Carpentersville candidate willing to forgo first year’s salary

If elected to the Carpentersville village board, one candidate is pledging to donate back his salary for the first year.

Pointing to more pressing financial needs in the village, candidate Humberto Garcia says he won’t cash the $500 monthly checks he’d receive as a trustee — in the first year of his 4-year term.

He’d rather see the money help pay for police protection, road improvements and crossing guards than go into his pocket. Garcia said he would ask the other trustees to follow his lead.

“I can do nothing by myself — $6,000 a year won’t help,” he said. “If I get the trustees, if I get people ... to take a pay cut on every single line, believe me, that’ll help a lot.”

Garcia would have to donate a $500 check back to a specific department if Carpentersville was to benefit from his goodwill, Village Manager J. Mark Rooney said.

“He could pick a special project,” Rooney said, adding that Garcia would still have to pay taxes on his village income.

When Garcia put the question to them at a recent Daily Herald editorial board interview, candidates Don Burroway and Doug Marks both say they would accept the money.

“It’s $500 a month,” Marks said. “It’s not a huge drain on the town.”

Perennial candidate Kent Baldwin — who did not attend the interview — later said a pay cut would be in order for his trustee salary, a portion of which he would donate to a local food pantry. Trustee Paul Humpfer, the only incumbent in the race, could not be reached for comment.