Not surprised that the numbers are a little out of whack, vis a vis the custodian. I will say for the work she does, Clerk Quinlan is underpaid.

Cashiers makes almost 50???
Captains make more the the Fire Chief???
Custodian makes as much as the Director of Business!!!

What the article (and the Village website) do not take into consideration is the salary includes overtime.

You must be an overpaid employee John !!! No wonder we are broke,this doesn't even include the health benefits,pensions etc. Why are almost all of the firemen making over $100,000 a year?? They are being paid a lot more than the police,who are in a much more dangerous line of work. What do we need a business director at $78,000 a year for?? Custodian at $50,000 a year?? I thought we lived in Oak Lawn not Chicago!!! " We ain't ready for reform " still applies

John 2, you made my point. The fire dept. and police dept. base salaries are similar at the same rank. The amount of overtime the fire dept. gets boosts their salaries to those levels.

The village manager DOES NOT NEED THE HIGHEST SALARY!
You have to remember that they brought in our fire chief from the outside and he
has never been a fireman. The firemen who get more than the chief deserve that
because they are the one's who put their lives on the line for all of us!!!

Start all over and reorganize those salaries. Noticed men getting paid more than women...that's because they don't ask.

the firemen are cleaning up due to overtime...the custodian and cashier have been here three times as long as the clerk and the village did a study a few years back by the Hay Group to streamline the village and it was learned the Police are underpaid...

the Finance Director gets 123,000??? cmon thats ridiculous....and the Village Manager doesnt need to be paid 150,000 especially since he'd drop this place like a bad habit if a better offer comes along....

Is this their W-2 salaries for the higher ups? Any 1099's for condo payments, car and travel not necessarily for business, insurance expenses etc. etc. and not "booked" as salary?

Would like to remind people that the police and fire pay into their own pensions.... So subtract 10% from those salaries. They also pay into their health and welfare benefits. The village doesn't pay 100%

They should show how long they have worked at the Village. Some these guys have been there for over 25 years...not that out of whack compared to the private sector for someone with the same tenure at a similar job.

Mr. Lanz What universe do you live in?? Surplus?? The Village had to raise the sales tax to balance the budget. The firefighters went over $ 1 million dollars in overtime. All the abused sick time and fake disability claims have contributed to this not the manager. Mr. Deetjen was not around for a majority of property bought by the village, such as when the village bought the 111th st. area, 52 nd avenue tif area, etc. so once again you are wrong. Just because the manager doesn't bend to the fire union's demands and looks out for Oak Lawn taxpayers which sir you are not.does not mean illegal of inept it means fiscal responsibility and keeping taxes low. I think you don't have any say in how MY village is run,just be lucky you have a job and can go back to Matteson after your shift.

You show the top wages, but what about the rest of the list showing EVERYONE'S wages. Is it your intent to just make residents angry? This article does not give the whole story to let us make an informed decision as to whether or not wages for the village employees are to high or too low. Yes, police and firemen have to pay out of their own pockets for pensions, health and welfare. There are factors such as length of service and overtime that are not included in the wages these employees are making. Please report ALL the facts if you are going to write an article with the intent to get the opinions of your readers. At this point , I am more critical of your reporting than the wages of our village employees.

A $46000.00 salary for extra help? Records clerks making over $52,000.00?What is a detention aid they make near $1000.00 a week? One telecomunicator makes $120,000.00 and others b/w 80 and 82 thousand. I think the adage of it is not what you know but who you know can be seen in this earnings list. Look at the full PDF list, it is disturbing to see these public service employees making so much more than private sector workers. That is unless I can get one of these jobs.

Hey my two kids are looking for summer work to pay for college, how do they get one of those summer help jobs that pay $8390.00?

What is amazing to me is the shear amount of workers employed by the village, where do they post positions when they become available? I have looked on the village web site often and rarely are there any openings posted, I.E. right now just one opening is posted and it is for a deputy fire chief, I would like to know, is there truly just one job opening in the entire village? Summers coming and it appears that MANY people obtain summer jobs, how are these filled?

I think the bottom line is that government at all levels is too expensive Federal,State and local. Whether it's salaries,entitlements,playing land developers,etc. Did anyone ever say that too small a government is a problem??

john doe 2
where do you get your info on fake disabilty claims and penson funding they pay for there own pension and disabilty claims are voted on by results of doctors that they are sent to please GET YOUR FACTS straight before you say things you don't have a clue about

Hey John Doe 2!
My family helped start the Oak Lawn Fire Dept. My Grandfather,
Uncle's and my Father were volunteers on the department. My Dad is a retired
fireman these guys are my family and I am NOT going to let our firemen get hurt
from people who go by statistics. My neighbor died in January shovelling snow
these guys were very good and professional! I hope you never have to be in a
situation like that maybe then you will realize why they deserve what they get paid!
Did you know our chief lives in Michigan?

