GOTL stifles pay raises for salaried employees

By MARGIE TRAX PAGE - Staff Writer - mtrax@starbeacon.com
Star Beacon

April 21, 2008 11:30 pm

— GENEVA-ON-THE-LAKE — In a preemptive strike against a budgetary crisis, Village Council Monday took the first step toward freezing pay for salaried employees.
The ordinance, which saw its first reading Monday, outlines a 3 percent raise for hourly village employees but stifles raises for salaried workers.
“When we were working on the original budget, we were concerned about how tight the funds are,” Councilman Steve Cervas said. “One way to fix that budget issue was no pay raises this year, but we thought we could at least push through the raise for hourly workers.”
Cervas said the raises for salaried employees will come in time and the frozen raise money will be issued.
“It will certainly be retroactive,” Cervas said. “Everyone will get their money, just some later than others.”
Cervas said the decision to freeze wages weighed heavily on council.
“This certainly isn't something we wanted to do, but you know, do we cut jobs or freeze wage increases or lay people off? We asked ourselves all those questions and this was the best answer for now,” he said.
The raise situation will be revisited in May, with special consideration for auxiliary police officers, Councilman Don Woodward said.