The Oswego Village Board is reviewing a possible pay hike for elected officials in the village.
If approved, any pay increases would not go into effect until the terms of the current elected officials expire in 2023 and 2025, since elected officials in Illinois cannot raise their own salaries.
Trustees as a committee of the whole recently reviewed a staff analysis of data collected from nearby communities that essentially compared yearly compensation of mayors, village board members, village presidents and trustees as well as citizen-appointed planning and zoning commissioners as a starting point for discussion.
The Village Board will continue discussion of the issue at a future meeting.
Staff was looking for direction from trustees concerning the potential of pay hikes.
“This is a policy decision, so there is no right or wrong answer,” Oswego Village Administrator Dan Di Santo told trustees.
The last pay raise for Oswego elected officials was in 2006, officials said.
Following the recent study, Oswego village staff members are recommending that the village president’s base salary be increased by $6,600 from $6,000 to $12,600.
In addition to the salary, the village president gets $50 per village meeting attended, meaning with the proposed raise the compensation for the position would be about $15,000 per year.
Village Board members in Oswego also receive both an annual salary and per meeting pay.
“Based on data from 21 other municipalities and townships, the median annual compensation for village presidents, mayors and township (leaders) is $15,000, meaning that Oswego’s village president’s annual compensation is under the median comparable compensation by $6,600,” Di Santo said.
“In contrast, a village of Oswego trustee has an annual salary of $3,600 plus $50 per meeting attended, which comes out to a total annual compensation of $6,000,” he said. “Based on comparable data, a trustee at the village of Oswego has an annual compensation that is $1,100 above the median comparable compensation.”
The issue of raises for trustees is being looked at, but no particular amount for the potential hikes has been proposed.
Village staff is also recommending the per meeting compensation for citizen-appointed members of the Oswego Planning and Zoning Commission be increased from $25 to $50 per meeting, for a compensation of about $600 per year, according to village documents.
Trustee Kit Kuhrt bristled as the idea of hiking the pay of elected officials no matter what towns near Oswego are doing.
“We don’t have to follow the template of another town,” Kuhrt told trustees.
The salaries are kept low for a reason, he said.
“We do things because we care about the village. I certainly don’t do it for the pay,” Kuhrt said.
Kuhrt, who is serving his first term as an elected official, suggested the village put the question to the voters and let them have their say at the ballot box.
The question could be placed on the ballot as an advisory referendum, Village Attorney Karl Ottosen said.
“This is not one that requires nor would I recommend this on the ballot as a binding referendum. Then you get into the practice of sending all those issues to constituents instead of making them as a legislative body. From my perspective, I would not recommend that,” Ottosen said.
The village does not have to follow what other communities do concerning salaries, the village attorney noted.
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“The recommendation from staff was if you are comfortable with the model then do it,” Ottosen said.
Trustee James Marter supported staff’s recommendation.
“There is a little bit of a higher payer median that puts more accountability on all of us to be here or at least if someone is not showing up often and are getting paid to essentially do nothing,” Marter said.
Linda Girardi is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.