tighter ship than her predecessors, promising better transparency around court operations and stricter ethics enforcement. She used the milestone of her first 100 business days in office to make the case she is fixing things.
The office, which manages paperwork and operations for all of the county's courts, has long suffered from a reputation for inefficiency and mixing politics with government work, and it's fairly typical for a new officeholder to point to the shortcomings of those who held it before while seeking to make good on pledges.
In her first few months, Spyropoulos told reporters her office organized 'over 200 boxes of unfiled civil court documents' and found fines and fees that were owed by defendants but weren't sent to collections. She hired an accounting firm to do an internal audit to make 'sure that our financial situation is sound' and already 'let go a certain amount of people' who 'did not have the experience necessary to handle financial transactions.'
Required reporting to state agencies also lapsed, she said. The office caught up on traffic cases that should have been sent to the secretary of state for driver's license suspensions or revocations as well as expungements that should have been forwarded to law enforcement so crimes could be wiped from records, Spyropoulos said.
The office also launched its first data dashboard with case initiation data dating back to 2020 and appointed a public access director to manage records access requests, strengthen its reporting to other agencies and identify 'opportunities to proactively release data.'
Unlike other government offices, the courts — including the clerk's offices — are not required to release records about its operations under the state's Freedom of Information Act. Spyropoulos, however, promised to push for a state law change to bring the office under FOIA and in the meantime, comply with journalists' requests for information on disciplinary records for employees, probationary programs, and how it collects fines and fees.
Spyropoulos said the office is 'very committed to freedom of information' and that she had 'preliminary conversations with legislators … but you know, we've been here about four months, so give me some time so we can get there.'
The office, however, already restricted data that was previously accessible to press and attorneys: dates of birth and home addresses of criminal defendants. Journalists use that data to identify the right person when reporting on criminal cases.
Spyropoulos said 'there were some concerns regarding identity theft and taking information off of that,' but said she was 'not aware of' any specific cases of such theft.
Spyropoulos criticized predecessor Iris Martinez for falling short on oversight, pointing out the office appointing its own internal inspector general made it unlikely that person would investigate potential wrongdoing by their boss. Instead, Spyropoulos promised to bring the clerk's office under the oversight of the independent inspector general that already investigates other county agencies.
That transition hasn't happened yet. Spyropoulos appointed Katarina Durcova as her internal IG, who will help implement ethics policies and conduct investigations, and appointed Marissa Longoria her ethics officer in the clerk's legal department.
'We're in the process of developing our inspector general to see what we're going to cover and what we're not and how many cases they have to see where we're at. Then we're going to start meeting with the county inspector general to see what their approach would be. We're still developing it,' Spyropoulos said.
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