CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- Village trustees in southwest suburban Orland Park have voted to cut the salary of the mayor and the position's duties.
The salary of the mayor’s position in Orland Park jumped to $150,000 a year after the last election in 2017. So did the duties, including generating more in the way of economic development.
Village trustees who had wanted to cut the Orland Park mayor’s salary were surprised Monday night that Mayor Keith Pekau had put it on the agenda. And then, he joined the five trustees who were at the meeting in voting to cutback his duties now and the $150,000 a year salary down to $40,000 in two years, after the 2021 election.
"The position should go back to part time. The salary should role back because we did not change the form of government we have that would be appropriate with a full-time mayor," said Mayor Pekau at Monday night's meeting.
Trustee Carole Griffin-Ruzich said Tuesday she was in favor of the change because she was not seeing the results she expected from having the mayor do economic development work.
"Our retail vacancy rate is higher than it was. There’s not been any new development in the I-80 corridor, so I was good with repealing it," she said.
On whether Mayor Pekau should return a portion of his salary since he is now working as a part-time mayor, Ruzich said that’s up to the mayor.
WBBM Newsradio attempted to reach the mayor on Tuesday to ask him. Pekau gave no indication at the meeting whether he would return any of his salary.
Ruzich did say that Pekau has told supporters on social media that state law required him to take the full $150,000 a year.
During the meeting, Trustee Kathleen Fenton asked the village attorney, for the record, whether an elected official could return some or all of his or her salary or whether that was forbidden by state law.
Village general counsel Ken Friker said, there's nothing "that requires or mandates that an elected official accept the salary that's provided by statute or ordinance." He pointed out that former Governor Bruce Rauner had accepted only $1.00 a year as compensation instead of taking his full salary.