Government: May 2008 Archives

The Hound was reading his favorite DuPage County newspaper, The Naperville Sun, when he saw a story that piqued his curiosity. It seems members of the DuPage County Board rejected salary increases, stipends and travel reimbursements this past week. How refreshing, considering Lake County Board members' money grab.

In DuPage County, salaries will remain flat over the next four years for the dozen board members to be elected in November, according to the salary schedule in The Sun. The newly elected members will make $50,079 each year through 2012. That compares with Lake County Board salaries in 2012 of $44,074 --- a 15.5 percent increase over 2008. It should be noted there are 18 DuPage County Board members; 23 in Lake County.

But that's not all the DuPage County Board members did. Committee chairman and vice chairman also will cease to receive stipends of $3,000 and $1,000, respectively.
And although other county personnel now will be able to claim higher mileage reimbursements for travel related to county business, board members exempted themselves from receiving transportation compensation.

This has got to be a first in the annals of government and certainly something never seen in Lake County.

Six DuPage members whose terms will continue past the November election, will receive annual raises for their seats, which were approved in 2006. Their current salary of $50,079 will grow to $53,645 over the next two years.

But, now get this: At that point, the board may vote to pull those salaries back to $50,079 as well. Chairman Bob Schillerstrom said, noting: "We would presume, based on past history, that we would seek to equate their pay the next time around."

Brien Sheahan of Elmhurst was the backbone behind the proposition to withhold travel reimbursements from board members. He said the decision should show other county employees that board members understand the difficulties they face. "In the real world people are not compensated for their travel to and from work, so I think it sends a message to our employees that we understand the cost of commuting," Sheahan said, according to The Sun account.

The main reason, DuPage officeholders said they froze their salaries, was to show taxpayers they look at ways to keep taxes and spending as low as can be. "It's belt-tightening time," noted one official. DuPage is the second County Board is the six-county area to reject pay hikes, following Kane County earlier this month.

Most of us know what Lake County Board members did when faced with a similar dilemma: They followed the money and went for the gold.

Sure seems those Lake County Board members who voted to increase their pay --- in the midst of tough economic times -- are a bunch of greedy Guses. They're lucky the Illinois Senate killed a provision for recall. Could you imagine recalling 13 County Board members? Yowza!

So they dodged a bullet. Sure is convenient that all but one County Board member up for re-election and having opposition come Nov. 4 voted in favor of the 15.5 percent pay hikes which soon takes their pay for a part-time job to more than $40,000 a year. Sure is suspicious, like somebody figured out the math. The vote to hike their own salaries was 13-10.

That one County Board member seeking re-election and voting for the pay hike was Republican Larry Leafblad of Grayslake. He must feel pretty good about his opponent in November to vote himself a pay raise in the current economic times. Maybe his constituents will feel different about that.

As for the two retiring members, Republican Judy Martini of Antioch and Carol Spielman of Highland Park: They certainly showed their true colors voting with their fellow payrollers and against the taxpayers.

Ah, but perhaps voters will have longer memories when it comes to the four members who voted to boost their salaries and whose terms expire in 2010. That would be Steve Carlson of Gurnee, Susan Gravenhorst of Lake Bluff, Pam Newton of Vernon Hills and Michael Talbett of Lake Zurich. Did The Hound mention they are all Republicans? So much for conservative fiscal spending the GOP once was known for. No wonder Democrats are making increasing inroads into formerly Republican Lake County.

The Hound has one message for these greedy Guses: Get on the bus, Gus and make way for public servants who don't expect to get rich off the taxpayers.

As The Hound was standing in line at the Post Office for one-cent stamps to match up with the leftover 41-cent stamps which no longer are valid, steam was coming out of those big ears. It was just last year that the U.S. Postal Service raised stamp prices to 41 cents and now the cost of mailing a first-class letter is 42 cents.

Then, The Hound remembered that this is the same USPS whose employees rang up a $13,500 tab at a five-hour feast at a Ruth's Chris Steak House in Orlando, Fla. That's when the steam started pumping like an old Baltimore & Ohio coal train.

This postal order sort of made news last month after the Government Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, discovered the charges made to government credit cards. As far as The Hound is concerned, the national media dropped the ball on this story.

GAO investigators called the 2006 meal "abusive" in its extravagance, according to The Associated Press. That's too kind. How about piggish.

The order included more than $3,000 in drinks, including top-shelf beverages such as Courvoisier cognac, Belvedere vodka and Johnnie Walker Gold Label scotch. Then there was the $500 in shrimp cocktails and $900 in crab cakes --- that's a lot of appetizers. But then again, Ruth's Chris is no late-night diner. It's a classy joint.

