Kane County Circuit Clerk makes unpopular budget cut

If you have a problem in Kane County, you might not want to call the government because it won't be answering.

The county's switchboard, which handles about 1,000 calls a day, will no longer have a live person attached to it no matter what buttons you push. Kane County Circuit Clerk Deborah Seyller's office currently fields those calls, but she told a county board committee Friday that her office will stop answering the phone next month.

Seyller is an elected department head and has been one of the more vocal critics of the latest round of budget cuts. Her office is currently down 10 employees this year compared to last year. An automated phone system, similar to what other counties use, will partner with a better county Web site to fill the void, Seyller said.

Members of the county board's Judicial and Public Service Committee clearly weren't happy with Seyller's news.

"We totally agree," Seyller said. "But we're down 10 people. I have to make a cut somewhere. This is the one non-mandated service I can cut."

"That's very sad," responded board member Jackie Tredup, of Elgin.

Committee Chairman Mike Kenyon, of South Elgin, told Seyller he hopes she monitors the community's reaction to the change very closely. The fear is that the change will result in more people having to actually come into the circuit clerk's office for help, creating lengthy lines.

"I'll be very surprised if you don't get a lot of negative responses," Kenyon said. "It may be your answer to (the budget cut), but it doesn't seem like a very efficient way to provide community service. But time will tell."

Even if the community response is savage, the county board might not have much recourse to do anything about it. Because Seyller is an elected official, the county can change her budget but not direct how she spends it.