DuPage County approves budget that cuts 10 sheriff's office jobs

In a move strongly criticized by Sheriff John Zaruba, DuPage County Board members on Tuesday approved a $444.4 million budget for the coming fiscal year that eliminates 10 full-time positions at the sheriff's office.

The spending plan, which takes effect Dec. 1, is nearly identical to a proposal board Chairman Dan Cronin released in September.

While the budget increases the sheriff's annual spending from roughly $40.4 million to about $40.8 million, the office didn't get as much as Zaruba sought. The county also won't buy body cameras and replacement squad cars next year.

But it's the reduction of his office's full-time head count to 520 employees that appears to have upset Zaruba the most.

The county's top cop said in a written statement that DuPage residents "lost" on Tuesday because of "the elimination of 10 more cops on the street," adding that the department's head count has now been cut by 25 positions since 2014.

"This unprecedented vote by Chairman Cronin and his county board ensured a conscious decline in public safety in DuPage County as illegal drug use, mentally ill incarcerations and gang crime are all on the rise," Zaruba said in the statement. "The hard fact is that the biggest impact of their vote will be on the next victim of crime and their family."

But Cronin insists the head count reduction shouldn't negatively impact public safety as long as the sheriff does his job.

"He has more money (in his department's budget) today than he had yesterday," Cronin said. "He needs to be a better manager."

Cronin earlier this month asked Zaruba to answer a list of questions about the department, including details about the Explorer program, an inventory of seized vehicles and the cost of having video cameras in squad cars. But officials say Zaruba didn't fully answer the questions in the six-page response - and 258 pages of supporting documents - he provided.

While nearly the entire 18-member county board supported the budget, two members - Pete DiCianni and Elizabeth Chaplin - voted against the resolution that cut the county's total head count by 19 positions to 2,207 employees.

DiCianni said he opposed the resolution because of the impact on the sheriff's office. He said the county shouldn't let down its guard when young people are dying from heroin overdoses.

"Part of the challenge with heroin," he said, "is keeping the gangbangers - and people bringing drugs into this county - out of our county. You cannot do that with less people. You need to do that with more people."

DiCianni's remarks came soon after an Elmhurst couple talked to the board about the recent heroin-related death of their daughter.

Officials say the county is doing everything it can to address the heroin problem.

The budget, for example, includes $100,000 to educate students about the dangers of the drug. The money also would help pay for Project Connect - a new effort that connects heroin overdose survivors with the treatment and support they need to stay clean.

"To suggest the head count of the sheriff's department would somehow impede on our ability to do that (combat heroin) is just not accurate," board member Gary Grasso said.

Meanwhile, officials say DuPage had to make difficult decisions because of the budget impasse in Springfield. Cronin said there's a possibility the county could end up getting $8 million to $10 million less in revenue from the state.

"We may have to come back and cut the budget," Cronin said. "This is the best we could do at this point in time."

He said he wishes Zaruba would "be part of the solution - not part of the problem."

"It would be nice to have somebody that truly understood the magnitude of the problems and the challenges that we're facing and what their role is," he said.

Even with those challenges, DuPage officials decided not to increase property taxes for another year. The county's property tax levy will remain flat at $66.9 million.

"We're making some modest reductions in our budget, and we're reducing head count," Cronin said. "We believe that we're doing the responsible thing. We have to make tough choices and live within our means."