Help push to block pay raise

On Monday, July 20, four of our fellow Des Plaines aldermen and Mayor Matt Bogusz gave our city manager a record-high 14 percent pay raise amounting to $22,000 each year.

Earlier in the year the city manager along with the rest of the staff received a 1 percent pay increase. So, the 14 percent was compounded on the 1 percent.

The city manager's pay hike will, of course, add thousands to our city's pension obligations. In addition our city manager's pay increase was retroactive to April 2014, which will result in our city manager receiving an additional $27,000 check for work he had already been well paid to perform.

To put this number in perspective, many residents in our wards live on annual incomes less than $27,000 per year. We don't feel it is right for these struggling residents to be paying for this huge retroactive raise through their taxes.

We voted against this record high pay hike and although we didn't prevail, we want to keep up this fight. We intend to introduce a motion to reconsider the raise and if this fails, a separate motion to eliminate the retroactive nature of it.

You can help us now by contacting the supporters of this pay raise - aldermen Rodd, Charewicz, Smith, and Robinson, and Mayor Bogusz - and asking them to support our motions.

Malcolm Chester, Jim Brookman, Dick Sayad, Patricia Haugeberg, Aldermen

Des Plaines