This is one in a series of stories looking at contested races in the Aurora area in the Nov. 5 general election.
The race this fall for Kane County circuit clerk is between incumbent Theresa Barreiro, a Democrat who is seeking a second term, and Republican challenger Anthony Catella.
The general election is set for Nov. 5.
Barreiro, 62, of Aurora, is seeking reelection and said challenges for the office include the “budget for the county, pay for staff in order to remain competitive and retain employees, and technology.”
“A lot of people don’t even know what a circuit clerk is even though they have to vote for them,” she said. “We’re the keeper of the judicial records. Regarding the budget, Kane County has come under budget constraints and my budget for 2025 is 6% down from 2024. I’m totally living within my means. I’m looking for grants that will assist us and we got over $1 million in grants last year.”
Barreiro said salary rates for employees has been an issue.
“We couldn’t even get applicants in the door until we started increasing our salary,” she said. “We did that with all the vacancies we had and living within our means.”
Technology requires that things continue to be upgraded, Barreiro said, adding that the office needs “to have state-of-the-art technology going forward.”
“It helps the public and it helps the judicial partners,” she said. “Those have been some of the challenges we’ve had to meet four years into the job.”
If reelected, Barreiro said her goals include “having more satellite offices to reach the public, and implementing more ways for people to pay online.”
“The whole idea is to make the records more accessible to the public wherever they are,” she said. “We do have that capability already, but we’re improving on it.”
A third goal would be “to have more expungement events throughout the county.”
“We have two a year and I’d like to do those quarterly for low-level crimes such as cannabis or shoplifting – something that a person is not convicted of and allow for their records to be expunged,” she said. “It helps people get jobs. It helps them go on with their career and it’s really important to get people back in the work force.”
Catella, 54, of St. Charles, said this is his first time running for circuit clerk.
He believes challenges of the office include people not knowing what the office does “which includes the recording agency for the legal documents in the circuit for the lawyers and judges for all the cases they work.”
In addition, “court access, an efficient legal process and transparency I believe are the biggest challenges of this job,” Catella said.
Court access, he said, means that “the court should be open to all. The wheels grind for all people looking for a fair adjudication for their cases and for the people.”
“Not everybody is going to be happy with a judicial decision but at least it will be fair and justice will be served,” he said.
An efficient legal process, Catella said, would mean cases “are brought through in an efficient and timely manner.”
Regarding transparency, Catella said he sees that as a challenge that can be met “by being an open and honest administrator.”
“I don’t think it can be that hard to be transparent if you tell people the truth and what the deal is according to each circumstance as it arises,” he said. “You try to be as truthful and as candid with people as possible.”
If elected, Catella said he’d like to help “probation officers get their caseloads addressed quickly and as efficiently as possible, help lawyers and judges with their cases and help alleviate the helplessness people feel when their case is in court.”
“I want to make sure when cases are filed that the case is filed and it comes up on the right time and date in court,” he said. “We want to make sure things are filed correctly. And if people are in court, I want to give them a sense of hope that they will get through quickly and speedily as stated in the Bill of Rights – a speedy and public trial. Nobody wants to be in court but the only way is through – we want to help them get through it.”
David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
