Mid Monday morning post on campaign Facebook attempts to defend raises for supervisor and assessor
While it is unknown if someone read McHenry County Blog‘s article from Sunday concerning the “Money Tree” video Dundee Township supervisor challenger Arin Thrower published over the weekend where I included the Dundee Township raises approved in November for the next term, or another post, incumbent Supervisor Trish Glees, running for a 2nd term as supervisor as a Democrat, felt she had to post the following on her campaign Facebook page mid-morning on Monday:
“There seems to be confusion……
“Just to clarify, salaries are set in November by board resolution and are set for the role and not the person.
“They don’t go into effect until after the following election and subsequent term.
“The recent increase brings Dundee Township in line with other townships of its size.
“Please note, assessor and highway commissioner salaries were also raised.
“Also, please note, I was not elected until 2017, so any prior salary or policy decisions outlined in your post were beyond my control.
“As far as tax increases, the Township board cannot raise taxes, we can only ask voters for an increase via referendum.
“The most recent referendum, which was voted down, was the first one Dundee Township has had in almost 40 years to offset increased costs in the general fund that would be expected over the span of 40 years, not to mention population growth, etc.
“Here are the correct numbers.”
Trish Glees campaign Facebook post, 3/22/21 just before 10AM CDT, emphasis added
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Glees goes on to list the approved raises by their respective resolutions which reflect what McHenry County Blog published Sunday night.
The salaries approved for the next term for the 8 township elected officials, approved at the November 18, 2020 township board meeting are:
| Office | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Year 4 |
| Supervisor * | 59,000 | 64,000 | 70,000 | 73,000 |
| Assessor | 88,000 | 93,000 | 96,000 | 101,000 |
| Highway Commissioner | 70,000 | 71,000 | 72,000 | 73,000 |
| Clerk | 3,000 | 4,000 | 4,000 | 4,000 |
| Trustee | $100/mtg | $100/mtg | $100/mtg | $100/mtg |
| * Plus $1K annually as road district treasurer |
Omitted from Glees’ response Monday morning, the township board approved the new salaries by a 3-2 vote, with Glees, Sue Harney and George Johnson voting yes, and Roger Ahrens and Ken Schaffer voting no.
All but Johnson are seeking reelection to the township board on April 6.
The township minutes for that meeting can be viewed here.
From the desk of John Lopez: Given Supervisor Glees had to go into detail that she was not elected supervisor until 2017, it’s apparently clear someone, maybe Glees herself saw this history of Dundee Township I included in Sunday’s article, which is repeated here for reference.
“Back in 1996, setting township officials’ pay for the 1997-2001 term, the then-township supervisor, in order to fill budget shortfalls, cut his pay in half to $26K/year annually.
“For the next decade, the supervisor pay grew to $30K/year, then $40K in 2009.
“Based on this schedule, the supervisor has become a full-time position with new salary heights not seen since the $50K/year in the early-to-mid 1990s.”
John Lopez, 3/21/21, “Arin Thrower “Money Tree” Video in Dundee Township Supervisor Race with Opponent Response“, McHenry County Blog
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While Glees hinted the tax rate increase referendum was defeated on November 3, Glees displayed a power for understatement. The referendum was clobbered by over 3 to 1 margin (76% to 24% of the vote).
And two weeks after the tax rate increase was crushed at the polls, what appears to the average citizen to be exorbitant raises for the supervisor and assessor, were approved by a 3-2 split vote of the board?
The keeping “…in line with other townships of its size” line Supervisor Glees gave this morning may not hold water with voters if the news of these raises gets out in the final 2 weeks of the campaign for the April 6 election.
On-site early voting for the April 6 election began today, March 22.
“Just to clarify, salaries are set in November by board resolution and are set for the role and not the person.
“They don’t go into effect until after the following election and subsequent term.”
Yes,but you are running to be elected to that term so you can be that person.
“The recent increase brings Dundee Township in line with other townships of its size.”
All townships are roughly the same size in terms of geographic area. That doesn’t ever change. What increases is population within that area.
With the exeption of the Assessor, population increase does not necessarily translate into more work for the other township offices.
Roads mileage may decrease as most increases in population occur inside of municipalities and township roads, unlike county roads, cease to be in the jurisdiction of the township Road District once they are annexed. Granted, however, that existing roads may get more wear and tear from increased traffice but no one ever crunches those numbers to determine if salary increases are really justified.
The Supervisor job increases only minimally with increases in population. The only additional work would be in interim public assistance. However, population increases are usually due to new construction and poor people are not buying newly built homes unless they are part of government subsidy.
This is precisely the problem. Township officials routinely justify salary increases across the board as population increases but population increase does not mean appreciably more work for those officials.
That’s why you see salaries of up to $75,000 for Supervisors in AL and Nunda Townsships and only $7000 for townships like Coral. The AL Supervisor doesn’t really need to put in that much more time than the Coral Supervisor but he/she is paid ten times as much.
It’s a scam folks.
A cow who wants to be Queen.
It will be interesting to see if she will be elected with a felony charge possible.
Township dirt under scrutiny.
There is never an end to the rot.