Kane Co. to hand out budget hikes; jail size discussion coming in 2011
Kane County government may feature less begging in 2011 since at least two departments are on track to receive unexpected budget increases and a break from the county's hiring freeze. However, a least one known cost, the price of a jail that can't always hold the number of inmates it needs to, will go unaccounted for one more year.
Both Chief Judge F. Keith Brown and Sheriff Pat Perez found themselves telling county board members they need more money to cover costs everyone knew about, but failed to budget for, in recent weeks. On Thursday, the county board's finance committee decided it would be a good idea to budget for those expenses in 2011.
Assuming the full county board agrees with the plan, Brown will receive an additional $195,000 in his 2011 budget. That money will cover the cost of new employees necessary to accommodate four new judges coming to the county at the end of this year. Three new bailiffs and a new secretary will come on the payroll as well. The cash will also adequately fund payroll costs for what will now be a head count of 41 county employees in the judiciary. Brown had to request additional money this year to meet his 2010 payroll for 38 employees.
Perez will receive an additional $640,000 in his budget next year. That cash would fully fund a jail staff of up to 122 employees, which is the number the jail currently has. Kane County Board Chairman Karen McConnaughay said money for jail employees was held low this year, reflecting her earlier stated belief that the jail only needed 107 employees to function. McConnaughay sat down with Perez, Jail Cmdr. Pat Keaty, county board member Jim Mitchell and the consultant originally hired during the construction of the jail and determined 122 really is the bare minimum of employees needed to keep staff safe at the jail and avoid lawsuits about unfair treatment from inmates. Keaty promised Finance committee members Thursday said the additional $640,000 will mean Perez won't have to ask for more money for the jail midyear in 2011. In reality, that might not be entirely true.
After the meeting, both Keaty and McConnaughay said the $640,000 doesn't include any money to cover costs of housing prisoners outside the county when the jail is full. This year, that cost has totaled more than $65,000 some months. There has never been any budget to house prisoners outside the county since the new jail opened. McConnaughay said, for now, that's the one midyear request for more money she doesn't mind.
"The idea here is we don't want to be sending people (to other jails) so we don't want to create a budget for it," McConnaughay said.
She added that the county will take 2011 to finish its efforts to try and rework bond calls and identify prisoners who don't really need to be kept in the jail to reduce the population to a number that matches the number of cells that were built. If the jail is still too small, then the county must seriously weigh the benefits of opening the mothballed shell space for new cells, McConnaughay said. The key factor is figuring out if there's enough money to be saved, or made, to offset the $2 million cost of hiring enough corrections officers to staff the expansion units, she said. Perez recently said building out the jail would allow the county to take overflow inmates from other counties and the federal government at a profit whenever there are open beds.
"I think our board would happily entertain a contract that brings in revenue, allows us to build out our facility, but doesn't put an additional strain on our budget," McConnaughay said. "There's a lot that goes into weighing the cost/benefit. We've got health care benefits. We've got pensions to pay. Sometimes it is maybe cheaper at some level to ship inmates out (to other counties)."