Kane board preparing to clamp down on department budgets

The budget pattern for Kane County the past couple years looks a lot like this: The budget is set, several county departments get on pace to spend more than their budgets, outrage and arguments among elected officials about who is to blame ensues, months of threats follow, then a last-minute resolution finds just enough money to break about even.

That's where Kane County appears headed again as Finance Director Cheryl Pattelli and the county board's finance committee dissected the budget Thursday. The result showed the county on a collision course for a deficit of $100,000 to $300,000 at the end of the year.

Several factors play into the deficit.

One big dent will be a $550,000 additional cost in the budget for the county jail, due to an arbitration decision about money owed to corrections employees.

An unknown additional cost comes from the new employees hired in the circuit court clerk's office during the county's hiring freeze without the board's permission. Circuit Court Clerk Deb Seyller has defended the new hires as necessary to avoid lawsuits that would result from her inability to perform mandated functions without the new employees. Seyller has asked for up to $577,000 at one point to pay for those salaries and contractual raises but was denied. The employees remain on the payroll.

All of that, plus some smaller overruns will contribute to the county spending its entire budget, plus it's $1.1 million of contingency money and still having unpaid bills for the year.

"The problem is, we say no, but then people are just spending the money anyway," said county board member Cathy Hurlbut. "How do we stop that? I think we just need to put the hammer down here. We need to come up with some enforcement."

Hurlbut suggested a forced layoff in any department over budget as a way to keep costs down. That could be a major problem. A large layoff in the circuit clerk's office, for instance, could result in the shutdown of the entire court system.

Sheriff Pat Perez said a good chunk of the added jail costs could be made up by a federal reimbursement for housing "criminal aliens" in the jail. That's money the county received last year that totaled about $400,000. Perez said he expects about the same amount this year, but it wasn't included in his budget because that money goes straight to the county's general fund. That's the account that pays nearly all of the county's bills for all of its departments. That money would only help the sheriff if the county board agrees to apply it to his budget.

"If it's money that was earned on the backs of my employees, and my employees are incurring a cost here, I think it's only right that we get that money," Perez said. "I think we're foolish if we don't."

The committee hopes to resolve that issue and find an enforcement mechanism for other departments by the end of August.