Medical contract for jail will eat up Kane County's 2018 budget cushion

Kane County officials would lose one-third of their 2018 budgetary wiggle room in a pending vote on medical services for the jail. The financial blow comes in the second month of the 2018 fiscal year.

The situation stems from a $343,000 cost overrun in the medical services contract. Though the current contract was to expire at the end of November, Sheriff Don Kramer said he was unaware of the expense increase in the new contract when he submitted his 2018 budget. The law requires the county to have medical services at the jail. The pending new contract contains a bid from the current provider that is about $500,000 less than any other quote.

"If the committee evaluated this, and this was the most economical approach to provide this service, then we have no choice but to move forward with it," executive committee member John Hoscheit said.

Hoscheit's comment is significant. The expiration of the current contract forces an expedited vote on the new contract. As such, the contract will not receive the usual scrutiny it would get in an examination by Hoscheit's finance committee. Because of that omitted step, Hoscheit, at first, believed Wednesday's vote was only to approve the medical contract, not dip into the 2018 contingency funds. Joe Onzick, the county's CFO, informed him the request was both to approve the contract and earmark contingency funds for the expense.

It's that earmarking that fueled a lone "no" vote from committee member Doug Scheflow.

"I'm not comfortable voting for this," Scheflow said. "It seems like it's a pretty early start to be amending our budget in month No. 2."

The concern comes with the backdrop of the county's financial situation. The board struggled to approve a balanced budget, at least on paper, for 2018. Even that act required the elimination of the county's GPS and electronic monitoring system for potentially dangerous people awaiting criminal trial. The expectation is the 2019 budget will be even tighter. Final approval of the medical contract cost overrun for the jail will make all other unforeseen expenses more difficult to deal with.

The county set aside $1.09 million in contingency for 2018. The contract overrun will leave about $742,000 for any other expenses. It's possible the county finds itself with more contingency money once Onzick closes the books on the 2017 budget. The board could use any 2017 surplus to pad the contingency fund.

The full county board will take a final vote on the jail contract and budget adjustment Tuesday.