Kane board sends pay raise matter back to committee
By Matt Brennan For The Courier-News August 2, 2012 6:08PM
Updated: September 4, 2012 6:11AM
The Kane County Board has delayed action on ratifying, retroactively, pay raises for 13 employees and department heads issued several years ago by County Board Chairman Karen McConnaughay.
Tuesday, McConnaughay asked the board’s Executive Committee to approve the raises, in reaction to a lawsuit from McConnaughay’s former political rival Jim MacRunnels. The lawsuit states that McConnaughay violated county ordinance by issuing the raises without board approval.
This week, the board sent McConnaughay’s request back to the Administration Committee for review. Drew Frasz, Administration Committee chairman, said that it will be good to have clarification of the county’s financial policy for issuing raises. No one person should be able to act alone to issue these raises, he said.
MacRunnels has said that the County Board is not named in the suit, and that the board does not need to take any action. There is no monetary amount to the suit.
McConnaughay said that sending the measure back to committee for clarification could be a good thing.
“If the board doesn’t understand, obviously clarification can help county government,” she said.
McConnaughay said that the board is able to determine how involved it will want to be in the process of issuing raises. If board members wanted to, they could take a more hands-on approach, by taking a direct role in approval of more employee raises, she said.
“If that’s the comfort level they want, they can do that,” she said.
