Judge Sets Date for Hearing in KenCom Funding Dispute

The dispute between and the county’s three biggest towns is headed for a court hearing with several witnesses.

Attorneys and leaders for the entities converged in Kendall County Judge Robert Morrow’s courtroom Wednesday afternoon. After a few conferences among the leaders and their attorneys, Morrow set a hearing for 9 a.m. Oct. 28.

“I can be here all day on this case if it takes that,” Morrow said.

The dispute between KenCom and Yorkville, Oswego and Plano comes down to money. KenCom leaders are pushing its member agencies to divide the services’ operating costs beyond a certain cap, which would mean towns like Yorkville and Oswego would be required for the first time to contribute a relatively unknown amount for dispatching services for their residents.

, the three towns are arguing that KenCom leaders improperly kicked them out of the shared dispatch service after town leaders refused the new cost-sharing plan. Meanwhile, KenCom leaders are arguing they followed the rules for changing how the entity is funded.

KenCom leaders had threatened to stop dispatching for Yorkville, Oswego and Plano in December if the three towns didn’t accept the cost-sharing plan by July 28. That date came and went without an agreement, although leaders have discussed various funding formulas since then.

Kendall County, which is not a party to the lawsuit, has covered any KenCom operating expenses that went over the 911 telephone surcharge money collected since the dispatch service was created more than 20 years ago.

Under the new agreement proposed in November, however, Kendall County would only contribute about $1.6 million, with the towns covering whatever expenses went beyond that $1.6 million and the telephone surcharge amounts. Since November, some leaders have suggested other caps for county funding, and the county board approved a referendum that will ask voters this spring if they want to double the 911 telephone surcharge.

Meanwhile, each town has one representative on the 12-member KenCom Executive Board, which could limit the town’s ability to influence future spending decisions.

KenCom also includes the village of Newark, the Lisbon-Seward Fire Protection District, the Newark Fire Protection District, the Little Rock-Fox Fire Protection District, the Bristol-Kendall Fire Protection District and the Oswego Fire Protection District.