County Executive Committee Advances Elected Officials’ Pay Increases After Extended Debate

The Will County Executive Committee voted Thursday to advance a proposal for pay increases for countywide elected officials and county board members, setting the stage for a final vote at the upcoming full board meeting.

After nearly an hour of discussion, committee members approved the salary proposal with a unanimous vote despite concerns from some members about funding sources and transparency in the process.

“We’ve gone 18 years without any kind of pay increase for the position,” board member Frank Pretzel said. “We’ve refused to do it for almost two decades, so now it’s a lot bigger than it needed to be.”

The proposal would be the first pay adjustment for elected officials in Will County since 2007, with board members repeatedly highlighting how the county had “kicked the can down the road” for many years.

Board member Mica Logan raised concerns about the financial implications of the increases. “Do we have the money in the budget to give these raises, or are we just going to raise taxes?” Logan asked.

Committee members were told the increases would not take effect for at least two years, giving the county board time to identify funding sources in future budget cycles.

Board member Steve Butler suggested creating an ad hoc committee to further examine the proposal, but Speaker Joe Van Dyke declined to establish such a committee. Butler expressed frustration that the matter hadn’t received adequate attention in committee meetings.

“I would like to see an ad hoc committee created to kind of further explain this,” Butler said. “I think there has to be some more questions answered.”

Van Dyke responded that the information had been available for review for more than two months. “As the speaker of the board, I’ve only had maybe one, maybe one and a half comments on this graph and this issue,” he said.

The exact amount of the proposed increases wasn’t specified during the meeting, though discussions indicated significant raises would be needed to bring salaries in line with comparable counties after the lengthy pay freeze.

Committee member Jackie Traynere suggested separating the county board pay increases from the countywide elected officials’ increases, noting they are different positions with different responsibilities.

“We are not countywide elected officials; we are county board members elected in our own individual districts,” Traynere said.

The committee ultimately approved forwarding the proposal to the full county board without separating the pay increases, though Van Dyke indicated he would be open to voting on them separately at the county board meeting.

The Will County Board is expected to vote on the proposal at its next meeting.