According to the GAO breakdown, the diners also had 81 steakhouse salads at $588, and 130 jumbo scallops which totaled $422. Yum, jumbo scallops! Ninety-five people attended the feast and ordered 81 entrees, which the GAO figured averaged $160 per person. That's eating high off the hog!

The USPS defends the dinner, contending it was held to land corporate clients from privately run FedEx and UPS. Taxpayer money, they say, was not involved; the feast was funded by products and services of the USPS.

Uh, aren't stamps products? And they wonder why Americans go postal when the price of stamps rise.

The Hound's Gurnee correspondents are still tittering over the latest issue of "Keeping Posted", the village's newsletter. What has them guffawing is Mayor Kristina Kovarik's monthly message .

"The winter did expose some flaws in our ability to deal with heavy snowfalls," her honor notes with a straight pen. "I'm happy to report that Village staff has taken the initiative to conduct some intense planning sessions that will correct deficiencies in our snow removal operations."

What the mayor doesn't address is why the public works director resigned suddenly and that two long-time public works employees were disciplined. Did it have to do with the poor street-clearing performance during the winter of ought seven and eight? That would be the winter when the village ran out of salt --- not that Gurnee was the only governmental agency to be caught short of sodium chloride. Or is is calcium chloride they use on Midwest roads? Or is there something more to the issues with the three public works guys?

The copy of "Keeping Posted" The Hound saw has Mayor Kovarik concluding: "We listened to the feedback received and the message was loud and clear --- pristine roads and optimal driving conditions are of the utmost importance."

Nothing gets past some public officials, eh?

Despite bad snowplowing, Gurnee does have some of the best fireworks in the county on July 4 and during Gurnee Days. Maybe bread and circuses will get the chill off village residents.

Presidential candidate John McCain and soon-to-be-also-ran Hillary Clinton have proposed suspending the federal gas tax --- 18.4 cents a gallon --- from Memorial Day to Labor Day as a way of bringing relief to Americans at a time when folks take to the highways for summer vacation or cruisin' dates at various county locales. Presidential hopeful Barack Obama dismisses this idea, calling it a "classic Washington gimmick." He's wrong.

So we won't get that much relief at the pump and we may diminish the highway road fund. Yet, it is something government can do for the little people among us. Dismissing the gas tax holiday and siding with those economists is making the Illinois senator sound even more elitist.

The latest poll on the topic, a Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey released this week, shows 46 percent of likely voters favor a federal gas tax holiday this summer. The survey found that 42 percent are opposed and 12 percent unsure.

According to Rasmussen Reports, most voters who earn more than $75,000 a year oppose the gas tax holiday. Most who make less than $60,000 a year favor that policy change. Those making less than $60,000 a year are the ones Obama has had a hard time connecting with in the Democratic primaries and are voters he needs for victory in November.

Clinton's idea to replace the highway transportation fund, which will probably be picked up by McCain once she decides to drop out of the presidential derby, is putting an excess-profits tax on Big Oil. It's not like they don't have some profits to spare.

Tax holidays are not new. Some states even have tax holidays for school supplies and for a few years, Florida had a tax holiday for supplies purchased to be used during hurricane season, June to November in the Sunshine State.

Perhaps it's not the monetary amount, but the fact that voters see government as doing something instead of always taking or doing nothing.

The Hound feels safer already since Gov. Rod "The Mod" Blagojevich has named an Illinois Seismic Safety Task Force. This from the guv who took nearly a year to iron out a mass transit package with state lawmakers.

Just goes to show, an Elvis fan will move it and shake it when the Prairie State rocks and rolls.

Since the April 18, 5.2 magnitude temblor in way downstate Wabash County, the Land of Lincoln has received 29 aftershocks measuring as high as a 4.6 magnitude. Yikes, that sounds like Cali tremors to The Hound.

While some of us were shaken from sleep at 4:37 a.m. April 18, if we were Californians, we would have slept through the quake, let alone it's aftermath. Fortunately, there isn't much in downstate Illinois besides coal mines, some cricket pumps, a few prisons and Shawnee National Forest.

Wake The Hound when there's a 5.2 quake in Lake County.

Anyway, His Hairness has directed state agencies to review and enhance the state's earthquake damage prevention strategies. It's not like state officials weren't aware of the potential for earthquakes downstate. Afterall, one of the most powerful quakes occurred downstate on the New Madrid fault back in the late 1700s. The quake was so powerful, it changed the course of the Mississippi River. Or so The Hound's relatives have said.

The governor certainly moved quickly on this earthquake panel. Perhaps that's his constituency in for his 2010 re-election bid. We can only hope.