Village of Robbins Passes Unlawful Compensation Ordinance –

Robbins, Ill. (ECWd) –

On October 1, 2024, the Board of Trustees at the Village of Robbins passes an elected official compensation setting ordinance that violates state law.

It is well established that the compensation of elected officials apply to the elective office, not to the office holder, and any attempt to differentiate pay based on years of service, or first-term vs incumbent cannot stand, under any circumstances.

It is also well established that compensation cannot be increased nor decreased during the term of office as outlined in Article VII Section 9(b) of the Illinois Constitution.

Compensation cannot be based on made-up “qualifications” of the office – the only qualifications for the office that matter are those listed in the election code and the municipal code.

Robbins ignored all three, and passed a compensation ordinance with the following provisions:

• salary increases based on purported qualifications of village clerk – nothing in the election code nor the municipal code mandates any clerk to be a registered, certified, or master municipal clerk. Those are “qualifications” made up by the association of the Municipal Clerk of Illinois, not by the state of Illinois. The only qualifications that matter are those that are required in order to be on the ballot, such as residency, age, etc. This is effectively an increase available only to incumbent clerks since it takes at least three years of service as a clerk or deputy clerk to partially qualify for the minimum of a “registered” clerk. Don’t get us wrong, there is nothing wrong with obtaining these association-generated qualifications and education, but there is something wrong with compensating an elected clerk based on these extra things, which have nothing to do with their qualification for the office of clerk.
• village trustee salary is $500 per month, but only for new trustees. It is doubled for re-elected trustees. So the trustees doubled their own pay, and in order to discourage anyone else from running for office, only pay newly elected trustees half of what retained trustees will make. This is unlawful and cannot stand.
• village trustee salary is doubled for trustees not up for election in 2025, and who still have two years remaining of their term of office, and will unlawfully give those trustees an increase in salary during their current term of office.

We urge the Village of Robbins to reconsider and revoke this compensation-setting ordinance and bring forth a new one that will be in compliance with current law; base it on the office, not the office holder.