The Union County Board of Commissioners approved an addendum to the county engineer’s employment agreement dated March 21, 2025, to align the position’s pay with the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) 2025 minimum salary guidance and to set future raises by a board majority but not below IDOT minimums.

A board member explained the change followed IDOT's release of the 2025 minimum list after a delay; the list includes a roughly 2% increase for county engineers. “The only increase of county engineer salary by 2%,” the member said, summarizing the recent guidance. The addendum replaces the contract’s prior annual automatic adjustment language with a provision that sets the county engineer’s salary at the current year’s IDOT minimum and states that “all future raises will be set annually by the majority of the county board, but at no time shall be less than a 100% of the minimum salary as determined by IDOT.”

The board moved to approve the amendment and recorded affirmative responses from Commissioners Harville, Pitts and Miller in the excerpted roll call. The motion as presented in the transcript was: “I make a motion we approve the amendment to employment green addendum for county engineer dated 03/21/2025 as presented.” The transcript shows Harville, Pitts and Miller voting “Yes”; the recorded responses for other commissioners were not included in the provided excerpt. The board chair said the matter was “short and sweet” after the vote.

Board discussion included why the addendum was needed now: IDOT did not issue a minimum salary list on its normal October schedule the prior year while it finalized the percentage increase; staff said the 2025 minimum list was issued last month. The addendum is intended to avoid renegotiating the contract every year when IDOT issues its guidance.

The board then moved to an executive session later in the meeting to discuss pending litigation.