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DeKalb city manager gets raise 3 percent hike retroactive to January; item’s presence on consent agenda questioned By BRITTANY KEEPERMAN bkeeperman@shawmedia.com DeKALB – City Council members voted to approve a 3 percent raise for City Manager Anne Marie Gaura – as well as retroactive pay back to January – without any discussion Tuesday, raising the ire of some in the audience. During the public participation part of the meeting, Michael Haji Sheikh and former Mayor Bessie Chronopoulos both spoke out against increasing Gaura’s
pay without any discussion. “You’re talking about raising taxes simultaneously with raising the cost of government,” Haji Sheikh said. “A big chunk of citizens in this town are NIU employees. Most of us still get paid what we got seven or eight years ago. We’re told, ‘The state doesn’t have any money.’ Well, the citizens of this town don’t have any money.” The item was under a consent agenda with a long list of other items like receiving and filing past City Council
and Planning and Zoning Commission minutes. This meant all items on the agenda would be enacted in one motion, rather than voted on independently. City Council members have the opportunity to request any items on a Anne Marie consent agenda Gaura be removed for independent discussion. But there was no discus-
Democrats show priorities in proposed budget
sion among the council after public participation, and council members unanimously voted to approve the consent agenda. Gaura has been city manager since January 2014, and has worked to bring changes to the organization and spending practices of the city administration while wrestling with a budget that has become reliant on short-lived sources of revenue such as tax increment financing revenue. Gaura already had re-
ceived a 1.5 percent cost-ofliving raise, city records show. The 3 percent raise will boost Gaura’s base salary to $162,000. Gaura had been due for an annual merit review in January and the performance-based raise ordinarily would have been awarded then, but the matter was deferred because the city was in the process of completing a pay and compensation study, according to city documents. The range of salaries for city managers in comparable
communities typically ranges from $166,296 to $173,032, according to that pay and compensation study. Gaura will receive about $1,600 in retroactive pay back to January, based on her new salary. However, Chronopoulos said she thought the issue deserved some discussion from council members. “That doesn’t seem like the type of item that should be on a consent agenda,” she said. “It should be [voted] on its own.”
FAIRDALE TORNADO AFTERMATH
By KERRY LESTER and NICK SWEDBERG The Associated Press SPRINGFIELD – A plan Illinois Democrats are proposing as an alternative to the steep cuts sought by Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner would keep budget levels flat for local governments and Medicaid and only modestly reduce higher education assistance, committee leaders said Tuesday. One day after Democratic leaders announced the $36.3 billion proposal for the fiscal year that begins in July, some of the details became clearer. In several areas, the budget plan contrasts vividly with the plan Rauner unveiled in February, setting up a major test for the newly divided government as the state prepares to grapple with its significant financial problems. “We want a budget that invests in local public safety, in access to affordable education, in people’s children and seniors and their health,” Democratic state Sen. Dan Kotowski of Park Ridge said. “We’re not willing to disinvest in those things.” Republicans, meanwhile, met with the governor about returning home to their districts next week to emphasize the need for pro-business reforms before the state can spend more money. “The governor’s message is to be vocal, to tell the folks back home what’s happening and why we’re pressing this reform agenda,” said Republican state Sen. Michael Connelly, of Lisle. “The message was to stay strong, that people back home elected him not to nibble around the edges of the budget but to shake up Springfield.” The conflicting messages come as Illinois’ first divided government in 12 years negotiates a budget in the final days of the session, which is scheduled to adjourn on Sunday. The way it’s going, both sides are predicting an extended, summertime standoff, creating headaches for state payrolls and schools re-opening for the year in August. The governor, a wealthy private equity investor, has declined to negotiate on the budget until the Legislature passes pro-business reforms he says are central to growing the state’s economy, including workers’ compensation reform, lawsuit reform and freezes to property taxes. But Democratic leaders have reminded him he’s under the dome, not in the
See BUDGET, page A7
Monica Synett file photo – msynett@shawmedia.com
Beverly “Marcy” Richardson asks about buying her neighbor’s property during a meeting for Fairdale property owners May 19 at the Kirkland Fire Hall, so that she can build a one-story house to replace the two-story house damaged by the tornado that hit Fairdale.
Working toward recovery New zoning could ease restrictions to help Fairdale rebuild By ADAM POULISSE apoulisse@shawmedia.com FAIRDALE – Clarence “Clem” Schulz lost everything in the April 9 tornado, including his home and his wife, Geraldine. But he still intends to rebuild his Main Street home using insurance money – with some slight modifications. “Maybe it will look similar to what was there before, but this time it will only be a single story,” Schulz
said. “I won’t have a basement now. All I’m going to do is bulldoze the stone in and fill the hole, then put [the home] on a cement slab.” Schulz’s plan might be easier said than done. Fairdale, a tiny unincorporated community of about 150 residents, mostly consisted of houses and land uses that were in place before county zoning was established in 1948, and many Fairdale homes are out of step with requirements for the distance from a house to a street,
same security. The 90 properties affected sustained an estimated $7.9 million in property damage, For thoughts on the recovery efforts including about $2.76 million in unfrom Bill Nicklas, president of the DeKalb insured losses. County Long Term Recovery Corp., see To accommodate residents hopPAGE 2. ing to rebuild, the county is looking to rezone Fairdale to a mixed-use property lines and even the height development area, a designation of fences, and well and septic sys- that would allow residents more freedom in rebuilding their homes tem guidelines. and, ultimately, their lives. Although Schulz is making an insurance claim to help rebuild his home, not all residents have the See FAIRDALE, page A7
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