Should more suburbs offer benefits with elected officials’ pay?

As participation in local government continues to shrink, some government policy experts suggest increasing pay for public service might create a larger and more diverse candidate pool.

But there are other benefits towns can, and do, offer to elected officials to make the jobs more enticing.

“In some towns, serving on the city council or village board does trend toward being a full-time job,” said Chris Goodman, associate professor of public administration at Northern Illinois University. “It may make sense to have a city council get the normal stuff of being an employee.”

That could mean health insurance, pension participation or allowances for phones, clothes or vehicles.

“This is another way to increase pay via benefits,” Goodman suggested.

But largely, most suburbs have been hesitant to make that leap. In fact, they have been more apt in recent years to eliminate elected officials’ access to these benefits.

“I think that would be over the top to consider any medical benefit or retirement benefit for holding this type of office,” said Geneva Alderperson Dean Kilburg. “That’s where you run into outrage.”

Geneva recently increased pay for trustees for the first time in decades, but Kilburg said adding benefits was never part of the conversation.

A Daily Herald analysis of compensation packages for elected officials in 89 suburbs shows few provide additional benefits beyond annual salaries or stipends for attending meetings. Mostly it’s the larger suburbs that provide some type of ancillary compensation for mayors, trustees or clerks.

Towns that allow some or all of the elected officials to participate in the village’s health insurance program include Addison, Antioch, Aurora, Des Plaines, Elgin, Elk Grove Village, Hoffman Estates, Island Lake, Naperville, Palatine, Rosemont, Streamwood, Wheaton and Wood Dale, according to records from the towns received through public records requests.

Towns such as Addison, Antioch, Arlington Heights, Aurora, Batavia, Bensenville, Elk Grove Village, Hoffman Estates, Inverness, Island Lake, Itasca, Naperville, Oakbrook Terrace, Rosemont, Schaumburg, Streamwood and Wood Dale allow some or all of their elected officials to participate in the IMRF pension program.

In 2017, more than 66% of the suburban local government races were uncontested or had fewer candidates registered than seats available. Just eight years earlier roughly 45% of those races were contested, election data shows.

Goodman said increasing pay or accessing municipal benefits is a relatively inexpensive way to potentially boost participation in local government.

“When you think about the amount of time it takes to do the job well, not getting paid for it is a significant barrier for a lot of people,” he said.