As Chief of Staff and Chief Deputy Treasurer for the Cook County Treasurer’s Office Bill’s responsibilities were to uphold the statutory duties of the Treasurer’s Office including the managing of more than $18 billion in tax collection, investment, and distribution for more than 1.8 million properties in Chicago and the surrounding suburbs within Cook County. In addition, Bill oversaw multiple departments including Collections, PTAB refunds, CofE refunds, and other Circuit Court Order refunds. He also oversaw the Audit and Legal Departments while simultaneously leading his team in creating employee training programs and manuals that previously did not exist.
Ranked the 2nd largest county in the United States with over 2,200 local governmental agencies, Bill’s responsibilities included the timely electronic distribution of funds to those villages, cities, townships, libraries, public health, police, fire, TIFS and other designated taxing agencies.
Mr. Kouruklis is proud of leading foundational changes in management and the creation of numerous collection payment channels that have helped the Treasurer’s Office to reduce its staff by nearly 77% from 250 employees to 58 employees as of November of 2022. As Chief of Staff, all senior-level managers reported to Bill as he reported directly to the Cook County Treasurer.
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As a 31-year employee of the Treasurer’s Office, Mr. Kouruklis experienced the full realm of civic duty. While attending school at Loyola University, earning his Bachelor’s Degree in Organizational Studies and Communications, he began working in Collections at a Satellite Office and quickly moved to working in the main Chicago office Mr. Kouruklis instituted and enforced progressive discipline policies with Human Resources while working extensively with the SEIU on labor negotiations.
His most impactful successes occurred while working as the Director of Operations, a position he held for 10+ years, during which he directly managed nearly 145 department heads and staff. Mr. Kouruklis understood that the greatest improvements could be offered to the taxpayers on the collection side of the operation. He led the Treasurer’s team in the implementation of a county-wide Financial Lockbox System which had been the impetus for change. He then furthered that significant change by initiating a joint Cook County/JP Morgan Chase effort to implement a POS image-based collection and deposit system at Chase branches, for the purpose of collecting Cook County property taxes at more than 400 locations.
Mr. Kouruklis conceptualized, created and managed 30+ office-wide technical projects that streamlined processes that ultimately led to an overall reduction in the Treasurer’s budget and headcount for a consecutive number of years. He spearheaded several new online systems including a real-time financial multiple-payment collection system for third parties involving more than 300 local banks and other financial institutions.
He also served as a trustee on the Cook County Pension Fund. The Cook County Pension Fund provides retirement, survivor, retiree health, and disability benefits to employees and retirees of Cook County and its Forest Preserve District.
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As Chief of Staff, Mr. Kouruklis worked collaboratively with City, County and State Elected officials and their staff. He worked tirelessly on the Cook County Treasurer's legislative initiatives while remaining dedicated to the implementation of methods that serve to improve services and conveniences to the taxpayers of Cook County. Mr. Kouruklis thrives in this highly-regulated and statute-driven workplace environment.
In January of 2023, Bill joined the tax firm of Verros Berkshire PC as Chief of Staff.