On Wednesday, the Kane County Board Finance Committee opted not to recommend terminating a contract with a firm the board hired to create a five-year strategic plan for the county.
The contract, which had become something of a flashpoint among board members as they made the board’s budget for the upcoming year, is now set to continue as planned, though how it will be funded for the coming year is not yet decided on.
The county board first OK’d the contract with accounting and consulting firm Berry, Dunn, McNeil and Parker, or BerryDunn, in February, according to past reporting. The board is asking the firm to help the county develop goals and timelines for the strategic plan. It would be the county’s first strategic plan since 2006.
The contract with BerryDunn approved earlier this year is for $127,500, and was included in the 2025 budget.
But, at a Kane County Board Executive Committee meeting in August, Kane County Finance Director Kathleen Hopkinson explained that the county was not sure whether BerryDunn would be finished with its services to the county by the end of the current budget year on Nov. 30. So, she explained, it was recommended that the county board re-budget a portion of the total contract amount, set at $100,000, for 2026.
That number is “a moving target,” however, according to Hopkinson, meaning it depends on whether and how much of the project is completed by the end of the year.
Originally, the $100,000 for the strategic plan contract, which is included in the county board’s proposed budget, was set to be paid from the county’s general fund.
The general fund, however, is facing a multimillion-dollar gap that the county board is attempting to close.
When Kane County Board Chair Corinne Pierog presented the board’s proposed budget for the coming year, the board discussed how it was going to reduce a deficit in its budget, with the strategic plan contract coming up as one possible expense that could be paid for with other funds or terminated.
Pierog suggested that this year’s allocated amount for the strategic plan contract could be paid for with money from the Grand Victoria Riverboat Fund, which provides a portion of the annual net operating income of the Grand Victoria Riverboat to the county.
The county uses those funds for both internal projects within the county, which the strategic plan would fall under, and to fund projects by local organizations.
That suggestion generated some pushback, however, with regards to the county board’s instruction to all the departments and offices that they reduce their budgets this year.
“We are going to have everyone else … putting their budgets together, and they’re going to be like, ‘Well, we can get money here. We can get money there,’” board member Leslie Juby said at the August meeting. “And it defeats the whole purpose.”
Terminating the contract was also floated as a possible solution, a suggestion that was addressed again later that month at a Kane County Board Executive Committee meeting.
Juby, for example, supported canceling the contract, questioning the timeline for “deliverables” from the firm. Board member Mavis Bates said that the county should get the benefit of any work or meetings that have been done so far.
Pierog said that the timeline for the strategic plan was delayed, but she wasn’t sure why.
Kane County Assistant State’s Attorney John Frank said that the board could terminate the contract, but would need to vote on a formal resolution to do so. The county would then pay BerryDunn for the hours it worked rather than the full contract amount.
The board also discussed canceling the contract with its lobbyist, but Pierog took it off the table because there wasn’t consensus among the committee.
Then, on Wednesday, the county Finance Committee considered a formal resolution to terminate the strategic plan contract.
Juby again expressed support for canceling the contract, and noted that the county may not have the funds to ultimately execute the plan’s recommendations.
“I understand the value,” she said Wednesday. “I just do not feel that we’re in a situation now where we can afford to support it.”
Board member Jarett Sanchez said he thinks strategic planning is “a necessity” for large organizations.
“Whether or not you’re going to have the funds to follow through is not the point,” Sanchez said. “The point is that you have, essentially, an entity that exists beyond all the people that are currently here, and there has to be some kind of guiding principles, guiding documents that allow this organization to continue in a more thoughtful manner going forward in how they’re going to appropriate whatever funds they do have.”
Board member Anita Lewis said she was not against the strategic plan, but that she didn’t agree with the decision to pay for it using riverboat funding.
Like Juby, board member Bill Lenert pointed to the county’s financial position, this year and in the future.
“We are asking every department and every elected official in the county to cut their budgets substantially, and these are some real hardships that they’re going to have to endure,” he said. “The strategic plan is a very good idea for five years. However, I’m very concerned, not only with this coming year’s budget, but next year’s budget, which will be even more problematic.”
Board member Jon Gripe said that the work of the strategic plan is “still valuable,” but that the county’s situation has changed since it initially contracted with BerryDunn.
“The budget crisis is our number one issue,” Gripe said.
Sanchez, however, suggested that the county not having a strategic plan for many years may have contributed to the county’s budget issues. Board member Dale Berman echoed a similar view.
Bates, too, expressed support for the strategic plan.
“We are rudderless right now in Kane County,” she said. “We don’t have a set direction.”
The committee ultimately shot down the proposal to terminate the contract on Wednesday, with members Juby and Lenert voting for the termination, and Lewis, Sanchez, Berman and board member Vern Tepe voting against.
Whether the strategic plan is ultimately paid for with riverboat funds is still under discussion. The county’s Riverboat Grant Committee discussed internal applications for riverboat funding for fiscal year 2026 at its meeting on Thursday, though final allocations of that funding will still need to be passed by the county board.
mmorrow@chicagotribune.com
