Chris Kachiroubas: Candidate Profile

Note: Answers provided have not been edited for grammar, misspellings or typos. In some instances, candidate claims that could not be immediately verified have been omitted. Jump to:BioKey IssuesQA Bio City: ElmhurstWebsite: http://katch22.orgOffice sought: DuPage Clerk of the Circuit CourtAge: 56Family: Married,three kidsOccupation: Dupage County Clerk of the Circuit CourtEducation: BA, Monmouth College, Monmouth,IL 1977Civic involvement: AYSO Soccer Coach Masonic Lodge 941 Medinah Shirner Elmhurst Baseball League -Coach Girls Softball Elmhurst Junior Dukes - Wrestling CoachElected offices held: Dupage County Clerk of the Circuit Court 2004 - present Addison Township Assessor 1991 - 2004 Republican State Central Committeeman 2009 - present Precinct Republican Committeeman 1977 - presentHave you ever been arrested for or convicted of a crime? If yes, please explain: NoCandidate's Key Issues Key Issue 1 Electronic notification. With a potential reduction in United States Postal Authority services the 18th Circuit must find alternative methods of court notification and meet the Standards of the ILCS and Supreme Court rules.Three years ago we were successful in passing legislation allowing for electronic notification under the law.I have written the Secretary of State Jessie White requesting that he support legislation making a personal email address a minimum identifier.Upon permission of the defendant or witness the notification would be emailed. This would create savings in postage, paper and labor among other budgetary line items.Key Issue 2 Expansion of Electronic warrants. Expanding electronic warrants to all cases types will save time in putting the warrant in the hands of law enforcement. The manualprocess may can take as along as 3 days to get to law enforcement. The electronic process will take only seconds after the judge signs the order and the warrant is transmitted.Additionally, the LEADS system will reflect the warrant issued and/or served in seconds.Key Issue 3 Plea and satisfaction of Pre-Payment tickets.This allows the defendant to pay the bond with a debit or credit card and plead guilty at the time on the traffic stop.Questions Answers A number of steps were taken in recent years to modernize the circuit court clerk's office. What more can be done to further that goal, and how would you approach it?We havebrought many new innovations during our tenure.We have expanded case management and court information through the internet by;instituting e-guilty pleas/supervision requests online and permitted payments of petty traffic tickets at www.dupagecase.com; on-line petitions of order for protection at www.illinoisprotectionorder.org;adding electronic warrant processing; compliance program that has increased the collection of outstanding judgments and brought in over $12 million dollars since December of 2004;remodeling a newand open waiting area,using the latest technology, with a 'help station' to assist the visitors as they comeinto the Clerk's office and established the first e-appeal procedure in Illinois. All of these innovations have been accomplished while reducing the office budget and personnel count for the past three years. Other successful projects developed by our office include Electronic Court Call, Drivers Records in the Court Rooms, E-ticketing and Electronic Signatures.Further steps to modernize the office: Improvement of the Traffic Court Experience;a) Reduce court call delays through use of a paperless system to reduce court time; b)Elimination of need for drivers license to be posted as bail. Expansion of electronic filing to criminal cases ( with permission of the Supreme Court) based on the success of electronic filing introduced for civil cases. Introduce and expand the use of social media and e-mail to provide reminders of court dates to parties, witnesses and counsel.What would you do to improve government transparency?There are two difference issues regarding transparency and the DuPage County Clerk of the Circuit Court.First, the court records meet and will continue to meet the highest standards as set forth by the Illinois Supreme Court Rules and ILCS. Reviewing information either manually or online will continue to mirror what is allowable under the law or by rule. Second, The Clerk of Circuit Court is a state constitutional office but receives it funding at the county level. We have and will continue to subscript to all existing contractual and purchasing polices of DuPage County. Currently, all county budgets, contracts and vendor lists are available online for inspection.Additionally, salaries for all government employees are available through the Human Resources Department.