Tinley Park Nixes Longevity Bonus for Officials

Tinley Park officials this week decided to stop paying out an annual bonus granted to elected officials for staying in office. The bonuses, in place since 2004, went to the mayor and in 2008 were then extended to trustees. Under the plan, officials received a 2 percent pay bump each year after the first eight in office.

Former Mayor Ed Zabrocki? He started with a $32,000-a-year base salary, with an additional $24,827 tacked on during his last fiscal year in office. He had first became a trustee in 1978, and went on to serve as mayor in 1981. He resigned in May 2015, after several longterm trustees were booted from the board by a fresh slate of candidates, and residents voted in favor of term limits for their public officials. In doing so, the longevity pay concept was unnecessary.

The longevity pay concept “sounded like a good idea at the time. It wasn’t,” said Acting Mayor Dave Seaman, who was a trustee at the time it went into effect. “It was essentially an experiment that was tried, and it was not successful.”

When the repeal goes into effect after the 2017 election, the 13-year ”experiment” will be over.

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