Kane County assures no-bid contracts will still receive scrutiny

Monday was a day of reassuring the public that some new policy changes in Kane County really won't be that bad despite a potentially negative appearance.

The county board's finance committee spent little time debating a change that, in theory, would allow it to award more no-bid contracts. Right now, most contracts in excess of $20,000 must be awarded through a competitive bidding process. State lawmakers recently finished backing a change that increases that threshold to $30,000. The change in the law now only awaits the governor's pen.

Finance committee members said the change in the law will have little impact on how the county awards contracts because all such expenses are reviewed by the committee before final approval. A county ordinance requires all contracts to at least seek competitive quotes even if a full bidding process is not triggered.

Meanwhile, following the announcement by the Kane County circuit clerk's office that it will no longer answer the county switchboard, technology staff assured the finance committee the new automated system will lead a caller to a live person if enough of the prompts are rejected. The only way a live person wouldn't be reached eventually is if the line the system leads the caller to is busy or not answered for some other reason. If a caller can locate an individual's direct extension, that should also result in a live person answering the phone, staff said. However, the circuit clerk's office might be taking its promise to not answer the phones at a literal level.

Kane County Board Attorney Ken Shepro said he tried to reach the circuit clerk's office through the automated system on Friday. When he reached the prompt to be transferred to an operator, the system told him that option was no longer available. Technology staff said they have assumed the operator role for callers that can't be helped directly by the automated system. So far they are averaging about 30 calls a day.