DuPage County forced to pay bill after vendor disables election equipment

DuPage County Board members this week approved a $629,068 expenditure after learning that election-related equipment had been disabled and wouldn’t be reactivated until a vendor was paid.

Vendor Hart InterCivic billed the DuPage County clerk’s office in September. The invoice was for services related to the county’s electronic poll books. Election officials use the devices to review and process voter information.

County board members did not learn the bill was unpaid until after the company contacted DuPage on April 1.

According to a memo to the board, Hart InterCivic notified the county that it had turned off “phone service” to the electronic poll books and would not provide services until the invoice is paid.

“This is very alarming,” county board member Jim Zay said. “Our election equipment has been turned off because the clerk’s office cannot get us a September invoice.”

Zay noted the county board negotiated the initial contract with Hart InterCivic.

However, the board was removed from the contract last year when the county clerk negotiated terms to renew the deal.

On Tuesday, the county board had to approve a $190,815 fund transfer within the clerk’s budget to get the bill from Hart InterCivic fully paid.

In addition to paying Hart InterCivic, the county board agreed to pay bills from four other vendors for election-related services. The amount of those expenses totaled $628,189.

Board members expressed frustration about their long-running battle with DuPage County Clerk Jean Kaczmarek over bills from her office. They once again reiterated concerns that she is not following state procurement laws by awarding no-bid contracts.

Still, they said, the bills had to be paid because the services were already rendered.

“Even though I think we need to hold our nose in doing so, I think we have to pay,” county board member Sam Tornatore said.

Attempts to reach a Hart InterCivic representative for comment were unsuccessful.

On Wednesday, DuPage County Chief Deputy Clerk Adam Johnson rebuffed the outrage from board members, saying their decision to pay the bills proves the clerk’s office has been right all along and that the county board cannot delay payment of bills.

Noting that bills from the clerk’s office have been denied for payment in the past, Johnson said bills from the March primary were not turned over for payment until after the election to prevent any disruption to the election.

“We were deliberately avoiding anything that would have jeopardized the election,” Johnson said. “We didn’t trust that we could submit the election vendors’ bills and have them paid based on the county’s past actions.”

Johnson said he was not aware that any election equipment was turned off and questioned the validity of the claims outlined in the memo to board members. He added that Hart InterCivic’s election equipment functioned properly throughout the March primary.

“We don’t put a lot of stock in what they say on the board floor,” Johnson said, referring to this week’s county board discussion.

Last summer, the Illinois attorney general’s office was appointed as a special prosecutor to investigate bidding practices in the county clerk’s office. Details about four of the bills approved this week are being forwarded to that office as part of the ongoing investigation, county officials said.