Outgoing DuPage County clerk isn’t giving up legal fight despite appeals court ruling

With just weeks left in office, embattled DuPage County Clerk Jean Kaczmarek said on Friday that she plans to ask the state’s highest court to weigh in on her ongoing legal fight with the county board.

On Thursday, the Third District Appellate Court issued a 3-0 ruling siding with the county and upholding DuPage County Judge Bryan Chapman’s previous rulings that the clerk’s office must follow the county’s accounting procedures and complete budget transfers.

By Friday afternoon, Kaczmarek asked DuPage County Chief Judge Bonnie Wheaton to appoint an attorney to file a petition asking Illinois Supreme Court justices to review the appellate court ruling. Kaczmarek has 35 days to file the petition.

“Thirty-eight days remain in my term of office, so it is my duty to represent the legal interests of the county clerk’s office until the end of my term, and I intend to file a petition for leave to appeal as soon as possible,” Kaczmarek wrote in a statement to the Daily Herald. “For as long as I remain the elected county clerk of DuPage County, I will continue to defend the independence of election administration against unlawful interference.”

Kaczmarek, who was first elected county clerk in 2018, lost her bid for a third term in the March Democratic primary. Democrat Paula Deacon Garcia, a sitting county board member, won the primary and is facing Republican Patricia Kladis-Schiappa in the county clerk race. Both candidates have said they would end the legal fight if elected.

In 2024, the county filed a lawsuit asking a judge to order Kaczmarek to comply with county regulations while paying bills.

In the complaint, the county charged that she was breaking state law by refusing to indicate where money should be pulled from her budget when another line item within her budget does not have enough money to pay a bill.

The county argued it was unable to pay vendors on time because of the clerk’s actions and, as a result, violated the state’s prompt payment act.

Kaczmarek has argued the county’s budgeting and accounting procedures violate state statutes giving her internal control over the clerk’s office and that previous non-binding opinion letters from the Illinois attorney general’s office bolstered her claim. The county argued it was not trying to interfere with how she runs the office or the payment of bills, but that accounting procedures needed to be followed and that county boards are allowed through state statute to put such procedures in place.

In their ruling Thursday, appellate court justices said the attorney general opinions could not be interpreted to mean that the county cannot implement the accounting procedures, adding that they are a “vital part of the County exercising its budgetary power while ensuring that funds are not misappropriated and that appropriation limits are not exceeded.”

The ruling also noted that state law grants the county board the power to manage county funds, examine and settle accounts against the county and implement financial procedures.

“We are grateful the Appellate Court upheld the lower court’s ruling, reinforcing what the County and State’s Attorney have said all along,” DuPage County Board Chair Deborah Conroy said in a written statement Friday. “We look forward to putting this matter behind us and working collaboratively with the next Clerk to ensure the office understands and follows the County’s procedures.”

To date, the county has spent more than $300,000 on attorney fees for Kaczmarek’s office. Kaczmarek had to have a special counsel appointed to represent her as the state’s attorney’s office could not represent the county board and the clerk’s office in the yearslong feud.

Conroy said the legal headache, attorney fees and countless hours spent dealing with disagreements about how bills are paid for the clerk’s office could have been easily avoided.

“The sad truth is that all of this could have been avoided had Clerk Kaczmarek simply listened to the state’s attorney and followed the law,” she said.

Kaczmarek’s request for legal counsel must first be presented to the county’s chief judge for approval. It is unclear when that issue will be decided.

Kaczmarek said Thursday’s ruling should be of concern to countywide elected officials across the state, saying the appellate court failed to address where the line is between the board’s authority to appropriate funds and the officeholder’s authority to decide how to spend the money.

“Every county clerk, sheriff and treasurer in the state of Illinois should be concerned that what has happened in DuPage County puts their offices at risk for micromanagement and interference from their county boards,” she said.

Alicia Fabbre is a freelance reporter for the Daily Herald.