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Forest Park council approves salary ordinance after dispute over review process
Summary
The Village Council approved Ordinance 0-40-22 fixing employee salaries effective May 21, 2022, after a council member said they received final numbers only that morning and urged further review. Other members said evaluations and target numbers had been circulated previously; the ordinance passed on roll call.
The Village Council of Forest Park voted to adopt Ordinance 0-40-22, which fixes salaries for village officials and employees effective May 21, 2022. The vote followed an extended exchange among commissioners about whether the final salary figures had been shared with every member in advance.
One commissioner told colleagues they first saw the finalized salary numbers on the morning of the meeting and said they could not vote without time to digest the details or hold a follow-up closed-session discussion. Other commissioners and the mayor responded that employee evaluations and proposed target numbers had been part of earlier exchanges and that the item reflected months of work to narrow compensation gaps compared with neighboring jurisdictions.
Council members said the salary package is intended to address long-running disparities for department heads identified in prior reviews and to move toward pay levels in comparable communities. During debate, commissioners emphasized both the need for timely action to provide wage increases for municipal employees and the importance of transparent processes for arriving at personnel decisions.
The ordinance was moved and seconded as recorded in the meeting minutes and approved on a roll-call vote. The clerk recorded affirmative votes by the five members present. No amendment to the ordinance was offered during the meeting.
The exchange over process highlighted differing expectations about internal communication and use of closed session for personnel matters; the council did not delay the vote. The ordinance takes effect as stated, and the council adjourned at the end of the meeting.
Next steps: the council did not schedule a separate follow-up meeting during the session; commissioners asked staff to continue routine follow-up on implementation details and to respond to outstanding questions off the dais.
