The Illinois attorney general's office is weighing whether DuPage County broke the law when it raised the board chair's salary by $30,610 through a same-day amendment with no advance public notice of the increase.

DuPage County State's Attorney Robert Berlin filed a 12-page written defense on Monday, July 21, arguing the county board's April 28 vote to raise the chair's pay from $154,390 to $185,000 did not violate the Illinois Open Meetings Act. County Clerk Jean Kaczmarek disagrees. She filed a formal complaint with the attorney general's public access counselor on Friday, June 26, saying the board failed to give the public required notice before approving the higher salary.

What happened on April 28

The DuPage County Board approved a salary ordinance (FI-O-0001-26) covering five countywide elected offices: board chair, county clerk, treasurer, regional superintendent, and sheriff. The salaries take effect after the November 2026 election.

The Finance Committee passed the ordinance on a 9-7 roll call vote. Voting yes: Members Childress, Covert, DeSart, Eckhoff, Haider, Honig, Martinez, Tornatore, and Zay. Voting no: Members Cahill, Galassi, Garcia, Krajewski, LaPlante, Ozog, and Schwarze. Members Evans and Yoo were absent. The full county board subsequently approved the ordinance as amended, moved by Finance Committee Chair Paula Deacon Garcia and seconded by Member Jim Zay; the final board-wide vote tally is not broken out in available minutes.

The contested part: a same-day amendment raised the board chair's salary from the originally posted $154,390 to $185,000, with built-in increases reaching more than $198,000 by fiscal year 2030. That amendment was proposed on the floor, not listed on the agenda posted the Friday before the meeting.

Berlin's defense

Berlin's core argument is procedural. He wrote that the board posted its agenda the Friday before the April 28 meeting, exceeding the state's 48-hour notice requirement, and that the agenda included a link to the proposed salary resolution.

Amending a resolution on the day of a meeting without reposting the agenda is permitted under the Open Meetings Act when sufficient notice of the subject has been given and the changes are relevant to the original item, Berlin argued.

On the pension-code question, Berlin drew a distinction between an elected official and an elected office. "While an elected official is considered an employee under the Illinois Pension Code, the elected office is not defined as an employee," Berlin wrote in his July 21 filing.

Because the salaries don't take effect until after the election, Berlin argued, the board was setting pay for an office, not a specific person, and the pension code's six-day notice requirement does not apply.

Board Chair Deb Conroy, whose office stands to benefit from the higher salary, said in a July 14 written statement that the county "exceeded transparency requirements" and called Kaczmarek's assertions "misguided." Conroy said the board followed the same process it uses every election cycle.

Kaczmarek's challenge

Kaczmarek countered that Berlin's logic would allow the board to "hide the true amount from the public in advance." She argued the Open Meetings Act exists to protect the public's right to know, and that a $30,610 same-day salary increase without reposted notice makes a mockery of that standard.

Kaczmarek appeared in person at the Tuesday, June 23, county board meeting to raise transparency concerns during public comment, three days before she formally filed her complaint with the attorney general's office.

What happens next

Kaczmarek faced a Friday, July 24, deadline to file her formal reply to Berlin's arguments. Whether she met that deadline has not been publicly confirmed. The public access counselor will review both sides before issuing a binding opinion under 5 ILCS 120. No date for that ruling has been announced.

Residents can file their own Open Meetings Act complaints with the Illinois attorney general's public access counselor, or submit FOIA requests for county salary records through the DuPage County Clerk's office.