County chairman hopeful keys in on fees

Hiring expensive government consultants is one of the practices Jim MacRunnels is railing against as he campaigns to unseat Kane County Board Chairman Karen McConnaughay.

Even before he declared his candidacy for the Feb. 5 Republican nomination, MacRunnels openly criticized what he viewed as a waste of taxpayer money.

A certified financial planner, MacRunnels scoured budget documents and submitted requests for other financial statements under the state's Freedom of Information Act.

"I know we've hired consultants for the jail, the animal control shelter, the Stearns (Road) bridge project," MacRunnels said.

Contracts and consulting fees for the county board's portion of the annual budget increased a whopping 620 percent in one year, MacRunnels says in campaign material.

Indeed, the county board budget line item for "contracts and consulting" grew from $47,699 in fiscal 2005 to $343,454 in 2006. In 2007 it was budgeted at $316,440.

"How much more can you afford?" MacRunnels asks in one campaign flier.

According to McConnaughay, the 2006 line item funded consultants that helped develop the county's strategic plan and lawyers who worked on county lawsuits against Shell Oil for illegal dumping at Settler's Hill landfill, and against the companies involved in building the roof at the Kane County Judicial Center.

McConnaughay, who is seeking a second 4-year term leading the 26-member board, defends the consulting fees as a cost of doing business in a growing county.

"There is definitely a big jump in the amount of consultants the county is using," she acknowledged. "That is tied to the jail, to the Stearns Road (bridge) corridor, to the various transportation projects. … But our operational costs remain pretty steady."

The operating portion of the county's general fund budget actually decreased 1.1 percent from fiscal 2006 to fiscal 2007, when it was budgeted at $76.6 million.

Consultants often are hired for construction projects, McConnaughay said, adding that there has been no shortage of major construction projects happening in Kane County over the past couple years. The list includes the new jail in St. Charles Township scheduled to open later this year, the animal control shelter in Geneva that opened last year, and the Stearns Road bridge over the Fox River in St. Charles Township.

"We contract out expertise that we only need for a limited period of time," McConnaughay said.

Bringing a full-time employee on staff -- and paying the salary, pension, health care and other benefits that entails -- for a limited time doesn't make sense, McConnaughay argues. It would be difficult even to find a qualified engineer, contractor or other expert willing to join the county payroll for a temporary assignment, she said.

"And not only that, when you hire a firm, you're not just getting one individual or two, you're getting the whole firm and support staff," McConnaughay said.

For MacRunnels, the growing consulting fees are evidence that the county board needs to rein in spending. He points out that major projects -- including construction of the Kane County Judicial Center -- undertaken during the previous administration did not result in hundreds of thousands of dollars in consulting fees. The county board should rely on the expertise of employees already on staff, he said.

"You need to decide if the spending habits of our current administration matches your pocketbook," MacRunnels said at a recent candidates forum. "If it does, then you should vote for my opponent. If it doesn't, your vote should come my way."

McConnaughay, meanwhile, points out that Kane County government accounts for just 5 percent of every property tax bill, down from 7 percent in 1996. She also said the board has passed a balanced budget every year since fiscal 2005.

"I'm a taxpayer, too," she said. "My property tax bill last time I received it I thought was pretty outrageous. But it's disingenuous to blame the county board for the tax bill."