Kane County files counterclaim against court clerk

Kane County taxpayers may not be on the hook after all for a lawsuit filed by Circuit Court Clerk Deb Seyller against the county board.

A counterclaim filed Tuesday in response to Seyller's suit seeks to make the circuit court clerk pay for the legal battle out of her own personal pocketbook.

Seyller responded to the counterclaim in a letter released by her attorney. The letter says the counterclaim is an "inappropriate" and "illegal" personal attack designed to silence anyone willing to stand up to county board Chairman Karen McConnaughay.

"This situation is akin to a large corporation seeking to silence individual protesters by filing lawsuits against them," Seyller wrote. "The message is clear: Disagree with the County Chair only at the risk of your own personal peril. It is not surprising that citizens hesitate to become involved in politics, if this is the result of voicing a legitimate opinion or grievance."

The original lawsuit, filed by Seyller after the board voted against her request for addition funding, asks for a preliminary injunction to force the county to pay the $555,000 she wants until the court case is resolved. The initial court date was listed as Jan. 4, 2011; Seyller's office could exhaust its funding next month if staffing remains as is.

Seyller said she'll continue on with her lawsuit with the hope that the county board overrules the counterclaim filed by McConnaughay without prior approval.

The county board met in closed session for more than an hour Tuesday afternoon discussing the issue. No overruling resulted from the meeting.

McConnaughay said she had not yet read Seyller's statement about the counterclaim when asked about it. But McConnaughay said the counterclaim is a direct response to Seyller's lawsuit.

"She sued us," McConnaughay said. "We have to respond. Now all of a sudden she's concerned about the taxpayers? She started this fight knowing full well that it's on the back of the taxpayers. It's really kind of hard to put the genie back in the bottle at this point."

Asked if that means Seyller should fund the cost of the lawsuit out of her own pocket, McConnaughay would only say, "She needs to take responsibility."

McConnaughay said the whole budget disagreement can come to a fast resolution at any point if Seyller agrees to shift some of the financial burden of running her office back to special funds unique to the circuit clerk's office.

Indeed, McConnaughay said there was no budget problem in Seyller's office until the circuit clerk shifted more costs to the county's general fund. That fund pays the bulk of the county's bills and is shared by departments across the district.

Seyller has repeatedly said using the special funds for some of the costs the county board wants them to cover is illegal. As a result, she's refused to use the special funds. McConnaughay said that argument is baseless.

"We disagree that those funds are not available to her to make her payroll," McConnaughay said. "As a taxpayer, do you really care what fund you pay the bills out of?"

Lawsuits: Seyller refuses to use special funds to cover costs