Glenview Trustees Vote To Hike Minimum Wage, Mandate Sick Leave

GLENVIEW, IL — The Glenview Village Board voted to reconsider its decision to opt out Cook County's minimum wage and sick leave ordinance Tuesday. At the board's first meeting of the year, Village President Jim Patterson announced he planned to call for separate votes on the Cook County ordinance the village elected to opt out of in June 2017.

While all seven members of the board had been due to attend, Trustee Philip White was immobilized in the hospital after falling on the morning of the meeting, according to Patterson. The meeting began with former Village President Kerry Cummings sworn in to fill out the remainder former Trustee Scott Britton's term on the board.

It required four votes and a subsequent second reading to reverse the village's decision of 18 months ago not to follow the county's requirements for earned sick leave for certain employees and a minimum wage rising to $13 an hour in 2020 and thereafter tied to inflation.

The amended ordinance given preliminary approval by trustees at the Jan. 15 meeting with a vote of 4-1. It would become effective July 1, and would be repealed if the Illinois General Assembly passed legislation impacting the minimum wage in Glenview.

Video of discussion from the Jan. 15 Glenview Village Board of Trustees Meeting:

Village staff prepared a map of Glenview showing how various precincts voted in the November 2018 election where Cook County voters presented with two advisory referendums asking whether their municipalities should match the county labor rules, ranging from dark green (82 percent to 87 percent) dark red (66.7 percent to to 70 percent.)

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Glenview's neighboring municipalities of Wilmette and Northbrook have already opted into one or both portions of the Cook County ordinances. Fellow North Shore communities Evanston, Golf, Glencoe, Kenilworth, Northfield, Skokie and Winnetka had already adopted the county rules, either by not taking action to opt out of the rules or because they do not have Home Rule authority. Of the 132 Cook County home-rule communities, more than 103 are presently opted out of ordinances.

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At the board's Jan. 3 meeting, trustees shared some of their thoughts on whether the village should reverse that decision:

Patterson said he expected the "half the people are not going to be happy" no matter action the board took.

"I have my own personal opinion and I have an elected official opinion," Patterson said. "We have a fiduciary obligation to all of the taxpayers. So on one hand there are multiple social issues that I try to always keep off of the agenda because our job is core services. Core services are first responders – police and fire – streets, sewers, snow plowing, make sure that the community works. Part of that fiduciary obligation is also making sure that our tax base is strong, and our tax base is well served by our business community."

Trustee John Hinkamp said he didn't think the referendum did justice to the whole understanding of what's in the county ordinances.

"I think we all want to help people. I'm just not convinced that this is the best way of helping people," Hinkamp said. "I think we've had a lot of people come forward and say that businesses will be hurt by it, they may move, they may fold."

Trustee Debby Karton said she hoped the new legislature and Gov. J.B. Pritzker would pass statewide minimum wage legislation. Karton said while "elections have consequences" and the overwhelming preference of voters was to adopt the Cook County ordinances, she didn't want to "play chicken with the business community in Glenview."

Trustee Karim Khoja recused himself from the 2017 vote because he owned a business in Glenview at the time. He said he was torn and wished he could recuse himself again.

"Being a business owner and then sitting here listening to everyone's concerns for and against, it's really tough to have a straight opinion on this," Khoja said. "Clearly the residents have shown, the way they voted, that we need to do something, and it's clear that the residents voted for the minimum by a large margin and they also voted for the earned sick time by a large margin."

The village board will give a final consideration to the ordinances at its Feb. 5 meeting.