Police cuts top list from Pingree Grove task force

Eliminating the position of deputy police chief and reducing village board stipends are among the 34 cost-saving proposals that the Pingree Grove finance task force will present to the village board on Monday.

Fourteen residents were appointed to the task force in September and met during the last two months to pore over the village’s finances to try to find at least $50,000 in budget cuts. The village’s budget for the current fiscal year, which ends April 30, is expected to have that big a hole.

The list of proposals also includes eliminating the village’s police department to contract policing services from Kane County, but Kane County Sheriff Pat Perez has said he is not willing to do that, citing his own staffing level issues. Also, Perez said the task force vastly underestimated how much contract policing would cost.

Altogether, 17 of the proposed cuts involve the police department, including eliminating nine part-time officer positions in order to hire two full-time officers at an estimated $48,000 in savings; having officer-in-charge positions rather than sergeant positions at an estimated $17,600 in savings; and raising police department staff’s co-payments for health, dental and vision insurance by 10 percent. Cutting the deputy police chief’s position would save the village $75,000, the document states.

The list was posted online around 5 p.m. Friday as part of the village board’s agenda. Shortly after, Trustee Brian Paszkiewicz, who hadn’t seen it yet, said he would have to take “a hard look at the numbers” to determine which options might be viable.

The task force also proposed reducing the village president’s stipend from $150 to $100 per week, the stipend for village trustees and plan commission members from $75 to $35 per meeting, and the village clerk’s compensation from $50 to $35 per meeting, at a total estimated savings of $1,960.

Other ideas include consolidating the copier repair and maintenance accounts, renegotiating the village’s telecommunications contracts, and eliminating mosquito spraying while maintaining larvicide treatments.

Not all task force members agree all of the cuts should be enacted, task force chairman Rich Eckert said. The decision ultimately will be up to the village board.