Oak Park’s next elected clerk will receive a 3% raise in 2026, 2027 and 2028.
The new raise structure comes a week after trustees raised the base salary for the position to $107,000 from $76,625.
The village board decided on new salaries for the next elected officials at the Oct. 29 meeting, but they will not go into effect immediately. The trustees, president and clerk who are elected, or reelected, in April 2025 will be the first to earn the new figures.
Village Clerk Christina Waters is running for reelection in 2025.
On Oct. 29, trustees said they weren’t sure about the best way to structure raises for the clerk. They contemplated setting raises at a specific percentage increase annually or evaluating and determining raises on a regular basis. Most said they’d like the raises to help offset cost of living increases.
On Tuesday, trustees decided to stick with a set annual increase, 3%, but only for the next clerk’s term from 2025 to 2029. After that, a future village board can decide whether they want to change that parameter again.
The vote passed 4-2, with Trustee Susan Buchanan absent. Trustees Lucia Robinson and Ravi Parakkat voted against it.
Robinson had concerns about the unknown impact of these changes on the village’s pension contribution. The clerk is eligible for the same benefits as other village employees, including health insurance, paid leave and a pension contribution.
“It’s hard for me to tell what our overall pension impact could be,” Robinson said, pointing out that built-in raises can’t be changed during the clerk’s term. “I’m not entirely comfortable supporting that automatic increase year over year. Especially given that we’re trying to catch up on our pension.”
Kira Tchang, the village’s human resources director, told the board Tuesday that the village’s pension contribution does fluctuate yearly, but by a relatively small amount. Increases in pay allow for “marginal” changes to the recommended contribution rate, she said.
Parakkat said he would have been more comfortable supporting an annual raise if the salary increase had been closer to a 10% to 15% bump. The increase was closer to a 40% bump, from $76,625 to $107,000.
Trustee Brian Straw, however, said the 3% annual raise makes sense for now. The village wants a clerk that can functionally operate on the salary and support a family over a four-year term.
“If somebody gave me a job offer, ‘Hey, we’re going to hire you at this number but you’re not going to get any raises,’” he said. “It would make me a whole lot less interested in the job.”
Trustee Cory Wesley also pointed out that the clerk, who works full-time, has to do mandatory overtime work that other elected officials might not. When thinking about compensation, it’s important to factor that in along with inflation and the cost of living in Oak Park.
“I don’t think we would hire any other position in our village and say, ‘This is your salary and it’s going to be your salary for the next four years,’” he said.
Trustees originally considered setting the clerk’s raise at 3% indefinitely. Straw said he was fine with that, because he didn’t want a future board’s inaction to essentially lead to a pay cut for the clerk. Robinson, however, pointed out that no other village staff positions get an automatic guaranteed raise at a set amount.
Village President Vicki Scaman said she would prefer limiting the annual adjustment to the clerk’s salary to the next term of the village clerk and that preference prevailed.