I love that " unscientific " poll !! All the yes votes are from employees!!! No resident in their right mind would agree with the salaries on this list. Bob I love how all you firefighters stick together. You know it's a scam on the taxpayers As long as your buddies can bankrupt this village it is okay with you. The state of Illinois and Oak Lawn both suffer from tremendous unfunded pension liability . I know its the politicians fault but we the tax payers have to pay for the mistake.In the private sector, no money means no more job,no more benefits,no more house. Do these public employees realize that we the taxpayers pay their salaries?? If we go so do you remember that. Oh yeah how can the Chief live in Michigan if I saw him yesterday?? That's a lot longer commute than Matteson,Orland or Tinley park!

If it is true that we are paying for city employees to live in luxury condos on 95th street because they do not live here, then that is just wrong. Where has common sense gone? I could see us doing this short term until they relocated, but this sounds as if it is a part of their compensation packages. If the city of Chicago has a residency requirement why can't we?

Dear Broke Taxpayer: Some pensions are underfunded due to cities not contributing their portion to the funds for years. Police Officers & Firefighters contibute 10% of their salaries into their pension funds. Citizens do not know that unlike private corporations, cities pay nothing into social security. Police & Fireman who have held jobs prior to their public service or continue to work outside their police & fire jobs contribute to soc. security and will not receive their full SS benefit. It is dratistically reduced. Regarding city pensions, the problem arises when some cities deliberately underfund the pension &/or direct the money to risky investment ventures that do not provide a secure return. The problem is that soc security is manadatory but there is no mandatory requirement to pay into public pensions - so now that the economy is bad - these are underfunded. What do you want? Police & Fireman have their soc security taken away & now you want to take their pensions too. (Note: Oak Lawn has responsibly managed & contributed to their funds)

Big larry decided to under fund the pension funds this year also failing to give what his own actuaries said was the amount to pay DA DA time to go to houston i'll drive to airport

35 comments some are true most are false the only one that makes the most sense is that ALL VILLAGE EMPLOYEE'S SHOULD LIVE IN THE VILLAGE let's keep our tax dallars here

Live in Oak Lawn ? Maybe 25 or 30 years ago !

Good to finally see MR. Travnik finally comment again $103,000 dollar a year fireman who was caught cheating on his paramedic exam Oh yeah another out of town fireman who takes our taxpayer money and lives somewhere else

The village manager might make great money, what he has saved residents is a great deal more. I do agree that all village employees should live in the village.

Keep guessing, farther south.

I recently had a run in with an Oak Lawn HS graduate who didn't know what 50% of 15 was. I had to tell her it was $7.50. Now you know why I will never live in Oak Lawn.

Comic Relief states "I recently had a run in with an Oak Lawn HS graduate who didn't know what 50% of 15 was. I had to tell her it was $7.50. Now you know why I will never live in Oak Lawn." Tell me what relevance this comment has to this article, the lack of reading comprehension shown here is as offensive as the inability to do simple math.If your not going to address the debate or issue being presented, don't waste my time.

Please be informed before judging! This includes overtime, depending on what type of employee your deduction for health, dental,& eye coverage varies. If you are not under contract with the village your deduction is 25% NOT 10%.There has been NO wage increase for some for four years now.The contracted employees have given up many things to save the village money including taking either NO yearly pay increase or maybe 1% to 2%. This doesn't cover the cost of living increase most others usually receive. The cashier referred to as overpaid is not, they are understaffed & she has been there for well over fifteen years. The police & fire departments, whether anyone choses to see it or not, put their lives on the line each & every shift for citizens who need assistance. If anyone would like to judge the police & fire personnel, then please by all means put on the gear and hop into the squad or fire equipment & do the job. They run constantly - both police & fire, day or night without question. The dispatchers you refer to do not dispatch for only Oak Lawn, they dispatch for 4 police departments & 6 fire departments, usually at minimum staffing. The village staff, such as the village clerk is grossly underpaid as are many others doing double duty for positions not filled. Detention aides handle all the processing of prisoners to keep the officers on the street to handle calls for the citizens with little to no delay. They are also underpaid & understaffed. Do your research!

Anybody know why Village did this and why fire dept was listed first? Had to be politics as usual even though this info is available to the public.

How about the trustees? Family Insurance, travel, expense accounts, cell phones and wink winks? How about payments/stipends to all of the committee and board members of the village? Most of them are already on the village dole as it is.

How come we pay for big larry's car when he gets one from the village dosen't make sense. wonder if the other trustee's get medical benfits for being on the board? part time\? please post if anyone knows funny how people defend larry but really don't know the whole story wish we could all meet at the hall and have a question the manger talk wonder if he would show up & tell the TRUTH