Mundelein lays off police officers to save money

Two Mundelein police officers have been laid off as part of sweeping cost-saving measures, prompting complaints from their union.

Officials with Teamsters Joint Council 25, which represents the rank-and-file police in Mundelein, accused village leaders of playing politics by firing officers Kenneth Monsen and Andrew Bernsee, both of whom were relatively new probationary employees.

The move was "retaliation against the union" for not agreeing to alter the final year of a four-year contract, union president John T. Coli said in a news release.

The contract calls for 4-percent salary increases for all members and additional 4-percent merit-based increases for eligible officers, village officials said.

However, Village Administrator John Lobaito said the village asked officers to eliminate the merit-based raises, a step already taken for the village's non-unionized workers because of the recession.

No other employees were immune, including Lobaito and other administrators. The change was one of several money-saving decisions made when the village board approved a $42.6 million budget late last month.

Village leaders also wanted to reduce the offcers' across-the-board raises to 3 percent. Non-union workers are getting 2-percent raises, a smaller percentage than in previous years.

"These are difficult times. There are a lot of people who are suffering. This is not a time to be thinking about yourself," Lobaito said. "We think everybody needs to do their part."

Teamsters Union spokesman Will Petty criticized the village's request, saying it amounted to a pay cut because officers would be getting paid less than promised under the contract.

He later acknowledged the officers' salaries wouldn't have been cut under the village's proposal - only one of the promised raises would've been eliminated.

When union members rejected the proposed changes, Lobaito said, they knew layoffs were possible.

"What we asked was not unreasonable," Lobaito said. "The choice was theirs."

Police Chief Raymond J. Rose said he was disappointed by the union's decision.

"An 8-percent pay raise in today's economic times is certainly unrealistic," he said. Monson, who joined the department in September 2007, left April 30, Rose said. Bernsee, who joined the department in June 2008, will leave next week.

The moves do not compromise the department's public-safety efforts, Rose said.