Champaign County approves $58,000 for e‑citations connection as clerk says paper files will end by June

The Champaign County Board approved Budget Amendment BUA 2026-3-302 to provide $58,000 in increased appropriations for the circuit clerk’s e‑citations implementation.

Circuit Clerk (name not provided in the record) told the committee the money comes from the circuit clerk’s e‑citation fund, which is funded by traffic-case fees. The funds will pay for the connection between the clerk’s case management system and the e‑citation system so the systems can "talk together," the clerk said. "We're about 90% of the way in implementation," the clerk added, noting the Illinois State Police had not yet joined the project and that about half of local tickets currently originate from state police.

The clerk described a longer-running review of the office’s case-management system: an outside consultant (Barry Dunn) has been retained to study options and the clerk said a vendor recommendation and cost breakdown is expected in July. The clerk emphasized the biggest challenge for a full system replacement is data conversion and forecasted the chosen solution should last roughly 10 years.

Board members who asked questions focused on timeline and whether the e‑citation work fits into the broader case-management study. There was no recorded dissent; the motion passed by voice vote.

Next steps: staff will return with study results and vendor recommendations, including estimated conversion costs and projected implementation timelines.