DuPage County State’s Attorney Joe Birkett is urging the County Board to give prosecutors in his office an 11 percent pay raise next year to make their salaries competitive with colleagues in neighboring counties and across the country.
The board is considering Chairman Robert Schillerstrom’s proposed 2009 budget, which does not include the pay hike.
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Approaching deadline Nov. 30 Deadline for approving 2009 budget Dec. 1 County’s 2009 fiscal year begins |
The county has commissioned a study of prosecutor salaries in the Chicago area, and Schillerstrom said he wants to see the results before addressing the issue. The study will not be complete until early next year, he said.
But Birkett said he was told the study would be finished in September. He called the delay “unacceptable.”
Birkett attributes the low crime rate in DuPage County to the dedication of his assistants.
DuPage prosecutors work longer hours and carry heavier caseloads than their counterparts in other counties, he added.
“It would be nice if the County Board showed some appreciation for that effort,” he said. “They take credit for it when they run for re-election.”
The starting salary for DuPage prosecutors is about $6,000 less than Cook County and about $8,000 less than Lake County, Birkett said.
Under Schillerstrom’s spending plan for 2009, assistant state’s attorneys would receive the same 1.5 percent cost-of-living increase and possible 2 percent merit raise as other county employees.
Schillerstrom acknowledged the prosecutors’ hard work, but said it would be premature to increase their pay before the salary study is finished.
“Depending on what the study says, we’re going to try to be equitable with them, as we always have been,” Schillerstrom said.
The County Board has the ability to make amendments to the chairman’s proposal before approving a budget. Birkett said he will encourage board members to override Schillerstrom to make sure the raises are addressed before the end of the fiscal year.
“I’m not going to wait for this study,” Birkett said.
County Board member Jeff Redick, R-2nd District, of Elmhurst said the budget is a “fluid process” and there will be a lot of discussion before the board makes its final vote.
Public safety is the board’s primary responsibility, and members have to balance that with the need to make sound decisions for county’s long-term financial future, Redick said.
“I think the study is a good step,” he said. “It’s going to definitively quantify where we lie in terms of the salary structure.”
