The Village of Oak Lawn posted the 2012 salaries of village employees on its website. Earnings include gross wages (before taxes) and do not include benefits, such as healthcare. We've included some of the top earners, and randomly chosen municipal employees for perspective.
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The highest paid employee was Larry Deetjen, whose salary remained the same from the year before at 154,732. Laura A. Skala, a telecommunicator who works in the village’s Emergency Communications Center, was the second highest-paid, village employee earning 151,999.90.
The village fire department out earned the police department, leading with 65 100K+ salary earners, compared to the 32 police officers that made $100,000 or more in 2012.
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The job titles include batalion chief, firefighter/paramedic, fire enginerr, police watch commander, police sergeant and patrol officer.
Oak Lawn’s top cop, Police Chief Bill Villanova, made $137,000 last year
Village Fire Bureau chief James E. Leikel out earned his boss, Fire Chief George Sheets; both earned 133,817 and $117,880, respectively.
A village custodian made more money than the full-time village clerk.
See how Oak Lawn compares to Evergreen Park 2012 salaries.
Dave Heilmann is paid $46,384 for his part-time services as village president; his mayor’s salary is the same as last year’s.
Tom Phelan (Dist. 6) was the highest paid village trustee at $9,200; followed by the second-highest, Tom Duhig (Dist. 4) and Alex Olejniczak (Dist. 2), who both made $8,200 in 2012.
Cindy Trautsch (Dist. 1), Bob Streit (Dist. 3) and Carol Quinlan (Dist. 5) were all paid $7,200 for their work as trustees last year.
It’s all public information.
View the full list by clicking on the PDF document to the right.
Here are the top $100,000+ earners working for the Village of Oak Lawn.
Employee Position Salary Larry DeetjenVillage Manager
$154,732 Laura Skala
Telecommunicator
$151,999 Bill Villanova
Police Chief
$137,000
James E. LeikelFire Bureau Chief
$133,817
Robert A. Wesselhoff Fire Captain$131,354 Michale Bowman
Fire Captain
$128,848 Todd Standord
Firefighter/paramedic $128,848 Robert Pawlowski
Police Division Chief
$127,900
Michael KaufmannPolice Division Chief
$127,900 Brian Tiernen
Fire Lt. $127,799 Melvin Clark
Police Watch Lt. $127,016 Joseph Stubss
Police Lt. $126,623 Dennis Doyle
Police Watch Lt. $126,610
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.
As far as "waking up at 2 am, plowing streets and being 10 ft. deep in water", obviously the folks who do this are well-compensated. They're not doing it out of the goodness of their hearts. I'm sure there's many people in these though economic times who would be glad to get-up at 2 am if it meant having a good job. No sour grapes here; let's just keep these salaries in perspective.
1) Go to http://www.oaklawn-il.gov/Home.aspx 2) Left column at the bottom : http://www.oaklawn-il.gov/Left-Menu/Village-of-Oak-Lawn-Employee-Wages.aspx Should this be in its own image in the flash image rotator (top & center)?
Hey "Joe not Moe", that's who I was talking about and I never used the word "menial". I guess you missed the former and imagined the latter. As far as "leaving the rest out", any taxpayer-based salary is open for public discussion. It's very revealing about you that you have no problem in salaries being known as long as it doesn't directly affect you or your friends. And since you brought-up police and fireman, I'll say yes, they do make darn good money and without having to work a full-year. That's why they can always find sidework, usually in the trades, and undercut legitimate tradesman who depend upon that work for their economic survival. And yes, I do speak from personal experience.
Fin
We linked out Evergreen Park's municipal salaries for comparison. In case you missed it, http://patch.com/A-z5tR. Thanks for your posts on Facebook. Please email me, lorraine.swanson@patch.com. I want to talk to you about the adjudication hearings.
determine what was affordable for the citizenry and fair to the employees. When agreement was reached at the bargaining table both sides presented the contract to the Village Boards and union members for ratification. Whatever the political affiliations, those Boards established the standards of employment that best serve the citizens and impact the quality of life in the Village. They are the ones that have made Oak Lawn a prize for anyone seeking a job opportunity.