Comments on: 2008: 110 Village of Schaumburg Employees Making $100K+ Per Year

By: Fred

Fred — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 03:31:07 +0000

I cannot believe that over-ambitious and incompetent Maureen Cairns makes over $100,000 per year. It is a sad state of affairs in our village when we allow someone of that low caliber to remain on the payrole.

By: fiscalresponsibility

fiscalresponsibility — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 03:50:26 +0000

The village website has her name spelled Julie Somers and Julie Summers, Nobody knows which name is accurate nor does anyone care but neither names are listed on the employee salary list. The authority of hiring municipal staff is in the hands of village manager Ken Fritz. Ms. Summers/Somers was a former employee of the village and it is worth looking into what job she formerly held and all of a sudden what position she is sitting in now. I think one important concept private citizens are focusing around when it comes to village salaries, is that they should reflect the same value as the private markets. I think any economics professor could show gross differences in pay from the private marketplace and government jobs that entail the same job duties and scope of employment.

By: fiscalresponsibility

fiscalresponsibility — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 03:28:13 +0000

Mr. Costin, could you please look into the salaries of the community development office? I think you’ll find the essence of financial irresponsibility within this department. It would also be worthy to note that the community development dept. is the most mismanaged and corrupt, or at least the epicenter of controversy and scandal considering the director (Mr. Huff) resigned from his seat after not being able to produce answers to taxpayers when you questioned why Martingale commercial buildings were applying for blighted incentives. In your FOIA for employee salaries which dates back a little while, the new director (Julie Somers) salary info is missing. Considering she has been a long time affiliate of the dept. and close friend of Christopher Huff, I think it is important for tax payers to know or the village to justify how Ms. Somers qualified for the job and what salary she has been awarded. The most disgusting thing for a tax-payer to see is one crook replaced by a bigger one, please look into this.

By: Brian Costin

Brian Costin — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 16:04:55 +0000

I too am concerned about less police and less fire protection out on the streets. Not only does it place our citizens at risk it places our police and fire department workers at risk as well.

By: Brian Costin

Brian Costin — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 16:03:13 +0000

Agreed. I am doing my best to educate myself and the people of Schaumburg about the issues facing this community. Transparency is not about vilifying anyone it’s about getting out accurate information to the public.

I’m confident that I’ve done everything in my power to educate and inform the public accurately about public employee compensation in the Village of Schaumburg. Unfortunately, I can do nothing now to change how the Village has reported this information in the past.

I hope to improve transparency if elected.

By: Brian Costin

Brian Costin — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 15:49:21 +0000

Absolutely, I agree with you. If I’m elected Mayor I would do everything in my power to make sure that the Village of Schaumburg accurately records and reports the total compensation for each employee, and the citizens have access to those figures online, just like Hoffman Estates.

Those figures should note base salary, overtime, uniform allowance, car allowance, longevity pay, special detail pay, retroactive pay, health & life insurance benefits, pension contributions, sick pay, vacation, and anything I’ve neglected to mention.

The taxpayers deserve accurate statements, and so do the municipal workers.

I have made Freedom of Information Act requests for just such a document in 2008, 2009, & 2010. Each time I have been told that “no such document exists”.

To me as a citizen and taxpayer it is SCARY that my Village government doesn’t have documentation for the total compensation packages of its employees. How can a business be well run without that information?

By: COP

COP — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 15:42:27 +0000

Oh and for the record I’m not one of the officers who actually lives in town, so my interest in this issue is not quite the same as officers who do and have been hit hard by the property tax increase…I just want the people I work with (as well as myself) to be accurately represented and not demonized.

By: COP

COP — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 15:38:39 +0000

And as for this statement, I agree with you, our department is and has been required to do more with less…especially our police department…guys retire but they’re slow to replace them…Unfortunately, someone is going to get hurt before something is done about this.

By: COP

COP — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 15:28:21 +0000

Well, I appreciate that Mr. Costin, but my point is not a question of belief, but a matter of FACT. I don’t need to contact Doug to tell me what I made in 2008. You’re putting facts and figures from people you don’t know ABOUT people you don’t know on here. It doesn’t really matter what you know or think you know about the salaries of the Police employees of the Village of Schaumburg, but, and take it for what it’s worth, you’re wrong. You’re reporting paper value as actual value. I don’t know what you do as a director of outreach, but I’m guessing that when you get that paycheck every two weeks as I assume you do you don’t take all your sick time or vacation time and figure that into your salary as money in hand. Do you honestly drive around Schaumburg, and I mean ask yourself HONESTLY, see a squad car and think to yourself “that cop makes $100,000 or more a year”? Really? Seriously? Because you have much of the department on that list. OR, is it more likely to point at that same officer and say “with all the vacation and sick time that he/she has accrued, and with all their health benefits they are allotted, he/she is worth more than $100,000 ON PAPER”….the problem is, I think, in your mind, you DO know that, but it sounds better and it’s better for your cause to get people in an uproar. People who are naive enough to just take what you’re putting on here as gospel without truly considering how stupid it is to think that 92 members of the Schaumburg Police Department made 100-125K in 2008. That doesn’t even pass the laugh test. OK, Hmmm, that guy who is standing there when it’s 4 degrees directing traffic at Portillo’s is doing it because, although he’s raking in SIX figures this year, he could use that extra few dollars and who wouldn’t? Four degrees isn’t THAT cold….he does have a hat, after all….Mr. Costin, I know you’ll defer to your standard statement of “well, I’m just reporting what the village says, and I don’t know what else to go by because that’s all the numbers I have”….If you want to believe that rhetoric your putting on here now, ok, but I’m hoping that IF you get to be Mayor of Schaumburg, when you have all the facts and figures at your disposal of the salaries of the members of my department, you’ll retract, or at least clarify the erroneous figures you’ve posted on this blog. There’s no doubt in my mind you’ll find you’re wrong about our “salaries” in 2008, but whether you’ll admit that or not I guess remains to be seen.

