Campton Hills Police Chief reported multiple grant awards and ongoing grant applications on Feb. 18 while trustees raised alarm about personnel costs and legal fees that could push the village out of budget by the fiscal year end.

Chief James told trustees the department received a grant covering new tasers valued at $9,411.60 and will take delivery of three tasers, more than 200 cartridges, required training and certification at no direct cost to the village. The chief said the ongoing cost to the village would be about $960 a year for data storage tied to the equipment. “It is 0 cost to the village,” the chief said of the taser award.

The chief also said the department has submitted a $650,000 recruitment-and-retention grant that — if awarded — would fund salaries and benefits for two officers for two years with a partial third-year extension. The department is also preparing a Kane County riverboat-grant application for security and IT upgrades with a deadline in early March.

At the same time, trustees and staff discussed that personnel costs are over budget. Administrator Rooney and the chief said the department has been backfilling shifts for an extended personnel absence, which reduced overtime but increased part-time and regular-salary costs. Chief James said the village’s officer-per-1,000-residents ratio is about 0.71, well below the FBI-recommended rate of 2.3 per 1,000, and that staffing constraints have required prolonged backfills. “When we have one out for any reason, any length of time, it does cause some variance because it has to be backfilled,” the chief said.

Trustees urged immediate steps. Trustee Jim (last name on record: Boatner) and others recommended stopping nonessential spending, reducing attorney presence at meetings, and producing a midterm plan to bring the budget into balance. Trustee Boatner suggested the village attorney need not attend every meeting and proposed setting caps on discretionary legal hours. “We're averaging $14,000 a month [on legal fees]. … It cannot be business as usual,” Boatner said.

Trustee Burson and others requested that administrators produce a detailed accounting that isolates costs tied to the unusual personnel matter and any litigation so trustees can see the specific drivers of the overrun. Administrator Rooney agreed to bring a plan and work with Treasurer Timothy McPhillips and the finance committee at the next meeting.

Ending

Trustees asked staff to prepare a six-month accounting and options to reduce nonessential spending for discussion at the next board meeting; no formal budget action was taken at the Feb. 18 meeting.