Perez: Ruling still favors taxpayers, not union

Kane County Sheriff Pat Perez said Wednesday that taxpayers are still winners despite a recent arbitration ruling that returns some cash to corrections officers.

Perez had touted the elimination of paid roll call for corrections officers during his re-election campaign as one of several changes he's implemented to reduce spending.

But the arbitration ruling forces the county to find $125,362 in the budget to restore seven paid minutes of the workday to the corrections officers. Perez put that dollar amount in context for the first time Wednesday, comparing the arbitration loss to the approximately $300,000 Perez said taxpayers saved following his elimination of roll call in June 2009.

The lingering savings results from a facet of the arbitration ruling that gives the unionized corrections officers pay for roll call dating back only to August 2010. Plus, back in 2009, roll call lasted 15 minutes.

The arbitration ruling dictates that roll call account for only seven minutes of the day, keeping half the ongoing savings in place. It'll be even less if Perez can eliminate all roll call once again during collective bargaining with the union.

“I'm still pushing to eliminate roll call,” Perez said. “It is not necessary.”

Perez said officers can receive the information they'd normally be given during roll call electronically, which eliminates their need to be present at work and paid for that time.

“When we eliminated roll call, we changed the time we had them come in. We didn't force someone to come in and then not pay them,” Perez said