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Kane County rejects pay raises but circuit clerk continues push

A plan to give Kane County's top elected officials raises after the November election appeared dead Wednesday morning, but persistent lobbying may revive a salary hike for the county's highest-ranking Republican.

Members of the county board's finance committee debated raises for eight elected department heads in public for the first time. The discussion began behind the scenes at least two weeks ago when a salary comparison to elected officials in neighboring counties was passed out to select board members.

The spreadsheet called for raises as high as 33 percent for county board Chairman Chris Lauzen and 10 percent for six other elected department heads. Circuit Court Clerk Tom Hartwell also was poised to a receive a 21 percent raise, according to the document.

Multiple county board members said Hartwell lobbied them heavily to approve the plan before Wednesday's finance committee meeting. Hartwell recently was re-elected as chairman of the Kane County Republican Party.

In addition to his $90,655 salary as circuit clerk, Hartwell has a separate income from private practice as an attorney.

Despite Hartwell's request, the majority of the finance committee shunned the proposed raises.

Joe Onzick, the county's finance director, made a presentation showing new expenses are outpacing new income. That means the board likely will have to tap into the property tax freeze maintenance account for the first time in the five years that the levy has been frozen.

With that in mind, board member Theresa Barreiro said it's not the time to discuss raises for politicians.

"Just last week we did not have funds to give the public defender for her office," Barreiro said. "And now we're hearing from finance that we barely have enough for a 2 percent salary increase for regular county employees. When people hear we're looking at pay increases for elected officials, they blow their tops. I also fear that doing this is a precursor to raising the tax levy, which I am totally against."

Fellow Democrat Cristina Castro said the county's finances are further imperiled by lack of state funding for several county programs, including child support collection. The county recently agreed to use local taxpayer dollars to prop up the program in hopes of the state eventually repaying the debt.

"With the mess of a financial climate that we have right now with the state, this is not the appropriate time for raises," Castro said. "I polled my district about these raises. They went berserk."

Board Vice Chairman Drew Frasz supported a call for a long-term solution to setting the salaries of elected officials. He suggested the formation of a residents committee to research and provide a taxpayer perspective on any pay bumps moving forward.

Waiting for such a committee would kill any prospect of raises immediately following the November election. State law prevents changes to the pay of the county's elected officials during their terms of office.

It also requires any raises that would become active at the start of a new term to be put into place at least 180 days prior to the swearing in of the elected officials. That deadline would hit the first week of June. There is only one full county board meeting between now and then.

And that's where it appears Hartwell will try to keep at least a portion of his proposed raise alive. Board member T.R. Smith said Hartwell lobbied him before the finance committee meeting to back the full raise package for all countywide elected officials. When that plan died, Smith, as well as several other board members, said Hartwell began calling them to support at least a 2 percent raise just for him.

"He believes he's saved the county more than $3 million since he's been in office, and giving him at least a 2 percent raise would show all the other elected officials efforts to cut costs won't go unrewarded," Smith said.

Smith said Hartwell is telling board members the 180-day rule doesn't apply to his position and he can receive a raise at any time. Hartwell did not respond to multiple interview requests.

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