Tim Gillian deserves a raise. He has done a strong job as village administrator over the past three years. That has been recognized by his employers on the village council as his salary has already risen by 10 percent to right around $100,000 even though these have been hard times.
If the village council were to increase his salary by four or five percent in recognition of his good work we’d certainly support that. Maybe he would earn the same sort of increase next year, too. OK by us.
What’s not relevant to this conversation, though, is whether Gillian is the top paid village staff member or, seemingly, the 16th highest paid. He willingly joined an entity where seniority and union contracts are going to largely determine pay rates. Also not relevant is what village administrators in other nearby or demographically similar communities earn. Tim Gillian was hired without experience in professional public administration, without the degrees people in these posts have worked to achieve. His hiring was sold to the village by the mayor as a good common sense, money-saving step. That is the box that Calderone put his best friend into as part of the hiring equation. Gillian’s good work earns him a nice raise but it doesn’t change the baseline.
