The ongoing strained relationship between DuPage County Clerk Jean Kaczmarek’s office and the DuPage County Board has entered a new chapter in the new year as legal proceedings continue.
Kaczmarek’s office is taking a pair of legal judgments concerning accounting procedures and public bidding laws rendered this past year to the appellate court in the months ahead. The DuPage County Board recently weighed in, shortly after the notice of appeal was filed.
Details on last year’s rulings and the appeals process
Lisa Smith, civil bureau chief with the state’s attorney’s office, shared details on the notice of appeal Kaczmarek’s office filed at a DuPage County Board meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 13.
The appeals in the case of County of DuPage v. Kaczmarek stem from rulings — one in August, the other in December — that DuPage County Judge Bryan Chapman rendered.
In August, Chapman ruled Kaczmarek and her staff are required to follow the accounting procedures the DuPage County Board has put in place. Last month, Chapman issued a second ruling, denying Kaczmarek’s request for a summary judgment related to two election-related contracts, stating neither were exempt from the county’s bidding requirements.
Smith said the appeals notice, which was filed Wednesday, Jan. 7, is the first of multiple steps and timelines.
“The notice of appeal begins the appellate process, but it doesn’t set forth the specific issues that will be addressed,” Smith said. “That will come later when the clerk files their brief, and that tells us what their specific issues are in the case.”
Through a series of formal responses, oral arguments, and other legal procedures, Smith said the entire appeals process could stretch out as far as seven months, though she acknowledged reports that the timeline in this case might be truncated.
“We’ll let you know when we get the schedule — both the appeal and their brief,” Smith said in her report to the board on the appeal.
Kaczmarek explains rationale behind continuing legal battle
In an emailed statement, Kaczmarek explained why her office is continuing its legal case after last year’s rulings.
“For over 40 years, every Illinois attorney general’s office has provided consistent guidance that county boards have a strictly limited role in the funding of independently elected county officials,” Kaczmarek said in the statement.
Elected offices, such as the one she oversees, have a right to autonomy from the separately elected members serving on the DuPage County Board, Kaczmarek argues. She said she is hopeful a higher court’s ruling will bring more clarity to the issue.
“Judge Chapman’s ruling contradicts those 40 years of guidance and threatens the independence of clerks, sheriffs, treasurers, and other elected officials statewide,” Kaczmarek added. “I look forward to a higher court clarifying my authority to do the best job voters elected me to do — not the County Board.”
With a busy election year on the horizon, Kaczmarek in her statement also defended her track record of overseeing past elections in DuPage County.
“My leadership has delivered DuPage County voters the best-run elections in the state, and I will not stop fighting to ensure that continues,” she said.
County Board criticizes appeals process, cites rising legal costs
With the appeal now in play, Smith in her report to the board said total direct legal costs are expected to exceed $300,000. The figure does not take into account staff time devoted to responding to the legal proceedings.
“This is death by a thousand cuts, and the clerk owns the knife store,” District 1 board member Sam Tornatore said. “We’re in a position right now where, I hope, that somebody — the powers that be — can get ahold of the attorney general and explain that every day that that investigation does not move forward is another dollar that the taxpayers are paying.”
Other board members during the recent discussion of the appeal expressed frustration with the prolonged legal proceedings after last year’s rulings.
“This is just so outrageous to me, that we are still fighting over the fact that our state’s attorney ruled over the fact that the clerk needed to follow our accounting principles, as a county,” District 3 board member Kari Galassi said.
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