Village Board Planning to Revamp and Increase its Wages

Citing a desire to simplify bookkeeping, the Village Board gave support to a new, salaried pay scale that would slightly increase trustees' compsenation next year.

Trustees earned $3,758 each in 2010 while the Village President took in $5,550 and they are paid on a per-meeting structure. Village payroll personnel dig through meeting minutes to find out who attended the meetings to determine who should be paid.

In the new salaried system, village trustees would be paid $4,000 and the village president would be paid $6,600.

“A lot of the Village Board members are doing work at home,” explained Greg Goetz, the village president, during Thursday's budget workshop. “They’re also spending extra monies on things like gas, paper and printer ink. The pay hasn’t been augmented in a very long time, and these numbers I’m presenting aren’t much different than what they are now.”

Although the increase keeps the pay at or below what comparable communities offer, Trustee Pat Tetzlaff had a few concerns about increasing the pay.

“Let’s back up because this is really bothering me,” said Tetzlaff. “I know our pay hasn’t been raised in a very long time, but are we really going to give ourselves raises in this economy?”

Doubts about a pay increase subsided when Jeremy Smith, the village administrator, did the math. With this change, taxes would only increase 50 cents — total — on a $289,000 home.

“Well that’s just nickels and dimes,” laughed Trustee Tim Dietrich.

During Thursday’s Budget Workshop, the members of the Village Board decided to move away from their original payment system toward a salaried system that would not only slightly increase their wages and taxes, but also allegedly streamline the payroll process.

The pay increase was inserted in the 2012 budget, which will be approved later.

In order to streamline the pay of special committee members as well, Smith suggested paying them either $150 or $300 per year depending on how often their committee meets. Some gather once every two months, while others meet every month.

Goetz said he hoped this would be the second-to-last Budget Workshop, so taxpayers soon might get a glimpse of the finished 2012 budget.