By: Diane Benjamin
The Town of Normal finally decided to post some employee compensation: http://www.normal.org/documentcenter/view/7527
They only included salaries over $75,000, a little over 300 of them. Since they don’t have many more employees than that, it’s close to everybody.
I was looking around on OpenTheBooks.com and found some interesting numbers. This information comes from the salaries reported to IMRF – the pension administrators. Nope, they don’t match. IMRF numbers are what pensions are going to be based on, so I trust their’s more.
The interesting part of what I found is some salaries decreased over three years!
Are the highest paid Town employees paid by the hour? How did some salaries reported to IMRF actually decrease?
If these numbers make you sick, go back to the top and see all the other salaries. Then check how much your taxes have increased to cover them.
Mark Peterson got some nice raises in the last three years:
Pamela Reece got a huge bump in 2016, but then went down in 2017. She will recovery in 2018 after being names City Manger:
Wayne Aldrich (Public Works) took a cut too:
Andrew Huhn (Finance Director) got increases:
This guy is actually a CIRBN employee on Normal’s payroll so he can get benefits and a pension. More on him later, but he received increases even though CIRBN is losing money (more on that later too):
This guy got increases (Director of Inspection):
So did the Town lawyer:
Here’s another one who didn’t see an increase (Building Commissioner):
Check others on OpenTheBooks.com if you are interested.
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These salaries are just a bit on the unbelievable side…Wow… we have some really fat hogs at the trough in Normal! I bet all of the low income people in Normal love paying taxes to pay these public leeches hundreds of thousands of dollars.
But, but…liberals care about the poor and have a monopoly on compassion. Ha!
Public leeches? You think the Town runs itself? You think sewer and water service is magic? People provide the services for the residents of the town. They work to make sure garbage is picked up, buildings meet code, and public safety is upheld. I have to say, Larry, you sound so bitter. Turned down for a job or something?
Have some fun and compare those jobs to the private sector: https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_14010.htm#00-0000
Really Rich? Bitter? Last time I looked Normal was a small town, right? And these salaries are justified? In your mind these are OK salaries? As we watch on social media these public leeches at backslapping Chamber meetings and ribbon cuttings of bird feeders? Ad hominem attacks on me will not convince anyone here that these people are not overpaid. Typical gaslighting by the establishment people like yourself then, Rich? Is that all you got is to accuse me that I have some sort of personal problem that motivated me to call these overpaid “public servants” leeches? Come on Rich… it that all you got? FYI- Rich- your gaslighting is not going to work in this town anymore. For everyone reading this.. let’s look at the definition of gaslighting so everyone knows what Rich is trying to do here: is a form of manipulation that seeks to sow seeds of doubt in a targeted individual or in members of a targeted group, hoping to make them question their own memory, perception, and sanity. Using persistent denial, misdirection, contradiction, and lying, it attempts to destabilize the target and delegitimize the target’s belief.
@ Rich And guess who made all the rules of what is code, how garbage is picked up, public safety, etc. etc. etc. The city managers who came to Council meetings and shoved this down their throat. The highly paid city managers. Where in the private sector has anyone received 5 figure increases in salary in 1 or 2 years?
Yes – these kind of salaries are evidence that elites have taken over the government here (in both towns). They have used their power, influence and the crony system here to enrich themselves (and their friends and associates) while milking the taxpayers and businesses for as much money as possible. Their mission is to create towns and governments that fit into their ideology and detached-from-reality world views. Is a known fact that for the most part, as a person advances into high income brackets, they become isolated and removed from the reality of what regular people lives are like. One only has to look at the Green Top Grocery to see a vivid example of how detached our elites in this town are. Only elites who make lots of money could think that the Green Top Grocery would be a place that regular people would shop at. They are completely removed from the reality of feeding families on working class wages. Uptown Normal is really code for Upscale Normal. Downtown Normal has been transformed into our elites vision of a place that elites would feel comfortable in (look at the new offices the city government is now renting). Only when the regular people of our towns vote to reclaim our government and restore sanity will we begin to repair the damage that has been done and then chart a common sense direction for our futures here.
Yep. Definitely hit a nerve. Sorry, Larry.
No, you didn’t hit a nerve with me Rich. But I accept your apology.
Koos and the Council run around at budget time saying they can’t cut another dime. Haha! Unreal. Peterson feathered his nest on the way out I see.
That’s why the ones still working won’t do anything about pensions spiking. They want to get what’s “due” them.
Normal has F A R less problems with spiking than Bloomington!
the raise for Peterson was to increase his pension in retirement.
Do these numbers represent base pay or do the numbers include benefits?
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openthebooks has pensionable salaries. I think that would be base plus overtime, no benefits
These would be base salaries, and those listed above would not get overtime due to their classification as Exempt. Add another 30 percent to cover fringe benefits.
The cost of benefits are on the link to Normal’s website
I wonder what the Forester does?
Trees don’t grow on their own!
I don’t know what the wages are for regular type working guys/girls in the city are but these big shot salaries are just way over the top for a little town like Normal. You have to have some fantastic experience or education or skill sets in private industry to get this kind of money handed to you. And these are folks that have brought us the Uptown boondoggle and the car-less car maker (or is an SUV or a truck now)?
Hey Rich. For YOUR little notebook (to match your thinking) I have a GOOD 4 year degree with a strong background in Physics AND chemistry. and don’t make NEAR this, and would GLADLY take these jobs, and RUN with them. WHAT did you say you majored in? Skittles and stupidity? This kind of pay is EXACTLY what is ruining this country. Inept people making inept decisions. And they get there by people LIKE YOU voting for them and thinking they are the greatest thing since toilet seats! I suppose you have a few hundred shares of Green Top also. How’s that dividend working out..
I’d LIKE to see how YOU’D run this UPTOWN stuff!! Only on a performance basis. I think THAT would be a good call. I’d like to see WHAT you’d make annually!!
“Rich” is probably just fine with “some animals being more equal than others” – he fully believes that the pigs deserve the best food and the best places since they do all of the “important work” of the farm”…..
Brian Chase is the Library Director. Most of these salaries are obscenely high. I remember the days when towns did not employ so many superfluous positions. Ridiculous.
Now what is really sad about how a bunch of greedy elites have taken over the town of Normal and are reaping the rewards of that takeover is the upcoming reality of the decline in higher education. These elites have bet everything on the shortsighted belief that ISU will be a cash cow for the town of Normal for the next 20 years and beyond. Unfortunately brick and mortar education is in for a giant set of market corrections. ISU and hundreds of other higher education institutions will be forced to make difficult fundamental changes in order to survive in the near future. And yes when sanity once again prevails in the Town of Normal and the people elect smart down-to-earth people who will dismantle the crazy elitist this system/government and its leftist agendas can they once again have a set of priorities and affordable services that will truly serve the them.
Lawrence, you and I need to grab a beer. In Uptown of course.
Yes that would good… I will even buy…