Madison County, IL. (ECWd) –
Letter to the Editor
Earlier this month, County Board members Mick Madison (R – Bethalto) and Stacey Pace (R – Troy) tried – unsuccessfully – to get a pay hike (Madison $53,000 and Pace $10,000), in addition to the $14,500 salary that all county board members receive.
Their plan was moving forward, and on Tuesday, Jan. 10, this item was posted on the agendas of both the Personnel and Finance committees:
“Discussion and Approval of a Resolution Authorizing Stipends for the Chairperson Pro Tem and the Vice Chairperson Pro Tem.”
Noticing that, I immediately asked administration employees what was going on, and was told that in late December, Madison and Pace said they wanted more money, and asked employees to assist them to get it through the county board.
In December, both Madison and Pace voted to take powers away from the Chairman and transfer these powers to themselves as Pro Tem and Vice Pro Tem.
Almost immediately, they began pushing for a pay raise.
Of course, I was elected (twice) by the voters to exercise the duties of Chairman and am currently being paid to do that.
Madison and Pace asked the State’s Attorney’s Office to draft a resolution to give them stipends, but were refused.
Their effort ended on Thursday, Jan. 12, when the finance and personnel committee chairmen quietly removed the “stipend resolution” item from their committee agendas.
The actions of Madison and Pace are disappointing on several levels. First, they should have known that compensation for elected officials is approved before elections. Second, they should not have tried to get paid for a job they were not elected to do.
Twenty years ago, Madison County citizens overwhelmingly voted to leave the era of Nellie Hagnauer and Rudy Papa, chairmen who were elected by the county board.
Former county board member Gene Frizzo (R – Godfrey, 2000 – 2004) led a grass roots effort to gather 16,300 signatures on petitions to put a referendum on the ballot to let the voters decide whether the Chairman should be elected by the people, or by board members.
Voters settled that question in April of 2003 by a 4 to 1 margin (19,093 to 4,691), voting that the Chairman should be elected by the people.
Kurt Prenzler, CPA
Madison County Chairman
4 Comments
Don Moore
Posted at 10:14h, 01 FebruaryTo Board Members Madison and Pace: To be fair to the taxpayers you represent, your resolution should have included a request to decrease the Chairman’s pay by $63K. Without this request you are single-handedly increasing Madison County payroll expenses by $63K and passing your pay increase on to taxpayers. The voters in your districts may perceive your actions to be self-serving. In that you wrestled away elected duties from the Chairman, for the good of Madison County, and then devised an avenue to increase the amount of money paid to you by Madison County taxpayers.
John Kraft & Kirk Allen
Posted at 11:14h, 01 FebruaryTo Don Moore: Madison and Pace should resign. There are usurping the authority of the duly elected chairman and acting in a capacity not consistence with state law. There are no such positions, authorized in the counties code, for which they perceive they occupy. Besides, reducing the chairman’s salary violates state law.
Thrasher
Posted at 20:59h, 24 JanuaryMadison county greed. They’ve watched Democrats so long they act like them
SImonSays
Posted at 13:59h, 24 JanuaryThis is my call for Ms. Pace and Mr. Madison to resign immediately. It’s obvious that money is more important to them than the job they chose to
do. Both Board members were involved in voting to strip Kurt Prenzler of his authority to conduct job duties he was duly elected to perform.
I surmise any failure of Madison County government now rests on Mr. Madison’s shoulders for the next 2 years? And by the way, it’s clear you
both stand behind the prevalent Republican nepotism when it comes to appointments to Board and Commissions. In Madison County there
are no Democrats or Republicans, winners or losers – just the haves and the have nots. The reality is that most our Madison County elected officials
are merely motivated by power and money.