Editorial on deputy raises hypocritical

Your piece on DuPage County deputies' pay raises is hypocritical. On the opinion page your mission statement proclaims: "To fear God, tell the truth, and make money." It's OK for you "to make money," while you tell officers to wait another year for raises?

Why don't you take a hit and reduce the price of your paper and advertising? It's OK for you to make money, but your public servants get kicked to the curb.

Sheriff John Zaruba spews baloney on cross-trained deputies, which is only an attempt to interfere with their effort to unionize. He holds promised 16 percent increases from last year, and you denigrate these officers, recommending that the deputies "be glad to have a job." Officers were never going to get a 16 percent increase. He has been saying that for a year. It was never earmarked across the board for every officer.

Why don't you look into Zaruba's and the board's efforts to thwart the officers' desire to unionize, which has cost over $500,000 to taxpayers for attorney fees? That number is going up once the current litigation is resolved in the Illinois Supreme Court.

Ask Zaruba to give budgeted raises for his officers, who need to provide for their families. Ask him to take a pay cut, as well as the county board? No, you disrespect the officers again and advise them to take it on the chin. You just don't get that they, too, are suffering from this economy, the lies about their pensions and the fact that the county would rather spend money to fight their unionizing efforts than to give them a decent raise.

That's why they seek a union. Now they know it is the right choice because they won't receive monetary justice from their employer or support from the media.

Joseph M. Andalina

President,

Metropolitan Alliance of Police