LaSalle County Circuit Clerk Greg Vaccaro says he’s emptied the funds he uses for running computer systems the courts need. He says the $250,000 he’s asking for to replenish them qualify for COVID-relief money because the pandemic caused the problem.
His office administrator, Diane LeBeau-Gerber, says when people couldn’t go many places, they didn’t get traffic tickets. Police weren’t arresting many people for felonies. And evictions were halted. So the office got a lot less revenue from filing fees and fines.
Vaccaro says the legislature also approved fee waivers. So even when cases were filed, there was often less revenue.
Vaccaro says he’s already been getting by with less money every year because of budget cuts. He told the County Board last week, he has four fewer full-time employees than when he started and he’s behind in his five-year plan to upgrade the computers to what the Illinois Supreme Court expects circuit clerks to do.
The County Board took the request as it considers how to rank requests totaling $14 million.