Hanover Park has to dip further into savings
When Hanover Park Mayor Rod Craig vetoed nearly $550,000 in personnel expenditures from this year's budget back in May, he cited excessive administrative staffing in today's economy and a need to free up funding for additional police officers.
But those cuts aren't proving to be as long-lasting as initially thought.
On Thursday, the board approved amending the budget to include more than $580,000 in additional expenses incurred since May 1 - a move that forces the village to dig about $79,000 deeper into savings.
Craig's spring veto, upheld 4-2 by the board, wiped out the village's legal department. Yet according to Tom Dahl, assistant finance director, there were still items already purchased, agreements and salaries that required payment. As a result, legal-related costs increased the amended budget by nearly $150,000.
Bringing Bernie Paul on as new corporate counsel - he replaced Norm Samuelson - also required more money. The village originally budgeted about $11,000 to Paul for legal services, meetings, conferences and transportation. That amount grew by about $78,000 with Paul's hire. Dahl said Paul does also do some work previously done by ousted village attorney Jim Binninger.
Another reason for the amended budget is about $170,000 in severance payouts Dahl said accounted for the ousted assistant village manager and executive coordinator to the village manager. They were fired along with former village manager Marc Hummel, whose severance package came out of a different fund.
The budget also didn't account for the approximately $60,000 in salary and benefits being paid to Clerk Eira Corral for her collector duties. Craig wanted to reinstate the position, previously held by his wife, citing the importance of having an elected official working full time at village hall.
The lone dissenter in Thursday's vote was Trustee Toni Carter, who said she couldn't "in good conscience" approve the additional money given she didn't agree with the collector's salary.
The amended budget does include positive news on the revenue side. Dahl said the village expects to see about $75,000 more than anticipated from red-light camera fines.
In total, the village will spend $508,000 from reserves - about $79,000 more than before.