Village Trustees Getting Paid $22,000

Metra Board Chairman Brad O'Halloran said it had come to his attention that was still being paid as village trustee.

Metra Board Chairman Brad O’Halloran said it had come to his attention that was still being paid as village trustee.

You know a village trustee is in it for the money when his salary is $22,000.

No, that’s not in McHenry County.

It’s in Orland Park.

That’s what the Chicago Tribune reported.

Orland Park is where ex-Metra Board Chairman Brad O’Halloran makes his political base.

He apparently didn’t know that state law prohibits Metra Board members from getting money from another governmental entity.

Oh, yes.

Did I mention he was the Chairman of the Metra Board?

What is it about the South Suburbs?

There a number of municipalities seem to be driven by greed.

Just to give you a comparison, I asked some of the larger municipalities in McHenry County what their village trustees or council members are paid. The results are below:

  • Algonquin – $6,000
  • Crystal Lake – $2,400
  • Huntley – $4,800
  • Lake in the Hills – $6,000, if they attend every meeting
  • Woodstock – $6,000

When people run for public office they talk about “public service.”

The council/village board members locally have a bigger claim to fulfilling that goal that Metra’s Board Chairman.


Comments

Village Trustees Getting Paid $22,000 — 5 Comments

  1. Very interesting that Orland Park scored scored a full 100% on the Illinois Policy Institute’s Local Transparency Project.

  2. Two thoughts.

    First, isn’t that less than our County Commissioners get paid? Do they deserve more than Village trustees or school board members? I don’t think so.

    Second, I actually favor paying trustees. Not huge amounts, but modestly. I think they should get $5,000 or $6,000 a year — enough to pay for a decent vacation to say “thank you” for all the time and effort they put in.

    People who DON’T serve on these boards and think elected officials are “public servants” that they can order around should remember that these people VOLUNTEER, and I mean a lot of hours!

    Do I often agree with what our local trustees do? No, often I don’t.

    Do I think most of them deserve our respect? Absolutely!

  3. The southern suburbs are closer to Michael Madigan whom lives near Midway.

    It’s the heart of greed and corruption in Illinois.

    The three public school districts with highest starting teacher pay are not in the north shore, but three blue collar southern suburbs.

    Reavis High School District 220, Burbank.

    Argo Community High School District 217 in Summit.

    Oak Lawn Community High School District 219 in Oak Lawn.

    They receive over $50,000 starting pay plus very good benefits and a pension out of this world.

    Another example on the south side is Frank Zuccarelli who currently holds the following positions:

    Thornton Township – Supervisor (head honcho) in South Holland.

    South Suburban Community College – Board President.

    Cook County Employee Appeals Board – Board member, appointed by Cook County Board President.

    Various Zuccarelli relatives and acquaintences work at the first two organizations as reported by the
    Better Government Association and has been mentioned in this blog.

    The list goes on and on.

  4. Here’s the link to Zuccarelli’s elected paid full time position as the Supervisor of Thornton Township.
    http://thorntontownship.com/departments/elected-officials/

    Here’s the link to Zuccarelli’s elected position on the South Suburban College Board of Trustees.
    http://www.ssc.edu/en_US/News_Events_Information/Board_of_Trustees/

    Here’s the link to Zuccarelli’s appointment on the Cook County Employee Appeals Board.
    http://blog.cookcountygov.com/appointments/employee-appeals-board

    The South Suburban College Board of Trustees position is not paid, the other three are paid positions.

    Zuccarelli is also the Thornton Township Democratic Committeeman.

    Zuccarelli’s name is on three active ISBE political action committees (PACs).

    Friends of Frank Zuccarelli, committee ID 4669.

    Thornton Township Z Team, committee ID 15639.

    Thornton Twp Regular Democratic Org, committee ID 16912.

    And then there’s another active PAC, Citizens for Better Education, committee ID 23710.

    The purpose of Citizens for Better Education is to support local school board candidates.
    The chairman of Citizens for Better Education is Donald Manning.

    Donald Manning is the President of South Suburban Community College, the same college of which Zuccarelli is the Chairman of the Board of Trustees.

    Arguably the #1 job of a Community College Board is to select the Community College President.

    The treasurer of Citizens for Better Education is Jill Manning.

    Jill Manning is the Project Director for Thornton Township, earning $91,000, the same township of which Zuccarelli is the Township Supervisor which is the head position in the township.

    The Friends of Frank Zuccarelli PAC and Thornton Township Z Team PAC contribute to the Citizens for Better Education PAC.

    In the event of dissolution, funds from Citizens for Better Education PAC are to be transferred to Friends of Frank Zuccarelli PAC.

    The Mannings and Zuccarelli both reside in South Holland.

    Following the above trails, one could write several chapters about how it all works.

    So why did Quinn appoint Zuccarelli to a CHICAGO Transit Authority Board?

    “‘The only transportation experience Frank Zuccarelli has is walking people to the polling place,’ Mr. Daley told me, responding to my story this morning about how, thanks to Mr. Quinn, Mr. Zuccarelli will be able to benefit from a double-dip loophole in state law.”

    Crain’s Chicago Business
    Greg Hinz on Politics

    More double-dipping found at Chicago’s transit agencies
    August 06, 2013
    http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20130806/BLOGS02/130809856/bill-daley-calls-on-quinn-to-dump-zuccarelli-from-cta

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *