90 Joliet Employees Topped $150,000 In 2018

JOLIET, IL - Utilizing the Freedom of Information Act, a Joliet Patch public salary analysis shows that 90 city of Joliet employees made at least $150,000 in 2018 and many made substantially more. Former Joliet police chief Brian Benton topped everybody. His gross wages were $291,363. In August, Benton chose to step down as chief effective late November, when he turned 50.

Benton did not work a day on the job during the final four months of last year. It's likely that a large portion of Benton's $291,363 compensation came as a result of a retirement buyout. For perspective, Joliet Patch reported back in May that Benton made $167,752 in 2017, which made him the 15th highest paid employee in the city that year.

After Benton, ousted city manager David Hales, who lasted less than a year on the job, came in second.

Hales, who negotiated a starting salary of $215,000, made a grand total of $271,137 for 2018. Hales, 64, didn't work a day on the job after Oct. 16. Joliet's City Council approved a separation agreement with Hales, who had a three-year employment contract with Joliet, that took effect on Oct. 17.

As part of the arrangement, the City Council authorized a lump-sum payout of five months salary, $89,584, in order for Hales to leave Joliet's City Hall and not return.

After Benton and Hales, the third highest paid city of Joliet employee for 2018 was now-departed deputy police chief of operations Edgar Gregory, who made $245,379. He was Benton's right-hand man in the Joliet Police Department's top command staff since October 2014. Gregory's last day on the job for the city of Joliet was Sept. 28.

In October, Patch reported that Gregory got a retirement payout totaling $118,182 for cashing out his unused compensatory time, his excess of unused vacation time and his accrued sick banks.

The payout for Gregory was as follows:

• $52,912 for unused vacation days
• $34,898 for unused sick days
• $30,371 for comp time.

This month, Joliet Patch submitted a Freedom of Information request to Joliet seeking salary data for 2018. Patch asked for employee names, their regular salary, whether they received: overtime, specialty pay, holiday pay or "Other" forms of compensation. In years past, the city's public salary data that was posted online included the "Other" category for lump-sum severance payouts.

Joliet responded to Patch's FOIA by providing a massive spreadsheet that included hundreds of job titles- without any names - but listed the regular salary, any overtime, gross wages, etc.

On Monday, Joliet Patch went to City Hall and left a voicemail complaining to City Finance Director Jim Ghedotte that his office had omitted the names of all city employees from the Joliet Patch's salary FOIA, even though Joliet Patch specifically asked for it.

On Wednesday, the city of Joliet uploaded a new document to comply with Joliet Patch's original FOIA. The new document included names of city employees and their total gross wages for 2018, but nothing else, not even their department or division with the city.

In any event, the following City of Joliet employees all made at least $150,000 in gross pay for 2018. Patch has included an asterisk for those employees that Patch knows have left the city, typically by retiring. (If you know of any others, please call 815-531-2857 and I will update this article accordingly.)

*1. Brian Benton, chief of police, retired August, $291,363.

2. David Hales, city manager, separation agreement October, $271,137

*3. Edgar Gregory, deputy police chief, retired September, $245,378

4. Joe Formhals, fire chief, $235,906

*5. Tab Jensen, deputy police chief, retired July, $229,251

*6. Richard Trafton, retired police, $206,980

7. Al Roechner, promoted to chief of police in August, $202,347

8. Laroy Aldridge, fire battalion chief, $199,868

9. Carlos Matlock, police detective, $194,883

10. Ron Schroeder, fire battalion chief, $194,652

11. Eric Johnson, fire captain, $188,267

12. John Stachelski, fire battalion chief, $187,970

13. Marc Reid, police lieutenant internal affairs, promoted to deputy chief in December, $187,190

14. Ken Mihelich, director of administrative services, $187,097

15. Rodney Leggero, fire captain, $184,218

16. Michael Pauly, police patrol, $180,706

17. David House, fire captain, $180,627

18. Mark Vershay, fire captain, $180348

19. Ted Parks, fire captain, $177,838

*20. Lionel Allen, police patrol, $174,614, the city is now trying to fire Allen.

