The Aurora City Council unanimously approved a lease in a city-owned downtown building for a satellite office for the Kane County clerk.
The arrangement between the city and Kane County is an outgrowth of the referendum earlier this year abolishing the Aurora Election Commission. Aurora residents will be able to do election-related business at the satellite clerk’s office they used to do at the Election Commission office.
The clerk’s office will be at 5 E. Downer Place, Suite F, in a spot used until recently by the city’s Legal Department. It is a retail suite in the city’s Stolp Island parking garage, and is directly across from the GAR Memorial Hall building on Downer.
Despite having some questions about it, aldermen had indicated they would approve the lease as it came through the committee process.
Richard Veenstra, Aurora’s corporation counsel, said this week the final lease changed a little. One change is that the final lease is between the city and Kane County, on behalf of the County Clerk’s Office. It originally was directly with the clerk’s office, but by doing it with Kane County, the full County Board can vote on it.
Also included in the lease are the hours for the office, which will be the same as the main office in Geneva — 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday.
Brian Pollack, a spokesman for the clerk’s office, told aldermen that during times of election, the office would be open the same hours as the office in Geneva for early voting.
Veenstra also said that, as firmed up in an email he received from the clerk’s office, other county clerk functions will be available at the Aurora office, such as access to birth and death certificates, the ability to get a marriage or civil union license, business registration, notary public functions and the RTA pass program.
One thing aldermen had said in the past was that the situation was a bit unfair to Aurora residents in DuPage, Will and Kendall counties. Mayor Richard Irvin had pointed out that the situation was even more unfair for DuPage residents of Aurora, because they paid the tax toward the Election Commission, even though they did not use it.
Ald. Richard Mervine, 8th Ward, who represents a chunk of the DuPage portion of Aurora, said he understood that the current lease deals only with Kane County.
But he said in the future, the city might look at giving space in the same office for the DuPage, Will and Kendall county clerks.
“It’s worthwhile looking into in the future,” Mervine said.
Irvin said he agreed.
“We should have an many services available to our citizens as possible,” he said.
