Deborah Allan: 2026 candidate for Kane County Board District 17

Bio

Party: Democratic

Office sought: Kane County Board District 17

City: Elgin

Age: 76

Occupation: I have been fortunate to hold this office since the November 2002 General Election; we were sworn in on Dec. 1, 2002. My husband and I closed up his attorney office in 2014.

Previous offices held: Gifford Park Association (neighborhood group), treasurer in the past and currently vice president; Elgin Public Museum (of Natural History and Anthropology, the beautiful David E. Postle building located in Lords Park, currently a board member

Q&A

Why are you running for this office? Is there a particular issue that motivates you?

The only reason to run for a public service office is to make life a little more convenient or pleasant for our neighbors. I also believe people who serve in elected positions should have a generosity of spirit toward their constituents. It is more appropriate to think of our neighbors as people we should help, rather than people we should punish. Interestingly, in the long run, programs that help people tend to cost less than institutions that punish them.

If you are an incumbent, describe a few important initiatives you’ve led. If you’re not an incumbent, describe a few ways you would contribute to the board.

A Kane County Board member is one of 24 (26, when I was first elected), so “leading” means working to convince 12 other members to support a certain position. And, since much of the work we do is initiated by staff who are working for our constituents as full-time employees, right up until the time we vote to approve each resolution, our job is to support them with what they need.

I was chairman of the administration committee which spearheaded the building of our first-ever Kane County Coroner's Office as part of our Multi-Use Facility (it was previously located in the basement of the previous sheriff's office and jail on Fabyan, and then in a small and inappropriate building behind the government center.)

I will continue to try to steer our Grand Victoria Riverboat Committee funding in the direction I believe those funds were meant to be spent, Environment/Education/Economic Development capital projects or programs, and not annual operational staff expenses.

Is there a specific service or amenity that is lacking in the county? If so, how do you propose to provide and fund it?

Our Animal Control program should consider adding a trap/neuter/release (TNR) program, which would be useful to areas who need help dealing particularly with a growing feline population; currently people do such work in their neighborhoods, and out of their own pockets.

Some seed money could come from the Riverboat funds (environment concern), and people would donate toward this.

Also, the RTA Sales Tax was created by the IL Legislature to provide a dedicated revenue stream to the collar counties for road infrastructure. Each county is required to keep a rolling 5-year TIP for planning purposes.

Since DuPage County already had a high gas tax, they needed funds for public safety purposes, and would only sign onto the legislation, if they could use the funds accordingly. So counties now have the ability to siphon the RTA Sales Tax to balance their public-safety-heavy budgets, and Kane County used $7 million that way for 2026.

The RTA funds need to be sacrosanct, because they are used as federal and state matching funds, and I will continue to lobby my colleagues accordingly.

With the county's budget being squeezed by federal funding cuts and other factors, what initiatives would you support to increase revenue and/or save money?

I believe the Consumer Price Index (CPI) increase should be added each year to our budget to allow us to purchase the materials needed to do our work and pay for our software licenses, multiyear contracts, and union contracts and our non-union staff (Microsoft never seems to want to lower their prices.)

And I believe we have to limit the budgets of some of our elected offices, which have built up terrific programs with added staff we cannot afford. We should first suggest looking at each position as someone retires or resigns, and there may be programs that should employ four people, rather than 12. However, elected officers have internal control over how they wish to operate their offices, so the board's only choice is to limit their annual budget.

What is the single most important issue facing your district, and how should the county address it?

Since my District 17 is entirely within the City of Elgin, most of my neighbors' needs are addressed by the city. County responsibilities have to do with their traveling on safe county roads and bridges, their reasonable access to the courts, their confidence in our elections, their safety in grocery stores and restaurants, their use of our health department programs and partner facilities (FQHC, Ride-in-Kane, low- cost rabies vaccines, our many partnerships through the Sheriff's Office and our Office of Emergency Management,) and probably the best-loved of all, their use of our myriad 22,000 acres of forest preserves (we county board members are so fortunate as to also serve as Forest Preserve Commissioners, probably our nicest perk!)

The new health department building also houses a county clerk satellite office for birth/death records, marriage certificates, passports, and will include a court services office for probation and other uses, so people in my district and the north end of the county won't have to travel to Geneva.

Why are you the best person to serve in this role?

I have enjoyed and been committed to this position since I was first voted into it by my neighbors. There are a minimum of 21 meetings each month, and I and many of us either attend or Zoom most of them, both to follow the programs and costs we are committing our constituents to, and to hear how our fellow members are considering the benefits and challenges of such programs and costs.

This is a substantial amount of time and energy and study in order to make the best decisions on behalf of my neighbors, and I have been honored to do this work for the people who placed me here.

I trust in local government, because it can be watched and understood by each of us, and I love that my neighbors know where I live, and will stop to talk to me while I'm mowing the lawn, and can get answers and direction, if they want, from me and the other people they vote for. I believe in the votes I make on my neighbors' behalf, and if I don't have answers, I can probably track them down. I am pleased to be a phone call or email away.