cover
TO: The Mayor and City Council
FROM: City Staff
DATE: October 4, 2024
SUBJECT:
Setting the compensation of the City's Elected Officials.
PURPOSE:
To establish the compensation of the Aldermen to be elected in and after May of 2025.
BACKGROUND:
Since at least 1848, Illinois has constitutionally required that the compensation of public officers be established prior to the commencement of their term of office. Section 9(b) of Article VII of the present Illinois Constitution expressly provides that "[a]n increase or decrease in the salary of an elected officer of any unit of local government shall not take effect during the term for which that officer is elected. For this reason no local elected official may ever vote to increase (or decrease) his or her own compensation - only the compensation of the person elected by the public to hold the office at the start of the next term.
To ensure that the voters have the right to weigh in on changes to elected official compensation and to prohibit post-election lame duck adjustments, the Illinois General Assembly has further required that any changes to a local elected officer's compensation be fixed at least 180 days prior to the commencement of a term in office. The Illinois Municipal Code vests the responsibility of establishing the compensation of municipal officers in each municipality's corporate authorities, which in the case of the City, is the City Council.
The Illinois Municipal Code as well as our own Code of Ordinances provides that elected City officers begin their term no earlier than the first regular or special meeting of the City Council in May following the election. The first regular meeting of the City Council in May of 2025 is scheduled to occur on Tuesday, May 13, 2025. This requires the Council to approve adjustments to the salaries of officers elected in 2025 no later than Tuesday, November 12, 2024. If no adjustments are made by this time, the salary schedule adopted by the City Counci...
Click here for full text