Untimely pay raises for mayor, trustees

Raising the pay of local elected officials can be a tricky subject.

In the first place, most elected officials don't get into community leadership for the money, and that's a good thing for them. Many village and school board members don't get any pay at all, and the pay for those who do generally amounts to little more than a token recognition of their service.

Moreover, while many officials consider the work personally rewarding, it is demanding and often thankless. Those who do it well must put in countless hours reading highly technical data, give up time with their families to make frequent appearances at community events and take positions on controversial issues that are sure to keep their phones ringing at all hours with the angry calls of neighbors and local residents.

So, it can be difficult to begrudge a board when it decides to give itself or other town elected officers a little raise. Such is the case this week with the Elk Grove Village board, which raised members' pay to $6,000 a year, an increase of $1,800 over their current pay.

At the same time, trustees raised the pay of three-term Mayor Craig Johnson to $28,000 annually, beginning next spring if he wins a fourth term, from $20,000, and promised him a $2,000-a-year raise the next four years, with a $1,000-a-year raise following that, if he's re-elected to a fifth term, until he reaches $40,000. The board applied these figures to Johnson only. A newly elected mayor would start at $8,000 a year and get annual raises of $1,000.

Now, these figures are hardly going to break the Elk Grove Village budget. And the sums are not horribly out of line with the expectations placed on village board members and other elected officials.

But that said, we have to agree with Trustee Nancy Czarnik who, along with Samuel Lissner, opposed the trustees' raises in light of current economic conditions. For many families in Elk Grove and other suburbs, these are difficult times, and getting even a token raise that barely covers the cost of gasoline may be a blessing.

To see elected officials raise their pay by 30 percent just doesn't look good, and it helps only slightly to note that, considered over the course of the four years since trustees' previous raises, the increases average around 7.5 percent.

It's even more eyebrow-raising to see the mayor getting a 40 percent boost along with a guaranteed annual raise in the range of 7 percent. Even at the eventual minimum pay of $8,000 a year, the board's action guarantees future mayors a double-digit pay increase, regardless of the job they do. That one, curiously, the village board approved unanimously and without discussion as part of its consent agenda.

Local government could not succeed without the selfless labors of the hundreds of elected officials who run village and school boards throughout the suburbs. It would be naïve and wrong to portray them as greedy or selfish for wanting a little financial recognition for the critical job they do.

Still, they have to be aware of the perceptions their actions regarding pay may leave in the minds of local residents. On that score, the Elk Grove Village board could have been more judicious in the pay scales it set.