Joliet Police Supervisors Seek Big Pay Raises After D'Arcy Elected

JOLIET, IL — Eight months after off-duty Joliet Police Department supervisors, plus past police chiefs Al Roechner and Brian Benton, attended Mayor-Elect Terry D'Arcy's victory party, supervisors president Matt Breen and his group of sergeants and lieutenants are expecting Joliet's City Council to raise their pay - and future overtime pay and retirement pensions — by several thousand dollars.

At Tuesday night's regular meeting, Joliet's City Council will vote whether to approve a new three-year contract for the Joliet Police Supervisors Association, which consists of about 60 members, including Sgt. Christopher D'Arcy, the son of Joliet's new mayor.

A large percentage of Joliet police's long-time lieutenants and sergeants would be in line for retroactive salary increases for this year of roughly 5.6 percent —raises of $7,313 for many sergeants and raises of $8,022 for Joliet's experienced lieutenants.

In addition, Joliet police supervisors would get another raise that takes effect on New Year's Day. That raise would boost their annual base pay for 2024 by another 2 percent across the board, on top of the 5.6 percent amount retroactively covering 2023.

Supervisors president Matt Breen and his group were vocal during the mayor's race that they did not want former Joliet officer turned lawyer Bob O'Dekirk re-elected to a third term as mayor. D'Arcy's victory night celebration at the Joliet Park District property was attended by more than 300 people, including several members of the Joliet Police Supervisors Association including Lt. Jeremy Harrison and Sgt. Doug May, who are pictured in this Joliet Patch article.

Now, with this week's Joliet City Council vote, Harrison, May and dozens of fellow sergeants and lieutenants are in line to have their compensation raised by the Joliet Council by several thousand dollars for 2023, 2024 and 2025.

Any salary increase would also increase the Joliet taxpayers' burden toward the Joliet police pensions for sergeants and lieutenants, as well as any respective retirement severance payouts for their unused vacation, comp time accruals and sick leave banks that are paid out at their final base salary at the time of their retirement from Joliet.

The most recent multi-year contract for the Joliet Police Supervisors Association expired Jan. 1.

The timing of the vote comes at what will be the final City Council meeting for interim city manager Rod Tonelli. The Council agreed not to retain Tonelli as the city's permanent city manager, instead voting to hire Beth Beatty, the deputy mayor of Chicago.

Beatty is expected to take over Joliet's City Hall the week of Dec. 11.

Also, the Joliet City Council packets for Tuesday's meeting do not contain any financial analysis from either Joliet finance director Kevin Sing or human resources director Kathy Franson as to how much extra taxpayer funds are needed in the city budgets to cover the raises for the roughly five dozen Joliet police sergeants and lieutenants, in addition to the unfunded liabilities to the Joliet police pension program.

According to the proposed three-year contract up for vote on Tuesday night:

All Joliet police sergeants and lieutenants would get a retroactive across the board pay raise of 2.49 percent that dates back to Jan. 1. In addition to that, come Jan. 1, 2024 — four weeks from now — Joliet Police Supervisors would get another across the board pay hike, this time 2 percent. Then, on Aug. 1, 2025, all sergeants and lieutenants would get an across-the-board pay increase of 3.25 percent.

But that's only one portion of the raises.

Sergeants and lieutenants would also be in line for a secondary pay increase, known as a Step Increase, if they have 18 years of service or more with Joliet Police Department.

The Joliet Police Department supervisors roster indicates the overwhelming majority of sergeants and lieutenants have at least 18 years of service for the department, thus qualifying them for the several thousand dollar step-increase that's proposed in the new three-year contract.

Under the current Joliet Police Supervisors contract from 2022:

Joliet's sergeants make base salaries of $125,333 or $131,409, while lieutenants make $137,783 or $144,161.

In the case of Lt. Harrison, the proposed contract would grant him a retroactive base salary increase for 2023 to $152,183, which marks a salary hike of $8,022. In the case of Sgt. May, his pay would increase to $138,722, a salary increase of $7,313, which is 5.6 percent.

Then, four weeks from now, May and Harrison could get another salary increase. Harrison's salary, not counting his future overtime earnings, would increase to $155,227 and May's pay as sergeant would go to $141,496.

In another 13 months, Harrison's base salary would increase by another $5,045 to $160,272 and May's pay would climb $4,599 to $146,095.

According to the Illinois Sunshine website that tracks political campaign donations, the Joliet Police Supervisors Association has regularly donated money to elected officials running for office in Joliet and Will County politics.

The Joliet Police Supervisors gave $500 in May to Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow, and $250 to Joliet City Council Patrick Mudron in March for his successful re-election, $250 to Cesar Cardenas for his successful City Council race to replace retiring Bettye Gavin. In addition, the supervisors gave $250 to Sherri Reardon for her successful re-election in April.

Joliet police supervisors donated $250 to Mike Eulitz, who lost his City Council race to incumbent Larry Hug. Last December, the supervisors donated $500 to D'Arcy for Joliet. In 2022, the police supervisors donated another $250 to Glasgow, plus $500 in 2021 to the Committee to Elect Warren Dorris and $250 to the Committee To Elect Don Duck Dickinson in 2020.