>> And there's more of this story on our website.

The Cook County Circuit Court clerk may not be a political office.

You're very familiar with.

They're charged with managing court records and court orders and serving more than 400 judges across Chicago and Cook County in just a few months into her term clerk, Marianna Speropoulos is out with a new progress report.

Joining us now with some of the reports takeaways is Marianna Speropoulos clerk of the circuit Court of Cook County.

Welcome to Chicago tonight.

Thanks on the show ran So you reached 100 days in office last month, roughly 150 days this week.

What were your priorities coming into the position?

>> Well, transparency, accessibility and accountability.

And those are sort of the pillars that everything that we've focused on in the office have to run through those values.

For example, transparency, we want to make sure that people know what we're doing.

So we stab lish the first ever data dashboard.

So you can see how many cases have been initiated.

What areas of law, what locations and as people give us their feedback on that will be changing and developing that much.

Like I said, this is the first time that's ever been done.

And and in terms of accessibility, we want to make sure people can access the court system and the services that we provide.

We have a lot of forms.

Weve got language access because it can be an intimidating process.

If you're going to go through the court system.

So we want to make sure there's that language.

Accessibility, you can get all kinds of data through our records center on our website.

You can also plea and pay your tickets on our website and we're going to develop.

We're in the process of developing an app.

So you'll able to navigate the course of court system on your phone as well.

Ok?

>> What were some of the errors your office found?

I think there was reports that when you got into office, there was some work that you found.

It had not been tightened just a little We found a little bit in terms of accounting.

So, for example, we have to do a lot of reporting.

We do a lot of data collection and we have to do reporting to the Supreme Court of Illinois, the Administrative Office of Illinois Courts and and Cook County as well.

>> And as you can imagine, we initiate cases collect that information.

So we have to put it in Their specific data reporting office of the chief judge also user information.

So that hadn't been done in 2023.

2024.

So we caught up make sure that our staff was dedicated to that catching up on what we have to report.

Also in terms of a county making sure that our house is in order in terms of the finances, there's fines and fees were collecting.

We also have a few huge budget.

So want to make sure I heard the right people who have expertise in accounting and they can take care of that.

And so, you know, there's there's a lot on our plate, but we're doing I think a great job.

And I've got a great team dedicated to that.

You mentioned, of course, creating the county's first public-facing data dashboard.

Currently it goes back to 2020.

What are the plans to continue adding?

>> So again, as we see people requiring different information, we're open to that.

We want to develop that site.

we see it as like a living site.

>> In terms of responding with people's needs are if they want to see other information, we'll start looking into that and to see how we can provide for OK, you're planning a push for legislation that would bring your office under the state's FOIA law.

The Freedom of Information Act law.

>> Why wasn't your office?

And I know you've only been there for a few months of is not your department yet, but why wasn't this office already under the state's for So I can't speak to what the previous administration did.

We are certainly dedicated to the freedom of information.

>> And and we will be providing that information and are currently doing that through our data dashboard through our records center.

Like I said, you can ask for all kinds of information and documents from our office through our online site.

So we're going to continue to provide that.

And will it be having the conversations with state legislatures in order to get some kind of legislation going forward.

But it will take time.

It's a process and we have to have a lot of conversations about that.

You also you currently have been internal inspector general that you've appointed.

But you said that you plan to bring your office under the county's IG.

What is your what's the status of that plan?

>> So the plan was to see what the county it looked like and what the relationship is, what the dynamic is to make sure that we have oversight.

>> I've hired the head of my inspector general is someone from Copa from the city and they have a lot of experience in terms of investigative experience.

And we also put out a customer service survey.

So any of those results go directly to our inspector general in case there's something that needs to be investigated.

So the public has any compliments or complaints.

All of that goes directly to the inspector general to make sure that we're looking into any problems that are rising and to that customer service survey, the stuff that doesn't need to be investigated on.

What are you hearing from them from residents were hearing, you know, good things.

We've got some great staff.

They've been there for a long time.

There's a lot of institutional knowledge.

We have provided customer service training so that our staff can handle any kind of scenario there might be coming up, try to defuse emotional situations of if necessary, just making sure that we're providing a professional, respectful type of environment for people to come into the court system.

What's next?

What about the next 150 days?

What are your priorities were excited?

Because we want to develop something called the citations and what that means, what is, you would have electronic ticketing.

So some of the suburbs have it right now, but it's not sink up to our software so we don't get it in real time.

And then we'll be talking to the Chicago Police Department to make sure that we can get them on board with electronic ticketing as well.

How would that work beyond what we already know about like speed and red-light camera tickets?

Well, the city of Chicago handles those.

We do moving violations.

But in terms of the ticketing, it's really just the process in terms of getting that data right away.

So, for example, if you've a moving violation ticket, you want to pay it right away if you came in the next day, we wouldn't have it into But electronic ticketing