Law may thwart raises for Kane County state's attorneys

A new reading of state law has derailed a plan to give public defenders and state's attorney employees raises in Kane County.

Kane County State's Attorney Joe McMahon and Chief Judge F. Keith Brown had hoped to raise salaries for their employees by as much as $13,000 in one fell swoop. An increase in more than 50 fees and fines associated with civil and criminal offenses would have funded the raises.

Kane County received the power to hike those fees by topping the 500,000 population mark in the latest census. But Brown said Wednesday the latest interpretation of state law indicates those increases can't kick in until after the next circuit court clerk election.

Deb Seyller won't seek re-election. The new circuit court clerk won't be elected until November 2012. Brown said that means raises will have to wait until then. Even then, the raises would be phased in to allow collection of the new fee revenues.

The county board's Executive Committee pushed forward with the plan to increase the fees with an effective date of December 2012. The entire leadership of the county may have turned over by then. There will be a new chief judge by December 2012. The entire county board, as well as the chairman, circuit court clerk and state's attorney will be up for re-election in November 2012.

In the meantime, Brown proposed raising to the maximum two fees that feed into a special fund in the circuit court clerk's office. Such an increase, if approved by the county board, is expected to net about $300,000 in new revenue. That money will be used to support the operations budget for the circuit clerk's office, Brown said.

The exact details of how that works is possibly part of the settlement agreement reached between the county board and Seyller.

The two sides battled in court over the true amount of money needed to fund legally mandated functions in the office. That lawsuit is over, but details of the settlement have not yet been announced.