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Kane coroner says he's not cutting budget

Kane County Coroner Rob Russell will not obey 2018 budget cuts imposed by the county board, validating finance department concerns Wednesday about the viability of the budget plan.

The county board imposed a 3.6 percent budget cut across all departments to zero out a $5.9 million deficit heading into 2018. The coroner's office is one of four departments that have not submitted detailed line-item expense cuts. The other departments without plans are the sheriff's office, public defender and court services.

Altogether, those departments account for $1.9 million of the total budget cuts. Without details, county finance director Joe Onzick said the budget is balanced only on paper.

"The budget cut amount is a target for the departments," Onzick said. "If it does not show a plan for how the budget will be achieved, that's a concern."

Onzick said some offices will likely cut jobs to reach the budget target. But it's impossible to account for the budget savings in areas like pension and FICA taxes without knowing which employees might lose jobs.

Russell said there are only two places for him to cut back in the coroner's office to reach the $89,000 reduction the county board wants from him: He can cut personnel, or he can reduce the number of autopsies performed.

"I don't have anybody to cut that won't send us back to paying overtime," Russell said. "And the number of autopsies have gone up the last three years. I'm not going to mislead the public into believing there are going to be less autopsies. That's why I never said I was going to make cuts. I'm not."

Russell said he previously kicked in $100,000 from a special revenue fund he controls to help the county's budget problem. He wants to see non-mandated county board-controlled departments share in the budgetary pain. He pointed to the Kane County Connects newsletter and the county health department as areas to consider.

"It's the county's responsibility to properly fund this office to perform its mandated functions," Russell said. "In my mind, anything less than that is official misconduct. And I'm not going to be the one to put this office in that position. If the board wants to do that, they can do that."

Other board cuts are in process, but they may not happen by the start of the new budget year, as called for in the 2018 budget plan.

Court services will eliminate the electronic and GPS monitoring team to reach its budget cut amount. That will mean layoffs. But Lisa Aust, who runs the department, said she can't yet provide a detailed dollar figure for the savings.

Each defendant in the program must return to court so a judge can determine an alternate plan, such as putting the defendant in the county jail. Aust expects that process may run into the first quarter of 2018 before she can erase electronic and GPS monitoring from the books.

"Closing down such a large and important program that also has so much input and oversight from the judiciary needs to be done in an orderly way, and with all allowances for the due process rights of each defendant and with public safety concerns," Aust said.

Sheriff Don Kramer said he already raised his income projections by $281,000 to help close the budget gap. He hasn't submitted a detailed line item because his plan relies on the actions of others, he said. He hopes to save money by hiring entry-level employees to replace veteran officers who may retire.

"I am not intending on cutting any personnel," Kramer said. He noted he is understaffed by five officers on the law enforcement side and five correctional employees at the jail. In a letter to the county board, Kramer said he will hold off on filling those until 2019.

"The lack of planning by the county board on how to solve the budget crisis should not have to be resolved by office holders having to produce additional revenues or reducing expenses by cutting necessary personnel," Kramer said.

Public defender Kelli Childress did not immediately respond to an interview request.

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