Kane County changes economic development mission

Bereft of development, the mission of what once was one of the fastest-growing counties in the nation has changed.

Planning and Development Department employees in Kane County will spend less time thinking about new subdivisions and more time applying for and managing grants in a complete restructuring.

The department was heavily targeted in recent cuts to staff and operating cuts as the county labored to avoid another year of finishing the budget year in red ink. The department took a 27 percent cut and saw the loss of its longtime leader, Phil Bus, to retirement.

County board member Cathy Hurlbut is the chairman of the county board's Development Committee. Hurlbut said Tuesday that the slumping economy made staffing changes a necessity.

"Our construction is way down," Hurlbut said. "As a result, we ended up letting some people go in the office. And, we started looking at what do we think 2010, 2011 and 2012 are going to bring. What we see is a lot more grant funding and a lot more grant work and less building."

That means hiring two new county employees to help manage the grants as they come in. Hurlbut said those new employees will be paid from the grants themselves. When the grants dry up, the employees will be let go. But that won't be for awhile. Hurlbut said most of the grants made available through President Barack Obama's administration are for housing and infrastructure projects with duties that last until at least 2014.

"Probably the majority of our focus is continuing to do infrastructure improvements, whether it be countywide or in our villages," Hurlbut said. "We grew so fast that those infrastructures didn't grow as quickly as we did."

One other change in the county's development department is Hurlbut herself having more of a hands-on presence. Bus' retirement left the pecking order in the department unclear. So Hurlbut is running some of the staff meetings as the self-proclaimed "bad guy" until the machine can run itself.

"Honestly, it would be nice to have a Phil (Bus) back," Hurlbut said. "But in this economic climate, it just doesn't make sense to do that. Through 2012 we don't see a huge housing boom in the forefront. So we don't need as extensive a building department."