Stephenson County approves FY2026 public defender and circuit clerk budgets after pay and parity debate

The Stephenson County Board on Oct. 8 approved the county's FY2026 budgets for the public defender and the circuit clerk, including a parity-related increase in the public defender's office and a 4% raise for a circuit clerk assistant.

Board members voted to adopt the public defender budget after a motion by Mr. Hadley, seconded by Mr. McKenna. The board later approved the circuit clerk budget and amended the assistant's raise to 4% after an initial motion was retracted and replaced by a motion from Mr. McKenna, seconded by Mr. Hadley.

The public defender's budget discussion included testimony that the office had already moved to address pay disparities and that the state recently provided $100,000 to the public defender's office. The county official who spoke at length about that item (identified in the record as the State's Attorney) said three of the five public defender staff previously worked in the State's Attorney's office and argued IMRF (Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund) penalty risks were small because most current county employees have not been in place long enough for a final-rate-of-earnings calculation to trigger penalties.

The circuit clerk's budget was the subject of a brief clarification: the board approved the budget with a 4% increase for the assistant position rather than a 6% increase that had been included in the initial request. The board's action changed the budgeted total for that office to reflect the lower pay increase.

No roll-call vote totals beyond "aye" were recorded in the meeting transcript; each motion was announced as passing after voice votes.

The board also discussed that some budget line-item changes were small or intended to correct parity or administrative issues (for example, a photocopying line item the speaker asked to remove). The board approved the public defender budget and the circuit clerk budget during the Oct. 8 meeting; staff will proceed with implementation under the adopted FY2026 appropriations.

The board's actions resolved the presented FY2026 requests for those two offices; related questions about impacts on union negotiations and long-term pension costs were discussed but no additional directives or contingent conditions were recorded.