Schaumburg trustees approve $1,000 'inflation-relief' payments for full-time employees

Despite the criticisms of approximately a dozen residents, Schaumburg trustees have unanimously approved what they're calling inflation-relief payments of $1,000 to the village's full-time employees and $500 to part-time employees.

The money comes from a surplus in the village's general fund, projected to be $18.3 million at the end of the current fiscal year on April 30.

That same surplus is the source of previously approved $150 gift cards being mailed to all the village's owner-occupied households this spring.

Village Manager Brian Townsend said the village received about a dozen communications from residents with questions or concerns about the employee payments.

At Tuesday's village board meeting, frequent political candidate William Olson -- introducing himself as William La Fontaine -- decried the lack of trustee comment on the decision, but never specifically called for rejection of the proposal.

"There was very little deliberation in committee," said La Fontaine, a version of the name he used in a failed run for the U.S. Senate in Louisiana last year. "I think there should be more public discourse around it, and I motion to recommit."

Mayor Tom Dailly pointed out only trustees can make such motions, but asked whether any of them had further comment before calling for the vote.

The total cost of the employee payments is estimated at $441,500 for both the 407 full-timers and 69 part-timers expected to be working for the village on April 1.

The gift cards being mailed to the village's approximately 19,500 homeowners are projected to have a total cost of about $2.9 million.

Dailly and Trustee George Dunham, who chairs the board's finance committee, previously said they agreed with the proposal to provide some inflation relief for the employees who'd worked diligently through the pandemic, after having provided some relief to homeowners as well.

Townsend said a competitive labor market is another factor in being attentive to the impacts of inflation on employees.

Officials have emphasized that both the employee and homeowner payments are considered one-time actions, based on the unique circumstances of the current year.

While the COVID-19 pandemic caused Schaumburg to suffer a severe decrease in its revenues, the economic climate of the past fiscal year has been kind to the village's financial recovery.