Time to Speak Out Against Raises for DuPage County Elected Officials

It's not enough for DuPage County government to repeat again and again that they're transparent. They actually must practice it.

Today, the Daily Herald published an article by Robert Sanchez, "DuPage County Board Puts Brakes on Raises after Legal Questions Arise."

Those legal questions came from me.

For years I've been disturbed about the salary the DuPage County Clerk receives. DuPage is the only county in the state with an independent county-wide election commission. In all other counties, the electoral process is conducted by the county clerk's office. In fact, if you'd ask any of these other county clerks what their number one responsibility was, they'd all reply, "Administering elections."

DuPage pays far more for its county clerk than any other county for the least amount of work.

Our county clerk has a base salary and one county stipend totaling $143,000. That's 43 percent more than the average clerks receive in the top ten other most-populated counties in Illinois. So a two- or three-percent raise practically every year really adds up. Additional stipends bring the total salary for our county clerk up to nearly $160,000.

I've been calling for a pay cut for the County Clerk. Half the job, half the salary.

The County Board's scheduled vote for raises for the County Clerk and other elected officials was buried in a thick agenda packet posted Friday night before a three-day holiday weekend. They were scheduled to vote on the raises the day everyone got back to work. This all seemed very wrong to me.

So after reading the Open Meetings Act, I believed I had some valid questions. The Board agreed after my public statement; the vote was tabled.

The County Board vote has been rescheduled for Tuesday, June 3rd, at the 421 County Farm Road Building, Wheaton. In the meantime, you should check out how much all our county elected officials are receiving and the proposed raises they plan on giving themselves:

http://www.dupageco.org/empcompensation/

Following is my public statement given to the Finance Committee meeting one hour before the County Board meeting on Tuesday night, May 27th:

Good evening. My name is Jean Kaczmarek.

The agenda states that you will be voting on future raises for elected officials. Tonight I have concerns that this vote is a potential Open Meetings Act violation.

The Open Meetings Act, ILCS 120/7.3 b) reads: At least 6 days before an employer participating in the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund approves an employee's total compensation package that is equal to or in excess of $150,000 per year, the employer must post on its website the total compensation package for that employee.

A week ago, I searched the County’s website thoroughly for where increases for compensation packages up for vote might be posted, including the Employee Compensation home page. After all, the salaries for positions of elected officials are included within the same database as employees. I could not locate anything.

I was beginning to think you wouldn’t be voting at all on raises.

But then, I found the pending raises in the agenda packet posted Friday night before a three-day holiday weekend, buried on pages 520 to 526.

Because I knew that this room would be filled with legal gray matter and that I’m just an ordinary citizen, I sought the opinion today of the Illinois Attorney General’s Public Access office. I spoke with Asst. Attorney General Tim O’Brien.

I asked about the definitions of employer, employee and elected official. Mr. O’Brien said that it would require research.

He said that the County may be operating within the letter of the law, but not the spirit of the law. He said that it struck him that less than sufficient notice was provided.

Mr. O’Brien told me that I raised valid questions and that there was cause for further inquiry, and that if I filed for a request for review of an alleged OMA violation, his office would take it seriously.

Placing pending raises for elected officials in a thick agenda packet posted the Friday night before a three-day holiday, then voting the following day, does NOT meet my criteria for transparency.

It’s not enough to repeat again and again you’re transparent. You actually have to practice it.

Whether you vote yes or no to raises isn’t my point. I’m concerned that you shouldn’t even be voting on these resolutions at all, especially when some of you will personally benefit should they pass.

I have made copies of the statute and the County’s employee compensation webpage where the pending salaries should have been posted at least six days ago and weren’t.