No food for jurors, no more window or telephone services to citizens wanting information about their court cases, and cutting the positions of roughly 40 Kane County State’s Attorney’s Office employees, 21 clerks, at least 20 Court Services employees and seven Public Defender’s Office attorneys.
These are some of the possible implications of proposed budget reductions in Kane County’s public safety offices this year, according to the county leaders who run those offices.
At the Kane County Board Judicial and Public Safety Committee meeting on Thursday, county elected officials and staff criticized the county board’s recent attempts to cut down the county budget for the coming year amid a looming shortfall, pointing to the programs it would impact in their respective offices, the staff reductions they may have to make and the possible liability the county could incur for not providing required services.
This pushback came to a head on Thursday after the county board has, for months, been discussing how it will close a budget gap for the 2026 fiscal year that Kane County Board Chair Corinne Pierog has previously estimated as being in the range of $25 million to $29 million, according to past reporting.
Gaps in the county’s annual budgets are not new, but the county has been dealing with the shortfall since 2023 by dipping into its cash reserves, according to past reporting. Last year, for example, the county balanced its budget with roughly $27 million in reserve funds. But now the county is on track to dip below its required 90-day reserves in 2027, if revenue and spending remain level.
The county board attempted to close this gap via a referendum question that would have increased the county’s sales tax by 0.75% to pay for public safety expenses, which was projected to generate more than $50 million in revenue each year. But it was overwhelmingly shot down by voters this past April.
Since then, the Kane County Board has been discussing how it will close the county’s budget gap for the next fiscal year.
One measure that gained traction recommended that all county departments and offices cut their requested budgets by roughly 8%, which the board approved last month, according to past reporting.
Then, on Tuesday, the county board voted to direct the county’s finance director to prepare a draft budget with expenses for all elected offices set at reduced levels from what they were allocated last year.
But the proposed budget cuts generated pushback on Thursday from the county leadership overseeing public safety offices, many of which are anticipating significant cuts.
At the meeting, Kane County Chief Judge Robert Villa said he and the other leaders “needed to bring out into the open what we were actually talking about doing,” Villa said of the cuts, “and not do it from the comfort of our chambers or our offices and not let the public understand, or those that work with us understand, what exactly is on the table.”
As far as judiciary and court expenses, Villa pointed to the example of interpreter reimbursements, saying that, although the office is ultimately reimbursed for providing interpreter services, that’s not reflected in the way the county board calculates the judiciary and courts’ expenses and budget.
He said the budget cuts might mean not providing jurors with food, and that the reductions combined with upcoming collective bargaining agreements could mean cutting staff.
“These are just services that we provide,” Villa said of the work the judiciary and courts do. “And if the public really doesn’t want these services, they would have to tell you, but they don’t get that opportunity. They’re not even asked. ‘Here’s a list of all the things we’re going to close. You want these?’ They don’t even know. And then they’re going to take it on the chin when we all do it.”
Like Villa, Kane County’s Executive Director of Court Services Lisa Aust said her office relies significantly on reimbursements. She said cutting roughly $1.2 million — the board’s most recent directive for court services — from its budget would equate to cutting 20 to 25 staff, many of whom are staff working in juvenile detention. And doing so could open the county up to lawsuits for not staffing its juvenile justice center adequately, according to Aust.
“That is the discussion that I need to have with you,” Aust said to the committee. “What do you think juvenile detention should look like?”
Kane County Public Defender Rachele Conant said the cuts would mean cutting seven attorney positions and increasing the caseloads for attorneys that stay with the office.
Increased caseloads could also bring with it “the increased risk of ineffective assistance of counsel and increased litigation that goes along with those claims,” according to Conant, who noted that staff cuts could impact the county’s specialty courts, “something that Kane County is very proud of.”
“We’ve discussed here many, many times that we … are not in the business of buying or selling goods,” Conant said. “We provide a service, and that is based on work that is given to us.”
Circuit Clerk Theresa Barreiro said the amount her office would need to cut based on the county board’s plans is equal to 21 clerks.
Barreiro also said the cuts would reduce the office’s ability to provide customer service, like staffing clerks at its counters and in its offices. The office wouldn’t have staff to answer the phones, she said, and give people information about their court cases, and payments to the office would have to be made by mail or online.
Kane County Undersheriff Amy Johnson added that a budget reduction “cuts patrol, it cuts jail operations and emergency responses,” and noted that reducing services creates legal liability for the Sheriff’s Office, as other officials noted.
And the proposed budget cuts would amount to cutting 40 employees in the Kane County State’s Attorney’s Office, according to State’s Attorney Jamie Mosser. The office is set to get around $3 million less than it requested for the 2026 fiscal year, from both the county’s general fund and from the county’s Grand Victoria Riverboat Fund.
“I do not have other funds that could be cut,” Mosser said on Thursday.
Mosser pointed to the requirements of state legislation like the SAFE-T Act as increasing costs for the office, and noted that officials with the office “do not control crime,” pointing to increases in child pornography, domestic violence and DUI cases.
“What that means is that this board is cutting investigating and prosecuting child pornography cases,” Mosser said at Thursday’s meeting. “This board has previously seen a need for this and approved funding the investigators and prosecutors.”
But, while she acknowledged a willingness to work with the board to make some cuts, Mosser was also critical of the board’s “unnecessarily accumulating” more than the required 90-day reserves in the county’s general fund, the fund facing the impending shortfall.
Mosser has previously been critical of the board’s budgeting process, last year warning the board that county elected officials must be allowed full control over their budget proposals, even though the board still makes the final decision on how much is budgeted to each department and office, according to past reporting. A spokesperson for the Kane County State’s Attorney’s Office told The Beacon-News on Thursday that the office has no plans for legal actions against the county board at this point.
Adding to the concerns about staff cuts, Kane County Coroner Monica Silva said her office is already “very short-staffed” and “kind of gritting (its) teeth when somebody calls in sick.”
But she also pointed to what she sees as the larger impact of the cuts on county residents.
“I’m very concerned for my staff … but mostly I’m concerned for Kane County,” Silva said Thursday. “When we expose people to longer wait times, to not having the resources to answer their questions or return their calls right away in such a life-and-death situation, in this case death, you can imagine the implications that has in a home.”
Board members acknowledged the officials’ concerns on Thursday, with board member Bill Roth, for example, suggesting the board look at the concerns brought up about how reimbursements are handled.
“I think we need to get creative and look across all other departments, because if they have revenue coming in that is a reimbursement, that’s helping … the budget,” Roth said. “I think it’s penny wise and dollar foolish to say, ‘Oh, we can’t count that.’”
And board member Michelle Gumz expressed appreciation for the public safety officials’ explanations on Thursday of what the cuts would entail for them.
“I don’t think everybody does understand how the judiciary works,” Gumz said. “But, by this continued conversation, we are getting educated, and I appreciate that effort.”
The Kane County Board is slated to discuss the budget at a special Finance Committee meeting on Tuesday.
mmorrow@chicagotribune.com
