You make it sound as if this a terrible thing to have a SKILLED position in the village and make good living doing it! Post that the salaries are on the web site and be done with it. "Calling out" good folks on what they make reaks of sour grapes! I suppose that lorraine swanson wants us ALL to work for free and feed our families with the generosity of handouts from various soup kitchens throughout the village. Hey lorraine try waking up at 2am and putting out a fire, stopping a criminal, plowing streets, or be 10ft deep fixing a water main so your family can shower at 6am, then tell me how much you'd pay for that! These salaries are right in line with the exact same jobs throughout cook county with the amount of residents we have. Shameful actions of a "chicken little" writer! The sky isn't falling lorraine,because we are here helping to hold it up!

Wow, should have been a firefighter!

Thank you to all the village employees for jobs well done.

I guess I am in the wrong business!

When a department is understaffed they have to hire back an employee thus creating over time. Over time is obviously part of an employees gross salary. If the department was adequately staffed gross salaries will obviously go down. Perhaps we should worry about low staffing levels due to various reasons instead of worrying about the amount the overworked employees are making.

And why are these people paid that much? They're certainly not brain surgeons.

Why do we taxpayers allow public servant salaries to rise so high when many of us lay awake at night wondering how we're going to pay our bills? Like high Oak Lawn property taxes, for one example.

We pay these people that much for so little in return.

Doesn't make sense, folks.

Salaries are public record because they are paid by the public. If you don't like people to know don't work for the village pure and simple

I Believe the police n firemen should b well paid! but some of the other salaries r ridiculously high...especially for the ones who sit in a nicely furnished office all day and are NOT out there putting their life's on the line! I mean come on ppl ...6 figure salary for village manager n telecommunicator???? maybe if we lowered some of these salaries this village wouldn't be so broke!! we could use this money to offset our high property taxes n give residents a break on them...not just the elderly but everyone!! or maybe if they give up some money the village could create more after school programs or better drug awareness programs for teens Cuz one thing this village seems to be keeping hush hush is the awful heroin ...n other drug issues plaguing ol schools! we all need to wake up ...including village officials ....n see the bigger picture here we need to act as a community as one n not residents vs officials!

Salaries sure weren't an issue pre 2008. Misery loves company though.

These salaries are way to high

Here lies in the problem with posting "ALL" the salaries of the village employee's. People who work in the private sector, or who are not in the trades, see how much we make and take offense. Why, because they feel what we do, as public servants or tradesmen and women somehow should make less money than someone who is not. I like many other tradesmen, or policemen and firemen have College Degree's. I have two degree's, one BA, one AA, and then I completed an apprenticeship program from my Union. Now, when people see that we make somewhere in the neighborhood between 65k and 90k they take offense to that. Why? Because we work with our hands? Why is sitting behind a desk as a programmer, banker, financial analyst or in a car making sales calls, entitle people who do this type of work feel they should make more than a public servant or tradesmen? It doesn't make sense. You get paid your worth by the career you choose. I know I will never make a couple hundred thousand dollars a year no matter how much OT I work. That's the trade-off. I know I will have a pension, I will have my deferred comp, and I'll have my roth and real estate investment. That I set up on my own. I'll take the security of being in a trade or being a fireman or police. These lists should not be published. Granted they are public employees but I don't need to know what a Equipment operator or admin makes. If you want to show me the village hierarchy fine leave the rest out.. Sorry for the rant.

Last time I read about any regular employee making more than certain high level officers, be it either fire or police, that employee was advised of her 'early retirement' promptly after the information was released. A telecommunicator is almost the highest paid employee in the Village of Oak Lawn? Really? All you people do is slam how Oak Lawn runs its finances and not one eyebrow is raised?

the average employee a normal 40 hour work week with 2 weeks of vacation comes out to 2080 hours.the highest paid telecommunicator, Laura, works about 3200 hours in a calendar year. so what is the issue?

Now we see where all the mayors "moral support" comes from.... As good as reason as any... More so if it was done with a handshake and a wink..

I am curious to know what the surronding Villages Employee Wages are? I have to believe the results of these high salaries. I have a relative who is a employeed by a Village just west of Oak Lawn. For the same job in City Hall, his salary is about half of what Oak Lawn is paying. Is this the reason Oak Lawn Inspectors are targeting homer owners with petty violations & fines? If the Patch wants to do something for the people of Oak Lawn, why not publish some of the ridiculous fines that are being handed out by Oak Lawn Village inspectors. I would like to see a list published on this site so the voters can make a better choice in the next election. I sat in that hearing and it was a joke. A $150 fine for a 10 roofing shingles in a package on the side of someone's house. $100 fine for a lawn mower in the yard, on the side of a home owners garage. $500 dollar fine for a missing piece of siding. These were residents of Oak Lawn for 20 years. These grossly overpaid Village Officials don't have to worry about making ends meet every month on their big salaries. Many home owners are out of work and just barely getting by month to month. They can't afford to pay these fines for petty offenses. Since when can't you keep a lawn mower in your yard? Who's idea was it to send inspectors out to find any violation they can find? The Mayor? Village Manager? The Trustees?

Government Union Job = Southwest Side Lotto. How else could they afford all the taverns and Sox games?