Daily Herald opinion: Costly stubbornness: Clerk’s refusal to adhere to county policy serves neither taxpayers nor good government

From the standpoint of DuPage County Clerk Jean Kaczmarek, the ongoing melodrama she is putting the DuPage County Board through has never been about taxpayer interests or the protection of an important public policy.

Its sole theme has been Kaczmarek’s insistence that nobody can tell her how to run her office. The result has been a costly, embarrassing back-and-forth between the two parties that has forced unnecessary costs on taxpayers and, in fact, defied good public policy.

This week, the taxpayer side of this fiasco took another hit, as DuPage County State’s Attorney Bob Berlin filed suit against Kaczmarek to require her to adhere to county accounting practices so that it can pay bills that are gathering late fees and legal penalties. Because he is the county’s attorney, Berlin must represent county officials and obviously could not act both on behalf of Kaczmarek and in opposition to her. So, he asked a judge to appoint counsel to represent her, suggesting either someone from the state attorney general’s office or a state’s attorney from a neighboring county.

Kaczmarek responded by asking for a private defense attorney.

The origins of this dispute trace to the clerk’s refusal to adhere to a county policy requiring competitive bidding on major business contracts. Kaczmarek says she knows who her office is doing business with, and she doesn’t need the formality of competitive bidding to determine whether the contracts she signs are in the taxpayers’ best interest. Moreover, she adds with particular emphasis, she is in charge of managing her office’s budget and no one can tell her how to spend its money.

That position is counterintuitive on its face. Competitive bidding is a reasonable practice helping assure that taxpayers are getting the best deals, transparently and without the potential for favoritism. That Kaczmarek balks at this very reasonable county policy is a show of selfish contempt for one of the foundations of good management of public funds.

But the latest tussle involves a simple technicality of telling the county what fund it should use when paying her bills. As of August, Kaczmarek’s office has accumulated $142,823 in unpaid bills, according to the county auditor, because she won’t designate which of her funds payments for certain bills should come out of and county officials cannot unilaterally make those assignments.

Ironically, the county’s hands are tied precisely because making such decisions would interfere with Kaczmarek’s authority over management of the clerk’s office.

So, an expensive court battle appears to be required in order to make a determination that could be handled — in five minutes, according to an affidavit from the county’s chief financial officer — by a simple show of cooperation from the clerk.

To say that this situation is unfortunate is a monumental understatement. Thumbing her nose at the county serves neither Kaczmarek’s office nor the taxpayers of DuPage County. Even if the courts ultimately rule in her favor, the only benefit will be to sustain her own stubbornness.

That surely cannot be the goal voters had in mind when they put Kaczmarek in her position, and it certainly does not serve them well.