Longtime Elmhurst Consultant Gets Raise

ELMHURST, IL – A majority of Elmhurst aldermen on Monday approved new three-year contracts for two longtime consultants, one of whom got a raise.

During a debate, an alderman who has served for a couple of decades said he has never known the city to look elsewhere for the services that the consultants provide.

Under the agreements, Charles Van Slyke, who started in 1988, will get $120 an hour, increased from $110, for up to the longtime limit of $99,000. His last raise was in 2015.

Under previous contracts, Van Slyke, who focuses on real estate issues, could work up to 900 hours. Now, the limit is 825. With that change, the raise will result in no impact on the city's budget.

Ken Bartels, who began in 2009 and specializes in economic development, will continue getting $100 an hour under his contract.

At Monday's City Council meeting, Alderwoman Marti Deuter said city employees rely on the consultants' support and are satisfied with their work.

The consultants, she said, typically use 70 percent to 80 percent of the hours allotted under their contracts.

Recently, Van Slyke has worked on projects such as selling city property to Salt Creek School District 48, dealing with easement issues for a planned dog park, and buying two houses on Eggleston Avenue for stormwater projects, Deuter said. (For one of those properties, a homeowner told Patch that the city ended up paying $175,000 more than it needed to.)

For years, a minority of aldermen have questioned whether the city needs the consultants.

"Due to the full-time employees that we do have, I see a lot of overlap or redundancy with the consultants," Alderman Michael Bram said at the council meeting. "To my knowledge, we have never looked elsewhere for these types of services to know that what we are getting is appropriate pay-wise as well as the number of hours."

He also said the consultants attend meetings where city employees are present.

"What is the benefit of having a consultant we're paying $100 an hour to go to the same meeting that we have two staff members going to?" Bram said.

The council voted 11-2 for the contracts, with Bram and Alderman Rex Irby dissenting. Alderman Brian Cahill was absent.