By: Brian Costin

Brian Costin — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 14:32:19 +0000

If you still believe there is an error please contact the Village of Schaumburg’s Director of Finance, Douglas Ellsworth. His phone number is 847.923.4532 and his email is dellsworth@ci.schaumburg.il.us.

He is the person in charge all financial documents & statements. I obtained the document directly from the Village of Schaumburg.

I do believe in full government transparency and think that all of a Village employee’s regular remuneration including allowances, overtime pay, commissions, and bonuses, health care, pensions, etc., should be reported.

Similar to what Hoffman Estates does.

It is important to note many police officers work overtime or special voluntary details that increase their total pay.

I can only report what I get from the Village.

Sorry I can’t provide a better answer for you.

By: COP

COP — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 14:13:11 +0000

For an accurate representation of a Schaumburg Police Officer salary, simply google “Schaumburg Police Salary”, it’s right there in the recruitment brochure. I will post it as follows:

COMPENSATION
There are five steps to reach top salary:
Start_ Year 4
05/01/09 $53,073 – $78,339
05/01/10 $55,196 – $81,473
05/01/11 $57,404 – $84,732
05/01/12 $59,700 – $88,121

THIS is accurate. This, of course does not reflect overtime pay or incentive pay but it accurately reflects the base GROSS pay of a Schaumburg Police Officer. In 2009, I was being compensated at top base pay which means that without including any overtime or incentive pay, I was receiving $78,339. In actuality, due to overtime and incentive pay, I GROSSED 85K and actually took home $70K. For anyone reading this blog who would be willing to trade me my 2009 salary based on my W-2 for 100K, bring your checkbook and I’d be more than happy to meet with you and believe me I’ll go away smiling (and, again, I am one of the officers listed on this page). In FACT, I’ll trade you what I made in 2008 OR 2009 for even 90K and STILL walk away with TALL profit, whether it’s between Jan. 1 – Dec. 31, or May 1 – Apr 30 Or ANY other one year period.

By: Brian Costin

Brian Costin — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 13:25:07 +0000

Thank you for that. Did you know that since the Village of Schaumburg broke ground on the Convention Center project that we have cut 40 positions in the police department and 17 positions in the Fire Department?

We have totally lost sight of what is important. In my mind the important core government services are Police, Fire, Public Works (Streets & Sanitation), not things like the ball park, convention center, airport.

Let me assure you I would never put out information that I believed to be inaccurate. I’m doing the best I can with the limited information I have. Everything I get is directly from the Village.

Feel free to contact me at any time to voice your concerns.

By: Brian Costin

Brian Costin — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 13:20:27 +0000

I appreciate you commenting on this blog. One thing to point out. These figures are not from January 1st through December 31st. They are from May 1st, 2007 through April 30th, 2008, which coincides with the Village’s Fiscal Year. This may be where the confusion is.

I do not make up numbers. Let me repeat, I do not make up numbers. Everything I post here is directly obtained from the Village of Schaumburg.

They even appear on the Village of Schaumburg website.

I have found the Village of Schaumburg has very poor fiscal controls and record keeping. They don’t even have documentation of what employees total compensation packages are.

This is extremely disappointing. How can the citizenry be informed on what it is paying it’s employees when the Village doesn’t even keep track of total compensation? We have no idea if are employees are underpaid or overpaid.

It’s no real surprise to me that there has been 15 tax hikes in the last 10 years alone.

By: COP

COP — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 07:10:23 +0000

And to show you that I’m not in total disagreement with some of your ideas, you are right about 3 things, the ballpark, the convention center, and the airport are all big wastes of money…I have always agreed with that…furthermore, the trolleys are also a waste of money in addition to the beautification projects that the village has been a part of.

By: COP

COP — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 07:06:18 +0000

Just for purposes of argument I checked my YTD Gross and Net for the paycheck I received on 12/18/09 and my GROSS was approximately 15K less than what you claim I took home the previous year, and my NET take home was 30K less than what you claimed I made THE PREVIOUS YEAR…according to what you say, I would have made 30K less in 09 than I did in 08. Oh and 2010 was a fat year in my household…add 4k more in GROSS and 2.8K more in NET for me as of 12/16/10…believe me, your numbers are far from accurate. I understand you want to push Larson out, but if you’re going to claim that the police are overpaid, look at what their take home salaries are and report that…when you include vacation time, sick time, and the 3 personal days we get every year, your numbers become skewed as that is not truly part of our salary.