Calumet City could see five-figure salary increases for elected officials if a proposed plan brought up at a special meeting Monday makes it through the City Council, according to a city email obtained by the Daily Southtown.
Mayor Thaddeus Jones claimed Tuesday to have nothing to do with the proposal, which calls for more than doubling the mayor’s salary from $24,000 per year to $54,000 and raising aldermen’s salaries from $14,000 to $25,000. Elected officials also are paid 1/24th of their annual salary for each special meeting they attend, with the city website reflecting 17 special meetings called so far this year.
“There’s no proposed changes,” Jones said Tuesday. “We have until Oct. 26 for the aldermen to make the decision of if they want to raise their salaries.”
Any salary increases for elected officials would not take effect until after the next election for their post, with some aldermen and the mayor’s office up in April 2025.
While Monday’s meeting agenda said the salary changes would be up for discussion and approval, Ald. James Patton and Ald. Michael Navarrete said they had not received any information about the proposal. In response, Jones ensured he would send them copies of the language and asked them to simply move the revisions to a committee before putting it to another vote, triggering protest from Patton.
“I’d like to see it first,” Patton said at the meeting. “Whatever the proper way to do it is, as long as we’re not taking action before anyone’s got a chance to see it, discuss it.”
Jones again agreed to send the proposed changes to aldermen and no action was taken.
Following the meeting, Patton said he would not support the outlined proposal if it came to a vote, saying he believes the compensation is reasonable. He said he believes it was “disingenuous” for the proposal to change something as significant as salaries for elected officials to be put on the agenda without preparation.
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Patton, who is challenging Jones for mayor in the February Democratic Primary, shared an email he said Jones sent to all aldermen and other city officials Tuesday night that not only bumps salaries for the mayor and all aldermen, but also increases the allowed monthly expenses for the mayor, aldermen, the city clerk and the city treasurer from $700 to $1,500.
The salary ordinance also would gives the mayor an additional role of local liquor commissioner, providing him an extra $500 per month. The email states that the proposal would change the “liquor compensation to $5,500.”
When asked to explain the proposed changes, Jones called the information sent by Patton “privileged” and later said he sent the current salary ordinance but did not include any proposed changes in his email to aldermen.
“You have to understand who you’re dealing with,” Jones said about Patton. “You’re dealing with a pathological liar that’s sending you stuff to write a story about him.”
Patton said he believes the mayor, through the city’s email system, deleted the message after Jones was asked about the proposal Tuesday afternoon.
“It’s insane to say something that’s so easily provable,” Patton said. “You know, the one thing I will say is he can probably, he probably feels like he can get away saying that because he knows he’s disabled my ability to forward the emails.”
Calumet City Ald. Monet Wilson confirmed Wednesday that she saw the email sent by Jones that included the proposal as detailed, and said she noticed it had been deleted from her inbox Tuesday.
“I have been having these issues with my emails for several years,” Wilson said. “Having someone access and manipulate emails erodes trust, and it’s exhausting to constantly have to fight the intrusion.”
According to the Illinois Local Records Act, no public record, including email correspondence, can be legally disposed of without the written approval of the appropriate Local Records Commission.
Other aldermen and city officials who apparently received the email from Jones did not immediately respond to requests for comment Tuesday. The council meets again at 6 p.m. on Thursday at City Hall, 204 Pulaski Road.