Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle vetoed a resolution Tuesday that would provide the addresses of COVID-19 positive patients to first responders in suburban Cook County.
Preckwinkle said she was “profoundly disappointed” by the passage of the controversial resolution Thursday.
The resolution, titled Share Addresses for Emergencies with First Responders, would have provided first responders in the jurisdiction of the county’s Department of Public Health access only to the addresses of those who’ve tested positive for the deadly virus. That area includes 127 municipalities and 2.5 million residents.
Preckwinkle cited conversations with the county’s Department of Public Health and its decision to follow guidelines from the Illinois Department of Public Health as part of her reasoning to veto the measure.
Preckwinkle said she never expected the resolution to pass and her decision to veto it was made over the weekend. The effect on the county’s black and brown communities — as well as listening to the guidance of public health officials — was top of mind for her, she said.
“As we struggle with the pandemic, it’s been catastrophic for our country . . . we can’t just give in to our peers,” Preckwinkle said. “We have to listen to the people whose job it is to protect us in these times of crisis . . . and they have been quite clear from the very beginning that this didn’t make any sense from a public health perspective.”
The measure sparked debate over protecting police officers, firefighters, paramedics and other first responders and protecting the public’s right to privacy.
Cook County Commissioner Scott Britton, who sponsored the measure, said Thursday he knows there are “civil rights issues that are raised” by the resolution. Britton said he’d like to be able to say “that we don’t have to worry about overreach by the government, that we don’t have to worry about inherent racism in the system.” He couldn’t do that but he could say the resolution provides some limits.
For Preckwinkle, that acknowledgement didn’t go far enough.
“I don’t see how anyone who understands the endemic nature of racism in this country and the discrimination that black and brown people have experienced, will assume that this resolution is somehow going to be immune from that discrimination and endemic racism,” Preckwinkle said, unsuccessfully urging commissioners to vote against the measure. “So for those reasons, there’s no way . . . that I would encourage anyone to support [the resolution.]”
Despite the plea, seven Democratic commissioners and the board’s two Republicans voted for the measure. Seven Democrats voted against it; one voted present.
Preckwinkle’s veto is her first since the start of her tenure as Cook County Board president in 2010. She said the measure could give first responders a false sense of security when out on the job since some coronavirus cases are asymptomatic.
Britton said Tuesday he was “disappointed” by the veto but he doesn’t plan to fight it.
“I think the thing we have to try to do right now is try to get all of the [personal protective equipment] to our first responders that we possibly can so that they’re protected,” Britton said. “I think that’s going to be the emphasis of what we do going forward.”
Colleen Connell, executive director of ACLU Illinois, said she “applaud’s President Preckwinkle for prioritizing the public health and safety of all residents.”
The organization explored options to halt the resolution after it passed, including legal action.
“It is in everybody’s best interest, including first responders, to treat every contact with a member of the public as though they are potentially COVID-positive,” Connell said.
Dr. Rachel Rubin, one of the leaders of the county’s Department of Public Health, said that while certain types of personal protective equipment are limited, at this point the county has a “sufficient” supply to equip first responders and other health care workers.
“Believe me first responders of all various classifications are at the top of our minds, the top of our priority lists absolutely,” Rubin said. “We take their safety to be of paramount importance and that’s why we’re saying that they have to be ready for every single encounter they have with the public and they have to assume that everybody is positive . . . They need to be prepared and that’s part of being a first responder is being prepared.”
