Wall Street greed in Elgin

I received an invitation from Mayor Kaptain’s wife to attend an “Occupy Elgin” protest on Christmas Eve. I was encouraged to come and protest the loss of jobs and the greed of Wall Street.

I was a bit puzzled since the greed of Wall Street seems somewhat remote from Elgin. And the most likely upcoming source of job loss in Elgin is coming at the direction of our own city management.

What I would suggest as being more relevant is that people protest at Elgin’s City Hall. With our new budget, there will be 12 positions eliminated. And corporate greed has nothing on Elgin City Hall, where many of Elgin’s top 1 percent make their livings. These are worthy of protest by the taxpayers of Elgin.

Last year, more than 130 city employees pulled in over $100,000 per year. And the top managers earn more money then 4-star generals and governors of many of our states.

Making across-the-board pay cuts for everyone at city hall should have been a key component in the new budget. And special attention in the area of pay should be directed at the highly overpaid top management and anyone pulling in more than $80,000 per year.

Instead, the council has chosen to reward the top city executives with sky-high pay and exorbitant pensions that are not financially sustainable.

Chuck Keysor

Elgin