Dupage Policy Journal

Burr Ridge Mayor Gary Grasso’s push for a fivefold increase in the mayor's salary got off to wobbly start at the village board meeting Monday night.

During the comments section toward the end of the session, village resident Alice Krampits raised concerns over a letter that Grasso mailed to village residents making his case for the increase to $30,000 per year from the current $6,000. Separately, local attorney Ellen Raymond told the DuPage Policy Journal that she is looking into a lawsuit to have the taxpayers reimbursed for the cost of mailing the Oct. 6 letter.

Any increase in the mayor’s salary must meet with board approval by Nov. 7, and would take effect May 2021, the start of the mayor’s next term. Grasso has yet to announce whether he’s running for another term.

Krampits called the request “outrageous” when the mayors of surrounding communities, many with much larger populations than Burr Ridge’s 10,000, typically earn stipends in the $5,000 to $10,000 range. Some local government officials earn no salaries at all.

She said that Grasso’s work in battling the pandemic, Sterigenics, and his chairing committees was praiseworthy, but did not justify the increase.

“Most of the day-to-day work was being done by staff, some of whom are being paid over $100,000 a year," Krampits said.

She added that “trustees chair committees, and they are not getting increases.” Burr Ridge trustees earn $3,000 a year.

In the letter, Grasso wrote that to “accommodate for this proposed increase, I have devised changes to the roles and compensation of our administration, planning and finance departments that should give the village more than $100,000 annually in salary and benefits.”

Krampits called the proposed maneuvering “selfish” when the village was facing millions in debt, adding, “Money should not be the motivation for someone to be mayor of Burr Ridge.” 

For her part, Raymond said that prior court rulings have given taxpayers a cause of action for suing over unauthorized expenditures, no matter the amount.

She plans to submit a Freedom of Information Act request to the village to determine the cost of the mailings, but believes the cost of stamps, paper, envelopes and attorney review of the letter to be in the thousands.

She is also looking into whether the letter amounted to campaign literature as it touted the mayor’s accomplishments.

Last March, Raymond helped lead a grassroots movement to defeat a Burr Ridge home rule question on the ballot, one supported by Grasso.

“The argument for home rule was that the village needed the money,” Raymond said. “Why do we have the money for this salary increase all of a sudden?”

State-imposed caps on local tax rates do not apply to home rule municipalities.