Word on the Street: Barely legal and hardly right
Peoria Countys top employee got a $4,350 pay raise Thursday, with little public notice and even less public discussion.
The bigger paychecks for Lori Curtis Luther, in fact, caused no comments during Thursdays Peoria County Board meeting, but thats also because there wasnt much controversy attached to the raise itself. It cleared committee unanimously, with a panel that includes plenty of fiscally conservative Republicans and pocketbook-minded Democrats voting 10-0 to advance it to the full board.
The problem isnt the raise per se, which at a 3 percent bump was at the middle of her eligibility range. The problem was the notice.
Because of a goof, her raise wasnt put out there for the public (or, for that matter, the other eight board members) to consider until the end of the business day Tuesday three minutes and five seconds before the legal deadline for getting it on the agenda.
Fine. It met the legal definition. The letter of the law was applied. But the spirit of the law is on life support here.
Especially when voting for a raise for a public official, the utmost care needs to be taken to show that the vote is above-board, that ample notice is given, that people can weigh in with their opinions.
I truly have no problem with the raise itself. To call Luther a hard worker is like describing water as wet or diamonds as hard, and arguably, the county has taken on a number of additional pieces of work over the past 20 months that shes handled among day-to-day operations. Plus, the pay hike itself is relatively modest.
But plenty of people felt blindsided seeing the item added to the agenda so late.
It might be tempting to label that addition convenient and wonder if it was intentional, but evidence suggests it really was a mistake. Luthers staff ordinarily wouldve been responsible for adding it to the agenda. But they werent in the meeting, so nobody could cry foul about their involvement in discussions about a raise for their boss. Crossed wires meant that the lawyer from the states attorneys office didnt add it until late.
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Word on the Street: Barely legal and hardly right