Many of the elected county offices in Kane County will see over 20% pay raises starting after the election in November.
In a split vote on May 29, the Kane County Board approved an increase in pay for four elected positions — circuit clerk, recorder, auditor and coroner — to $109,242, with 2% yearly increases for the following three years.
This will equalize the positions’ salaries, which previously varied by around $2,000, and will match the current salaries for the treasurer and county clerk, which were set in 2022.
The salary increases will go into effect in December, when the offices’ next four-year terms begin.
Currently, the circuit clerk is paid $90,655 per year and the recorder is paid $89,507 per year. The auditor and coroner both are currently paid $88,214 per year.
Salaries are tied to elected offices, not to elected individuals. The current salaries for those positions have remained unchanged since 2013.
With the same vote, the Kane County Board also gave its members a 20% raise, increasing their yearly salaries from $25,000 to $30,000. However, the increases will not go into effect until December 2026 so that all board members, regardless of when their positions are up for election, get the increase at the same time.
The Kane County Board chair position, which currently makes $105,328 per year, was not included in the approved increases.
Throughout multiple meetings on the salary increases, board members were divided about which positions needed a higher salary and how much those salaries should be increased, if at all. Divisions continued at the May 29 special meeting, where 12 Kane County Board members voted in favor of the increases while 11 voted against them.
Voting in favor of the increases were Deborah Allan (D-17th District), Mavis Bates (D-4th District), Dale Berman (D-2nd District), Gary Daugherty (R-9th District), Michelle Gumz (D-8th District), Michael Kenyon (R-16th District), Chris Kious (D-23rd District), Michael Linder (D-13th District), Jarett Sanchez (D-24th District), Cherryl Fritz Strathmann (D-20th District), Bill Tarver (D-10th District) and Vern Tepe (D-22nd District).
Voting against the increases were Mark Davoust (R-14th District), Ron Ford (D-6th District), Mohammad Iqbal (D-19th District), Leslie Juby (D-11th District), Bill Lenert (R-5th District), Anita Lewis (D-3rd District), Myrna Molina (D-1st District), Bill Roth (R-12th District), Monica Silva (D-7th District), Clifford Surges (R-21st District) and David Young (R-15th District).
Increases were initially proposed by a six-person advisory committee that met on May 10. Under that proposal, the Kane County Board chair position would have made $130,000 per year with 3% yearly increases for the following three years.
That number was lowered to $106,000 with no yearly increases at a specially-called Kane County Executive Committee meeting that took place just before the special Kane County Board meeting on May 29. Then, at the county board meeting, members decided not to give the position any salary increase.
Kane County Board members against increases for the board chair position, including Sanchez, made the argument that the chair position is a mostly ceremonial one under current county code.
Although the last few people to hold the position have taken on additional responsibilities that are not against the code but also not specifically laid out in it, these board members said, that does not make the chair worthy of such a significant salary. Sanchez even proposed lowering the position’s salary to $70,000 yearly, but the motion failed.
Those in favor of increases for the chair position, including Bates, said the chair is the face of the county and the one people look to for leadership. Bates said it was a “slap in the face” to the chair position to say they were less valuable than other elected officials.
The advisory committee also recommended increasing salaries of the circuit clerk, recorder, auditor and coroner to $110,000 per year with 3% yearly increases for the following three years, slightly above the final approved increase.
At the specially-called Executive Committee meeting, that number and its percentage increases were lowered to match similar elected positions.
The only proposal made by the advisory committee that made it through the Kane County Board unchanged was to raise County Board member salaries to $30,000 per year in December 2026.
An ad hoc committee that was tasked with evaluating the advisory committee’s recommendations and making their own failed to reach a consensus when it met on May 15, with Berman and Tepe voting in favor of the recommendations but Molina and Surges voting against them.
rsmith@chicagotribune.com
