'Substantial' Vacation Payouts To Hinsdale Employees

HINSDALE, IL — Hinsdale has made "substantial" payouts in vacation balances in the last year, but the village doesn't typically budget for such expenses, a top official said this week.

At a Village Board meeting, Village Manager Kathleen Gargano said three longtime employees retired in the last year.

"With that, we have had payouts of their vacation balances. And they are significant," she said. "There are three people — one from fire, one from police and the finance director who retired in February 2021 — that had substantial dollar amounts that we paid out."

Village President Tom Cauley asked, "So why don't we budget for that?"

Gargano said the village doesn't necessarily know who is leaving in any given year.

"We could start setting aside maybe $40,000 each year to do that," she said. "Many times, you really don't see the impact of that because we have turnover, so we have salary savings that offset it, so it's negligible."

In recent times, Gargano said, the village has seen a lot of police retirements. But the village doesn't expect any more such departures in the next couple of years, she said.

Those who might leave are younger police officers moving to other departments, but such expenses are negligible, she said.

In the fire department, she said, just one employee is retirement-eligible, suggesting that person is a top official.

At the meeting, Gargano did not give the amounts of the recent vacation payouts. Patch filed a public records request for that information.