Quiet Use Of Bonuses For City Council Aides On The Rise

Quiet Use Of Bonuses For City Council Aides On The Rise

Alderpeople defend the practice, saying aides deserve the extra money — at times in the tens of thousands of dollars — for their hard work, but critics decry the process as arbitrary.

Quiet Use of Bonuses for City Council Aides on the Rise – Illinois Answers Project

Because employees’ salaries are publicly listed on an annualized basis, the city’s data portal last December showed 10 aldermanic staffers as earning more than $221,000 a year, which is how much Mayor Brandon Johnson earns. Four staffers, all of whom work for Ald. Nick Sposato, were shown in late December as earning more than a $300,000 annual salary because of a one-time pay hike that gave each staffer a $10,000 year-end bonus.

Quiet Use of Bonuses for City Council Aides on the Rise

Amid City Council budget negotiations late last year, Ald. David Moore (17th) asked city officials to send him a list of Chicago’s highest-paid employees. He was floored when he saw that his own aide, Cordarryl Jackson, was listed — erroneously — as having the third-highest salary out of the city’s 30,000-plus employees, at $247,000. “Oh my goodness,” Moore said, laughing as he reviewed the list. “Not even close … somebody screwed up big time.” …