Attorney; Kane board can sue officials who go over budget

The Kane County Board can sue elected officials who blow their budget, and may choose to do so after three years of trying to address cost overruns with little success.

Kane County State's Attorney John Barsanti said Friday he recently met with County Board Chairman Karen McConnaughay to let her know he'll map the way to such lawsuits if that's the direction the county board wants to go.

The board's Judicial and Public Safety Committee learned Friday that, just considering the departments it oversees, the county will surpass its budget by nearly $2 million, far more than even the county's savings can resolve.

And ongoing battles with some department heads who are over budget appear to be worsening. The committee clashed with Circuit Court Clerk Deb Seyller once again Friday over her move to hire 14 employees without county board permission.

The board has repeatedly refused to cover those salaries, despite Seyller's insistence the employees are necessary.

Committee member Mark Davoust knocked Seyller for not bringing the panel a full report of what those new employees are doing. The committee asked for a detailed report last month.

"I don't have a report in front of me," Davoust said. "You read some numbers to me that you got on your way out of the door. And we're in the same spot."

Seyller said she's provided justification for the new hires for more than a year now, but the board would rather spend its money on other projects.

"I considered the decisions you made willful negligence," Seyller said. "You had RTA money, and you chose to spend it in a different way. But you want to put that on us, and say, 'You cover us. You make up that difference so we can spend the money the way we want to and not what should be spent on mandates.' That's just not right. And we've been going through this month after month."

The venue for that monthly battle could move to a courtroom if the county board wants to take it there, Barsanti said.

While the county is obligated to reasonably fund every department, no one really knows what reasonable funding is for sure.

"Is reasonable the Cadillac service or the Chevy service?" Barsanti said. "It's not that easily answered."

Though the county board can stop paying bills for departments that run over budget, federal law requires the salaries of government employees to be paid no matter what, Barsanti said.

"I can't tell you who's right and who's wrong in this thing," he said. "If the county board believes their best bet is to go to court, then that's what we'll probably do."

Barsanti would have a conflict in such a lawsuit, requiring the county to hire outside lawyers to represent both sides. Chief Judge F. Keith Brown offered his own thoughts Friday about how "reasonable" would be defined in court.

"What is reasonable within the circumstances within which we exist? That is not something you can find and say it's permanent," Brown said. "What is reasonable today may not be reasonable a year from now. We have to look at our times both economically and socially."