Kane budget task force disappointed with inability to find savings

The fruit from the labors of the Kane County Special Budget Task Force has proved to be more raisin than watermelon, a disappointment acknowledged by its members Friday.

The task force concentrated most of its efforts on the creation of a voluntary retirement buyout offer for about 200 employees. On Friday the task force learned only 14 employees applied for the buyout. Possibly diminishing the savings of even that small success was a decision by the task force to allow departments to hire back employees taking the buyout as independent contractors (who do not receive benefits).

Board members Jim Mitchell and Hollie Lindgren voted against that idea, citing a fear of defeating the entire purpose behind offering a buyout.

"I don't want to be equal or losing money by doing this," Mitchell said. "We did this to save money."

The county board is powerless to stop an elected department head, such as Kane County State's Attorney John Barsanti, from hiring a former employee as a contractor. Barsanti, a member of the task force, told the members exactly that in informing them he intends to hire back an employee who puts together his department's budget as a contractor. Barsanti said he wants to use that employee to help with the 2010 budget.

"If an elected (department head) really doesn't want to play ball with this at all, he can throw a monkey wrench in this easy," Barsanti said.

Of the 14 employees taking the buyout, 10 of them come from departments run directly by an elected official. That could mean a minimal budget savings for the county through the buyout plan, a fact not lost on board member Mark Davoust.

"We came together to look for ways to save money for this current budget, and we've not done that," Davoust said. "This was important, but it didn't do the original thing that I think the task force's goal was."

Davoust said there were some good ideas on the table initially, such as unpaid holidays, but they never went any further than brief discussions. Chief Judge F. Keith Brown is the only elected department head to adopt the idea of unpaid holidays for his employees to balance his budget this year.

Task force chairman Mike Kenyon acknowledged there's more work to be done and called for another meeting to discuss ideas Sept. 30.