I’m a bit behind the curve on County issues, but I just got my hands on Forrest Claypool’s recent report on Personnel Trends for the County.
The preface sets up the report well
Since December of 2002, when there first emerged a strong block of reform-minded commissioners on the Cook County Board, there has been a decline in the payroll of the county government. However, the virtually all of these cuts have come at the expense of line staffers who deal directly with, and provide direct assistance to, the residents of Cook County. These positions also tend to be unionized and with salaries below $60,000 per year. At the same time that line staffers are being cut, the number of administrators who earn more than $60,000 per year has increased.
We have used $60,000 as the dividing line between administrators and line staffers. It is true that there are line staffers who earn more than $60,000 and administrators who earn less than $60,000. Additionally, there are some employees who earned less than $60,000 in 2003 but have now crossed the benchmark due to step increases and cost of living adjustments. We will explore these and other caveats in the report to preserve the integrity of our data.
Each department with a separate section in the Cook County Budget, plus the Forest Preserve District, has been chronicled in our report. Of the twenty departments, all have seen a decline in the number of salaried positions, save two that are exclusively concerned with law and order and three other small departments whose payrolls have largely remained the same. However, of the fifteen departments that have reduced positions, the bulk has come at the lower end of the pay scale. In some cases, the number of highly paid administrative positions has actually increased, while the number of lower paid line staffers has decreased.
The total numbers are above the $60,000 line, just under 37 jobs have been added. Below the $60,000 line, just under 985 jobs eliminated. In one year.
As always with such reports there are caveats and issues to more fully explore. And frontline workers always bear the brunt of budget cuts simply because of the numbers–however, adding nearly 37 jobs at high pay when you are eliminating nearly 1,000 front line workers is astoundingly irresponsible and a slap in the face of those who are doing the tough jobs.