Kane Co. chief judge says he can't meet budget mandate

Kane County Chief Judge F. Keith Brown said Tuesday he has no further budget reductions planned for his office, despite falling nearly $200,000 short of a countywide mandate to cut costs.

"At this point, we are not able to make the cuts they are requesting," Brown said. "At this point, I am not authorizing the cuts."

Brown said his office has been struggling to come up with $529,000 in savings since the county board ordered all department heads last month to slash their budgets by 5.5 percent.

So far, the courts have been able to free up just $353,000, he said, by leaving six open positions unfilled, increasing some program fees and looking for savings in everything from juror notices to employee travel expenses.

"Now the only thing left to cut is people," Court Administrator Doug Naughton said. "I don't think that's what they want."

Officials said layoffs could hinder the court's ability to provide services required by law, or wind up costing the county more when it is forced to hire people to do the work on contract.

Other avenues for savings - such as cuts to the electronic home monitoring program for defendants - could result in more people to house in the already overcrowded county jail, officials said.

"We're all interrelated," Naughton said. "One office is dependent on the other."

Brown noted that his office typically comes in under budget at the end of the fiscal year and actually returns money to the county while maintaining one of the largest caseloads in the state.

He added that funds could be taken from the county's drug, mental health and juvenile courts, but said those programs are vital to an efficient court system and a safe community.

"We have nowhere else to cut that would not affect ... the proper functioning of the court," Brown said.

Kane County Board Chairwoman Karen McConnaughay did not immediately return calls seeking comment Tuesday. She has said she was forming a committee to explore a voluntary early retirement program for potential savings.

Brown is not the first department head to suggest the county's cost-cutting goals may be unrealistic. At a meeting last week, both Kane County Coroner Chuck West and Sheriff Pat Perez both said they were having trouble meeting the county's bottom line.