Village of Schaumburg Mayor, Department Heads “Driving on your Dime”
June 22nd, 2010 | by Brian Costin Published in Blog, Features, Transportation | 3 Comments
A new Daily Herald report entitled “Driving on your Dime” shows that out of 158 governmental agencies in the North, West, and Northwest suburbs of Chicago that Schaumburg’s Mayor Al Larson and Village Manager Ken Fritz are tied for being paid the 2nd highest monthly car stipend in the surveyed area at an outrageous $693/month. 9 other department heads or senior staff are receiving a $495/month car stipend, and the Deputy Public Works Director is receiving a $310/month subsidy.
The current federal reimbursement rate is 50 cents per mile. Unless Mayor Larson and Village Manager Ken Fritz are driving more than 1,386 miles per month on Village business they are ripping off the Village of Schaumburg taxpayers. I believe that the solution would be that these officials only get paid on the mileage that they actually record for business purposes only, not a monthly stipend.
I can’t imagine a Finance Director or IT Director needing to go out in the field all that often. Wouldn’t the vast majority of finance and IT work be done in the central office? Schaumburg is one of only 4 towns who gives a Human Resources Manager a stipend. Why do we have 2 Assistant Village Managers, and why do they need car stipends? If we eliminated the car subsidy for these 5 positions we could save Schaumburg taxpayers up to $29,700 per year.
I can understand why the 8 emergency service workers listed below would need to have governmwent owned cars, as long as they are only used for government-related business.
On average the 11 non-emergency service department heads and senior staff who received a monthly car stipend earned on average $145,306.35 in wages in 2009. Do they really need this extra benefit?
Kudos to the Daily Herald for doing some extensive investigative journalism into government spending.
Below is a break down of all the Village of Schaumburg employees that get a monthly stipend for cars or have a Government-owned take home car.
| 2009 Wages | Position-Name | Monthly stipend | Gov’t car |
| $41,522.58 | Village President- Al Larson | $693.00 | No |
| $219,256.08 | Village Manager- Ken Fritz | $693.00 | No |
| $134,026.14 | Assistant Village Manager- Kathleen Tempesta | $495.00 | No |
| $138,616.24 | Assistant Village Manager- Paula Hewson | $495.00 | No |
| $140,047.95 | Community Development Director- Cristopher Huff | $495.00 | No |
| $136,991.10 | Cultural Services Director- Elizabeth Armistead | $495.00 | No |
| $142,932.00 | Engineering Director- Steven Weinstock | $495.00 | No |
| $155,023.91 | Finance Director- Douglas Ellsworth | $495.00 | No |
| $136,616.12 | Human Resources Director- Darold Pitzer | $495.00 | No |
| $135,666.13 | IT Director- Samuel Ferguson | $495.00 | No |
| $132,862.09 | Transportation Director-June Johnson | $495.00 | No |
| $126,332.07 | Deputy Public Works Director-David Varner | $310.00 | No |
| $132,458.62 | Police Chief- Brian Howerton | $0.00 | Yes |
| $110,846.35 | Deputy Police Chief- Vince Liberio | $0.00 | Yes |
| $119,048.54 | Deputy Police Chief- Paul Rizzo | $0.00 | Yes |
| $113,094.99 | Deputy Police Chief- Larry Barchet | $0.00 | Yes |
| Schaumburg | Canine Officer | $0.00 | Yes |
| $141,487.91 | Fire Chief- David Schumann | $0.00 | Yes |
| $122,426.02 | Deputy Fire Chief- William Spencer | $0.00 | Yes |
| $141,533.15 | Deputy Fire Chief- Roger Turk | $0.00 | Yes |
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July 3rd, 2010 at 9:49 PM (#)
[...] car stipend is laughable. The 11 senior staff members receiving stipends earned an average wage of over $145,300 in 2009, including over $219,000 for Fritz. They all have outstanding health and life insurance benefits [...]
July 21st, 2010 at 4:19 PM (#)
Why isn’t someone looking into the fact the three senior department directors have all been fired/let go under circumstances that seem cloaked in secrecy? Former Director of Police Rich Casler, then Human Resources Director Darold Pritzer, and just last week Director of Community Development Chris Huff all were fired by Villae Manager Ken Fritz without notice or explanation. These were not regular retirments or friendly departures. That is some pretty significant turnover for major department heads.
Could it be that these department directors were no longer willing to play the cover up game concerning expenditures, wasting of Village resources, and more importantly, unwilling to enforce the Village Manager’s office henchman-like tactics of intimidating their employees and making sure that no one working for the Village starts talking about what really is going on with Village finances and waste?
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February 25th, 2011 at 1:48 PM (#)
Simple. They are crooks with a license to steal. In other words: Dirty, Rotten Scoundrels. Not only are they dramatically over-paid for what they do, they have the moxie to accept a vehicle stipend…which the tax payer pays. These are PUBLIC workers. They are living like the rich… considering the average U.S. income is about $44,000 per year. Greedy…Thieving Crooks. It really is that simple.
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