Absences continue to plague Kane County Board

For at least the fourth time this year, a Kane County Board committee Thursday failed to garner the presence of enough elected officials to legally accomplish any business.

The county board's Finance Committee could only listen to reports from county staff members since only three committee members showed up. Ron Ford, Gerald Jones and John Hoscheit waited nearly 20 minutes for at least one more of their colleagues to join them before deciding to accomplish what they could without a quorum. Several county employees sat unable to speak about or see four separate resolutions, including at least one that would bring a few more dollars to the county, go unresolved. The committee will call a special meeting to deal with the unfinished business it was scheduled to accomplish. The date of that meeting is unknown because one of the elected officials who was absent, Rob McConnaughay, is chairman of the Finance Committee.

The other absent officials were John Fahy, Cathy Hurlbut and Bill Wyatt. County board members present at the meeting said Fahy was attending to a death in the family. The whereabouts of the other officials were unknown.

After the meeting, Hoscheit speculated about problems the county has had getting enough officials together to host legal meetings.

"Part of it could be, if you look at it, people who were not re-elected," Hoscheit said. "And summer has always been slow. But it's better to cancel a meeting if you can't (get a quorum) than have people show up because it's a waste of time."

On Finance Committee, McConnaughay chose not to run for re-election. Wyatt was defeated in the primary race. But the county has had previous problems. The county board's Legislative, Public Service and Committee of the Whole meetings have all failed to secure quorums as various points this year. Several times, other committees have had to call absent board members on their cell phones to encourage them to show up so business could be completed. County Board Chairman Karen McConnaughay chastised the board for the absenteeism as recently as April 28.

"I'm sick and tired of people complaining that they can't get enough information, but they can't get to a meeting," she said at the time.

Also absent on Thursday was the county's share of state income tax revenue. County Finance Director Cheryl Pattelli reported the state is now four months behind on that payment. Pattelli also reported that the state hasn't reimbursed the county for probation officer salaries dating back to paychecks the county cut in August 2009.