Kane County sheriff candidate says he can improve department

When it comes to figuring out how to fix the problems in the Kane County Sheriff's office, Don Kramer has a viewpoint that's more up close and personal than most.

Kramer was among 26 members of office management that spent the last four days of the 2009 fiscal year on a forced furlough. The county board ordered the furlough because the department ran out of money and would not be able to meet payroll. The four unpaid days off cut Kramer a bit more deeply than other managers. After more than 30 years of service in the department, he retired at the end of November.

A furlough and uncertainty for 2010 was not the way he wanted to end his career. That's one reason he's hoping voters will elect him as their new Kane County Sheriff in November 2010.

He must defeat his fellow Republican challenger Robert Russell in February and incumbent Democrat Pat Perez in November to accomplish that mission.

Kramer had kept quiet about the problems in the department as an employee. But last week, after his retirement became official, the gloves came off.

"What I saw come to a head in the last week was that the sheriff was requested to make a budget reduction," Kramer said. "To my knowledge there was no reduction made. Therefore, the county board made some reductions for him."

Kramer said the resolution to the budget problem never should have come to that loss of control, but several in the department saw it coming for awhile.

"Several things have happened throughout the last year from the way the sheriff was working with the county board to the management of the sheriff's office," Kramer said. "Somewhere about last summer I started agreeing with others that we do need a change."

The changes begin with manpower, Kramer said. Mainly, no more reductions in the number of officers patrolling the streets or guarding the jail. Kramer left the door open to some reduction in management positions.

"Public safety has been impacted by the financial status that we're in," Kramer said. "We could be operating at a much safer level."

Kramer said the patrol officer's union should have been brought to the table as soon as a budget reduction was requested, instead of too late in the process to make a difference for 2009.

"The union seemed to be willing to come to the bargaining table and make some concessions, yet nobody ever asked them to come to the table," Kramer said. "From a management standpoint, the sheriff has that responsibility to open things up. If he was correct in stating that there was nothing more he could give up besides personnel, then he needed to go to the personnel and negotiate with them."

Kramer said the other half of the solution is to bring more money into the department. Kramer said he's successfully applied for about a dozen grants while in the sheriff's office.

The Geneva resident also brings a bit of a pedigree to the campaign. He is the son of George Kramer, Kane County's sheriff from 1978 to 1986.