Wards building legal bills reach $226K
Whatever Kane County ends up paying to buy the former Montgomery Ward building on Randall Road in St. Charles, tack on at least another $226,000 in legal fees.
Taxpayers have been billed that amount from Naperville-based law firm Day & Roberts for its work since May 2008 to acquire the home of the Circuit Clerk's office through a county lawsuit to take the property from owner Rockward Associates.
The Kane County Board is poised to formally approve the purchase, likely on Tuesday, for an amount expected to be between $6 million and $7 million, although officials have not confirmed a proposed sale price since word of a settlement surfaced last week. A judge must also OK the agreement.
Other than to say his firm submitted comprehensive bills to the county, attorney Scott Day declined to discuss fee specifics before an agreement is finalized. His firm has billed nearly every month since filing the eminent domain case in June 2008, with the county paying for the services from insurance liability funds in the state's attorney's office and human resources.
County Board Attorney Ken Shepro said the case has taken many angles, from the eminent domain to disagreements over the county's option to buy, which necessitated the amount time and money spent.
"This is probably one of the most complex eminent domain cases you'll find," Shepro said late Friday. "It was really two cases rolled into one."
The legal fees add on to millions already spent on the Wards building since 2001 when Kane County paid $3.5 million to assume the lease. Since then, Kane paid $1.8 million to renovate the building to better suit the clerk's office, just more than $1 million in property taxes -- a provision of the lease -- and tens of thousands of dollars in rent. In October, the county paid approximately $80,000 in back and future rent owed to Rockward.
County officials have said they expect to use money from the enterprise general fund to make the Wards building purchase. That account, part of the money collected from the closed Settler's Hill Landfill, held around $13.4 million as of last week.
The enterprise general fund, different from the enterprise surcharge fund, has been brought up as the County Board wrangles with a budget facing another round of trimming for 2010. Some on the board have said those dollars are limited to capital purchases only and can't dip below a certain minimum balance, based on financial policies they set.
A version of those policies established in 2007 called on the phase-out of the enterprise general fund by the 2010 fiscal year, but that language was killed from the financial guidelines approved earlier this year.
