Many Kane Co. departments could soon run out of funds

The Kane County Board must decide soon if it will come up with more money for several departments that will run out of cash before the end of the fiscal year. The alternative is unpleasant.

As the county limps into the final quarter of its fiscal year, several departments remain on pace to spend more money than allotted. Finance Director Cheryl Pattelli has sent memos to those departments heads asking what they intend to, and to spell out potential consequences awaiting them.

"Basically, it says they can go and ask for more money," Pattelli said. "And if it's denied, the board is going to stop paying their bills."

Pattelli this month sent warnings to seven departments in which she projects overages: the state's attorney's office, the county clerk's office, the public defender's office, the court services department, the judiciary and courts department, the sheriff's office and the circuit court clerk's office.

At the time Pattelli sent out the memo, all those offices were on track to run out of cash sometime in November. Some things have changed since then. For instance, the public defender's office is on track to win a $143,000 pardon from the county board after telling the board's judiciary and public safety committee the department was too broke to properly staff courtrooms. Likewise - although they didn't talk in terms of specific dollars - Chief Judge F. Keith Brown and State's Attorney John Barsanti received pats on the back for cutting their budgets to the point where mandated functions are surviving.

Circuit Court Clerk Deb Seyller could not be reached for comment on her situation. Pattelli's latest memo indicates Seyller will be about $93,000 short of paying her bills at the end of the year. Seyller has hired an attorney for consultations about her budget options.

County Sheriff Pat Perez, who has the largest of all the department budgets, has had several public confrontations with the county board. Perez said he believes he's also paying for the sins of past sheriffs and being held to a different standard than the other aspects of the public safety system.

"I would not be the first sheriff, and I probably won't be the last, to exceed budget and get an adjustment at the end of the year," Perez said of how he'll pay all his bills. Pattelli's memo has Perez between $1.1 and $1.3 million short.

Perez put that number in perspective by saying his current budget is actually $26,000 less than what the sheriff's department actually spent back in 2004, before Perez was at the helm.

"I'm not going over budget because I've mismanaged the funds that were given to me," Perez said. "I'm going over budget because of the funds that were taken away from me midyear." Indeed, Perez said he implemented a 2.3 percent cut at the start of the budget year when asked to cut 1.5 percent. It was the additional 5.5 percent cut he couldn't swallow, at least not in one bite.

In the next six months, Perez said more members of his administrative and civilian staff will retire and not be replaced. For that reason alone, Perez expects 2010 will be better than 2009.

And what if the county board just refuses to pay his outstanding bills at the end of this year?

"I don't know what else I can do," Perez said. "We'll just see what happens. I can tell you I'm not going to go out and hire a lawyer."