DuPage OK's youth home, spending cuts
Spending cuts, head count reductions — and a highly controversial consolidation of the county youth home — were approved as part of DuPage County's 2012 budget plan.
The county board voted 17-1 during a lengthy Tuesday meeting to adopt the $434.3 million budget proposal, a $10.7 million reduction from this year's spending. DuPage's new fiscal year starts Dec. 1.
“This is a budget that will meet the expectations of our taxpayers without asking for more resources in this still-struggling economy,” county board Chairman Dan Cronin said.
In addition to cutting spending for the third straight year and keeping the property tax levy flat, the plan reduces the county's total head count by 46 full-time employees to 2,234.
Many of those positions will be lost because of a plan to close the DuPage County Juvenile Detention Center early next year and transfer its detainees to Kane County's regional facility in St. Charles.
Despite originally putting an additional $400,000 in the budget to operate the facility, Cronin pushed for the proposed partnership with Kane. Then two weeks ago, board members voted to proceed with the offer.
Before Tuesday's budget vote, county board members who fought to keep the youth home open failed to get an amendment passed that would have kept the extra $400,000 in the spending plan — an amount needed just to overcome state cuts. Their measure, which was defeated by a 10-8 vote, also would have set aside another $230,000 next year to hire more staff at the facility.
The Kane County Board still must review the pending contract and sign off on the deal before any of DuPage's juveniles come to Kane's youth home.
If the four-year deal is approved, officials estimate DuPage could save at least $800,000 annually. And Kane would see a significant increase in the income it earns from housing juveniles from other counties. The pending contract would see DuPage pay Kane $110 per child per day.
“It provides equivalent, if not better, services for the kids of DuPage County at a savings of more than $1 million a year for the taxpayers at a time when we don't have extra resources available,” said board member Robert Larsen, who supports the pending contract with Kane.
However, dozens of people opposed to DuPage youth home's closure filled the board chambers. Many stood up to urge board members to change their minds.
Judge Robert Anderson told board members that he was “representing all the people who do the work” when he said closing the facility would be a mistake.
“It's not going to work out well for DuPage County,” Anderson said. “Everybody who really does this work is saying this is a bad idea.
“If this facility closes, it will not be leadership,” he added. “It will be a failure of leadership.”
DuPage's 87,000-square-foot facility was built in 1999 with a 96-bed capacity. Now it has an average daily population of about 23 and was reconfigured to have 32 beds.
In response to those who refer to the youth home as “a model program,” DuPage Chief Judge Stephen Culliton said the facility had a budget of $5.5 million and a larger staff the last time it won an award in 2006. This year, the youth home had a budget of about $2.9 million.
“This is not a model situation that we have today,” Culliton said. “It is not 2006.”
The pending contract guarantees DuPage 24 beds at Kane's facility and makes “every effort” to isolate the DuPage population, Culliton said. He expressed confidence that if DuPage needed more beds at any given time, they would be available.
“The actual facts are that they always have housing,” Culliton said, adding that Kane's facility can house up to 120 inmates.
Kane County Chief Judge F. Keith Brown told board members that DuPage's youth detainees will be safe “because we will treat them as well as our youth.”
“I wanted to assure you that the most important thing for us is our youth,” Brown said. “And we will stand by to make sure that this works for both you and for us. We embrace being a regional facility because together I think we can do more.”