Kane County court system looks to salaries to cut budget

Kane County's court system may not be able to cut programs to meet budget cut demands, but they can cut salary.

Chief Judge F. Keith Brown announced Tuesday that his employees will take five unpaid holidays for the remainder of this year to help get his budget to the 5.5 percent reduction mandated by the county board.

In doing so, Brown became the first elected department head in the county yet to make the budget cuts to impose any sort of a pay cut for his staff. County board members have repeatedly suggested other elected department heads still fighting the cuts impose similar measures.

"The employees weren't giving me high-fives, but they understood," Brown said.

County board members on the Judicial and Public Safety Committee applauded Brown's move as a positive example.

"You're living up to your end of the bargain," said County Board Member John Fahy. "You're being a team player, and we appreciate it."

The court system spent the rest of Tuesday in a special meeting with the committee demonstrating how even cutting the non-mandated functions it performs - such as intensive supervision of sex offenders and people convicted of felony domestic violence - actually increase costs for the county.

"If you cut back resources for probation, then you better plan to build a bigger jail," Brown said.

Adding to the budget debacle for 2010 will be a 35 percent reduction in state funding for court services, including the various forms of probation. That will result in the loss of about $914,000.

Also on the horizon are the additional costs of treating 17-year-olds convicted of a misdemeanor as juveniles and housing then in the juvenile detention center. The change, required by state law beginning Jan. 1, will raise costs because housing juvenile inmates is far more expensive than adults.

"I disagree so strongly with this law," said Jim Mueller, executive director of Kane County Court Services. "It's not well thought out. Financially, it's a killer."