DuPage clerk’s election loss won’t end legal fight with county board

Despite losing her reelection bid, DuPage County Clerk Jean Kaczmarek says she will continue with an appeal challenging recent court rulings in her ongoing feud with the county board.

The Glen Ellyn Democrat has been locked in a yearslong battle with the board over how she runs the county clerk’s office and how bills get paid.

That fight ended up in court and was a key factor in why the two-term incumbent found herself facing a challenger in the Democratic primary election.

On Tuesday, DuPage County Board member Paula Deacon Garcia defeated Kaczmarek to become the Democratic nominee for county clerk. In November, she will face Republican Patricia Kladis-Schiappa, an attorney from Burr Ridge.

Deacon Garcia and Kladis-Schiappa both say they would end the legal battle with the county board if they are elected.

However, Kaczmarek will continue to serve as county clerk until the end of November.

In the meantime, she says she intends to pursue an appeal she filed earlier this year.

“The need for clear legal standards to govern the relationship between different elected offices is of much greater and wider consequence than the results of any individual election,” Kaczmarek said in a statement.

Noting that a DuPage judge sided with the county in two recent rulings, a spokesman for the DuPage County state's attorney's office said the office will “continue to vigorously defend the county in this matter.”

Kaczmarek has argued that multiple opinions issued by the Illinois attorney general's office have supported the contention that elected officials have internal control over their office. In addition, Kaczmarek claims the county has tried to require her office to make unnecessary budget transfers in order for bills to be paid.

County board members counter that they don’t want to tell Kaczmarek what to do. However, they say the county can require its elected officials and department heads to follow basic accounting procedures and state laws on bidding.

Still, Kaczmarek insists that the county board and the state’s attorney’s office “continue to mislead the public regarding the fact that they are simply ignoring” everything that the attorney general’s office has advised.

“There must be independence of county officers from county board interference,” Kaczmarek said. “Nothing has changed regarding the need for higher courts to clarify whether every attorney general’s opinion on these issues for decades has simply been wrong. The rest of the state is operating under different rules than DuPage County.”

The county board filed a lawsuit in 2024 seeking a judge’s order to compel Kaczmarek into compliance with county accounting procedures for bill payments.

At the time, Kaczmarek would not fill out the requested paperwork for budget transfers to get bills paid, arguing that it wasn’t necessary because there was enough money in her budget to cover the expenses.

Last August, a judge ruled in the county’s favor and compelled Kaczmarek to follow the county’s accounting procedures. Then in December, the same judge ruled against Kaczmarek’s request for summary judgment, where she argued contracts with two election-related vendors were exempt from bidding rules because they fell under professional services.

In January, Kaczmarek’s attorney filed the notice of appeal challenging both rulings.

On Wednesday, Kaczmarek’s attorney, Ken Florey, said legal briefs from both sides should be filed in the coming months. He was hopeful a ruling could be issued before the November election.

DuPage County Clerk Jean Kaczmarek released the following statement Wednesday after her election loss:

“The DuPage County Board and State’s Attorney continue to mislead the public regarding the fact that they are simply ignoring everything the Attorney General’s Office has advised for over 40 years. There must be independence of county officers from county board interference. Nothing has changed regarding the need for higher courts to clarify whether every Attorney General’s opinion on these issues for decades has simply been wrong. The rest of the state is operating under different rules than DuPage County. The need for clear legal standards to govern the relationship between different elected offices is of much greater and wider consequence than the results of any individual election.”