Township’s dubious 16.2 percent raises

Township’s dubious 16.2 percent raises

Anyone who has been following DuPage politics is aware of the bad blood between Milton Township Assessor Bob Earl and the township elected officials. The situation had seemed to resolve itself with the last election — the will of the people who voted in a new township assessor.

Now Earl has awarded a number of employees a 16.2 percent pay increase which in these tight times is a slap in the face to the people of Milton Township who will have to foot the bill. Earl justified this increase in pay to support an increase in hours — his people are catching up the standard work-a-day world ... they have been five hours shy of a full workweek for years.

Perhaps it is this kind of performance that the voters wanted to eliminate. Perhaps this should have been rectified at the beginning of Mr. Earl’s tenure and not at the end. Also five hours is 12.5 percent; if he felt the need to pay for a part of the workweek that should have already been expected to work and then add the 1.7 cost of living increase to that — my math indicates that the total should be 14.2 percent.

So are Mr. Earl’s critics playing politics and mischaracterizing what happened or posting valid objections? I think it is the latter. A 35 hour workweek with full benefits and cost of living increases are nice jobs — looks very nice to many a constituent who can’t find such work. Workers deserve a raise — but 16.2 percent?

Nancy L. Rogers

Glen Ellyn