Kane County Democratic hopefuls field questions about treasurer’s office

The three Democratic hopefuls in the March 17 primary election for Kane County treasurer fielded questions at a recent League of Women Voters forum at the Gail Borden Public Library in Elgin.

Penny Wegman, Scott Johansen and Candida “Connie” Cain are vying for the party’s nomination. The primary winner would run against incumbent Treasurer Chris Lauzen, a Republican, who is seeking a second term.

Wegman is the Kane County auditor. Cain is a CPA who had worked for current the treasurer for about 18 months. Scott Johansen is a businessman who had an unsuccessful run for a county board seat in 2022.

As past director of financial operations at the treasurer’s office from May 2023 to November 2024, Cain said she has expertise on collecting and investing $1.5 billion in annual property taxes.

“I have experience in a professional setting for dispute resolution,” Cain said. “I can always be counted on to use diplomacy to settle disagreements and build consensus.”

Johansen said he has 30 years of experience in private industry, working extensively with bankers and interested parties in managing funds.

“When I built my business, it was an entrepreneurial startup,” Johansen said. “I had raised all the money with myself, a business plan and two other business partners.”

As an elected auditor for the county, Wegman said she increased transparency and maintained the independence of the office.

“My office upholds my standards consistently and operate within the law, and make information reliable and accessible,” Wegman said. “Because of this work, I was named Auditor of the Year by the Illinois Association of County Auditors for 2025.”

Accountability, oversight

In response to a question about how he might approach accountability and oversight of the treasurer’s office, Johansen said he would establish procedures for how and when to do things.

“I believe it is safe to say that Kane County government has got accountability procedures,” he said. “The first thing I would do is make sure that the people involved in the office have been trained on that.”

Wegman said she would increase accountability by increasing transparency.

“One example of this in the auditor’s office is the creation of our purchase-card activity report,” Wegman said, referring to county credit cards – known as purchase cards or p-cards.

“When I first took office, I immediately took a look at the policy around the purchase-cards. One of the observations we made was there was a lack of transparency for transactions of these cards,” Wegman said. “As a result, we created a purchase card report on an ongoing basis. This report tells what departments are spending, where the money is being spent and the business purpose that was provided.”

Cain said she provided daily financial oversight during her time as director of financial operation in the treasurer’s office.

“I oversaw daily financial processes, including bank reconciliation and transaction monitoring for our $1.5 billion in our annual property tax collections,” Cain said. “During one monthly reconciliation, I identified a recurring discrepancy that could have led to inaccurate reporting. I used my CPA auditing and fraud investigation experience to review the issue, traced it to a processing error and worked with a team to correct it and recover the discrepancy.”

Risk management of public funds

As to what principles would guide the candidates’ approach to risk management for public funds, Wegman said, “Risk management starts with access.”

“Only the right people should have access to the accounts and systems,” Wegman said. “Access should be clearly defined and in view. For me, that is strong practices with limited permissions and separating duties so no one person knows everything. For example, ensuring that passwords are complex and not readily accessible. That’s a simple solution, but an important safeguard.”

Cain said her approach to risk management for public funds involves core principles.

“Safety in principle, first,” Cain said. “Prudent diversification and liquidity to meet needs following the county’s investment policy, and the Illinois Public Funds Investment Act. Safety is paramount. I will prioritize low-risk, high-quality investments using my CPA expertise and my fraud investigation experience to monitor and mitigate credit and market risks objectively.”

Johansen said the office should have procedures and policies in place to see that passwords are protected.

“The bigger issue in my mind is making sure that you’re working with the correct banks that ensure and are vetted by Kane County ... to ensure the practices they are using inside the bank are appropriate,” Johansen said, “and that there’s a relationship that’s established to ensure trust.”