21. Fernando Urquidi, police patrol, $173,558

22. Mike Stromberg, fire battalion chief, $172,572

23. James Ryan, fire suppression, $172,193

24. Richard Demick, police captain, $171,429

25. Ronald Fox, fire battalion chief, $171,208

26. Floyd Woods, fire suppression, $170,680

27. Jeffrey Carey, fire battalion chief, $170,248

28. Greg Blaskey, deputy fire chief, $170,209

29. Jose Tellez, police patrol $169,587

30. Fred Offermann, fire captain, $169,293

31. Bob Dilorenzo, fire battalion chief, $168,549

32. Aaron Kozlowski, fire captain, $168,050

33. Victor Stachelski, fire captain, $164,885

34. Daniel Koerner, fire lieutenant, $164,752

35. Jeremy Harrison, police patrol lieutenant, $164,221

36. James Blake, fire captain, $163,756

37. Daniel Berta, fire lieutenant, $163,286

38. Pat Strocchia, fire battalion chief, $162,970

39. Kendall Jackson, community development director, $162,908

40. Jeffrey Fornoff, police evidence, $162,414

41. Tom Banas, police patrol officer, $162,387

42. Steve Breen, police patrol lieutenant, $162,287

43. Bob Mau Jr., police patrol officer, $162,116

44. Mike Eulitz, public assets manager, $162,115

45. John Koch, fire battalion chief, $161,851

46. Robert Brown, police patrol lieutenant, $161,785

47. Kenneth Brown, police patrol sergeant, $161,356

48. Matt Baxter, fire captain, $160,777

49. Doug Palmer, police patrol, $160,699

50. Bob Rosado, fire lieutenant, $160,622

51. Martin Blackburn, fire captain, $160,536

52. Eric Kobe, fire lieutenant, $160,207

53. Richard Olson, police patrol, $160,073

54. Jeffery Allbert, police captain, $159,933

55. Michael O'Neill, police patrol, $159,929

56. Bruce Larson, police captain, $159,857

57. John Merriman, fire captain, $159,358

58. James Robertson, neighborhood police officer, $159,353

59. Lindsey Heavener, police sergeant evidence $159,174

60. Matt Breen, police patrol sergeant, $157,742

61. Paul Yanak, fire lieutenant, $157,735

62. Nick Carbaugh, fire lieutenant, $157,407

63. Terry Mangun, fire battalion chief, $156,942

64. Andrew Jose, neighborhood police sergeant, $156,574

65. James "Jim"Ghedotte, city finance director, $156,506

66. Joe Egizio, police lieutenant, $156,092

67. Paul Sturgill, police patrol, $156,055

68. Mike Batis, police lieutenant investigations promoted to deputy chief in December, $155,681

69. Jim Trizna, director of public works, $155,324

70. Leslie O'Connor, police captain, $155,242

71. Dennis McWherter, police patrol lieutenant, $155,242

72. Ken Simonich, police investigations, $155,066

73. Darren Prochaska, city center police sergeant, $154,825

74. Matt Ehrsam, fire lieutenant, $154,516

75. David Fox, police patrol, $154,341

76. Bob Wohlrab, fire captain, $154,303

77. Tizoc Landeros, police investigations, $154,018

78. Patrick Cardwell, police patrol sergeant,$153,987

79. Raul Alvarez, police patrol sergeant, $153,940

80. Marty Shanahan, corporation counsel, named interim city manager in October, $153,876

81. Marcus Wietting, police patrol, $153,253

82. David Braner, information technology director, $152,787

83. Kevin Labolle, police patrol lieutenant, $152,745

84. John Perona, police patrol sergeant promoted to deputy chief in December, $151,762

85. Sherrie Blackburn, police patrol sergeant, $151,663

86. Peter Van Gessel, police patrol, $151,614

87. Brian Edman, fire captain, $151,286

88. Christopher D'Arcy, police patrol, $151,204

89. Aaron Aguirre, fire suppression, $151,000

90. Jeff German, police investigations, $150,337

Main image of Brian Benton via John Ferak/Joliet Patch Editor