Raises for county attorneys delayed for new board

Raises for Kane County’s assistant state’s attorneys and public defenders are a decision that should be made by a new county board, said several board members who killed the pay increases this week.

A starting assistant state’s attorney makes about $40,000, which is at least $10,000 less than all other surrounding counties.

Kane County State’s Attorney Joe McMahon had hoped to create the raises sooner rather than later. But a state law prevents certain increases to court fees and fines until after the next circuit court clerk election. McMahon will be up for election at the same time and has pushed a plan for the county board to vote now on raises and fee increases but delay implementation until December 2012.

A majority of county board members decided this week the decision to increase the fees and give raises is not theirs to make. The entire county board is also up for election the same time as McMahon and the circuit court clerk.

“These fees aren’t going to be collected until after this board is no longer sitting here,” county board member Bonnie Kunkel said. “We’re handing a blank page to a new board with a clean slate. ... I don’t think we’re doing our job here (to vote this in now).”

County board member Deb Allan agreed the proposal was inappropriately timed. Allan also said she fundamentally disagrees with the idea of using court fees and fines either to give raises or make the courts more self-sufficient.

“The fact is the users will never be able to completely pay for the system,” Allan said.

“As we keep adding fees on, we make the courts less accessible to people who want to use them, and we make the fines so difficult that people have trouble paying them.”

Allan challenged McMahon and the county board to come up with a different mechanism to fund the courts and raises for attorneys.

Board members also said if the proposal is revived, they’d like to see language that specifically commits the increases in fees and fines to help fund attorney salaries. Law requires those court fees to be used in support of the court system, but is not specific in committing them to salaries.