Kane sheriff could run out of money

GENEVA — The Kane County Sheriff's Department could be out of money in as soon as late next week, according to county board Chairwoman Karen McConnaughay.

An e-mail sent to Sheriff Pat Perez last week from the county auditor's office indicates that if expenditures for November are similar to those for October, then the department will run over budget for the year.

Claims that are not within the budget approved by the county board will not be paid, the e-mail continues.

Perez said he has never seen a sheriff's department bill not be paid in his 18 years with the department, even when previous years' budgets that went over spending limits. He also believes that the county still has additional funds that could be used to pay off what remains for the year.

"We don't have the contingency we used to (in order) to cover that," McConnaughay said. "We're as far on that as we go."

McConnaughay estimated that the sheriff's office could run out by Nov. 12 or 13 at the earliest but that the county has yet to figure out exactly when this would happen.

The auditor's e-mail indicated that about $1.67 million remained in the budget through the end of October. October's expenditures were about $1.75 million while salaries and benefits totaled about $760,000.

This past September, county finance officials had sent warnings to seven departments, including the sheriff's office, that they were going to run out of money before the end of the year.

In the summer, county departments were each told to make a 5.5 percent across the board cut.

Perez said that for the sheriff's department this means that he has to cut $1.3 million within the last six months of his budget.

Going into 2009, the sheriff's department cut its budget by 2.3 percent when the board had requested a 1.5 percent cut, Perez said.

The county board has been meeting the sheriff's department more than half way over the year in covering when it goes over budget, McConnaughay said.

Perez said the sheriff's office operation costs always run high because of how the department functions.

"Of course I'm going to have higher operation costs because we work around the clock," Perez said.