Kane County exec panel OKs extra jail spending request

Kane County will likely set aside $500,000 in its 2011 budget specifically for housing inmates at other jails.

The Kane County Board's executive committee agreed Wednesday to forward the supplemental budget request on to the full county board. The board will vote on it Tuesday.

The money will come out of the county's contingency fund, as it has in years past. The difference is, this time it will be earmarked in a line item, and leave just $600,000 in the fund for other unexpected spending.

And the line item will be in the county budget, not that of Kane County Sheriff Pat Perez, who runs the jail.

“I don't disagree with this, but I think it is important that we as a board look at why this is going up, rather than just pay it,” said Jim Mitchell, presenting the resolution on behalf of the board's finance committee. “Is there anything we can do to lower that amount of money?”

Perez was not at the meeting.

Board Chairman Karen McConnaughay said she sees a dilemma in making a line item in the budget and assigning a dollar amount, in that it could encourage spending to that amount. “In fact what we are trying to do is not have anything spent,” she said.

Mitchell said he was concerned that “it's just that this went up so drastically all of a sudden.”

The past few years, the county has spent an average of $432,000 a year to house inmates of the Kane County Adult Justice Center at other jails, when the jail is full. But in 2010, that jumped to $541,000.

McConnaughay said the matter is complex because it depends on the actions of several entities, including the circuit court judges and the Kane County state's attorney. The state's attorney's office decides what felony cases to pursue, and judges decide bail for defendants and sentences for those convicted. People sentenced to a year or less serve their time in jail, not a state prison.

“It's a population management decision,” she said. “The chief judge is very aware of this unanticipated cost.”