May 13, 2009 10:33 pm US/Central
Rules For Furlough Days Don't Apply To Everyone
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
Furlough days are forcing thousands of Chicago city workers to take days off without pay. CBS 2 Chief Correspondent Jay Levine found out that, typical of Chicago, the rules do not apply to everyone, especially if you are on the City Council.
CBS 2 polled the city's aldermen Wednesday and found the mayor has more than enough votes to approve the unpaid furloughs. But he can't be forced to take them; nor can the aldermen.
City Council members who make $110,000 a year for what's supposed to be a part-time job are about to pass an ordinance requiring full-time employees to take as many as
17 days of unpaid leave; even though the law says the aldermen don't have to take the days off themselves.
"Well, it's a matter of equity. If the aldermen are gonna vote for the employees to do it, they should do it also," said Chicagoan Yao Dimizulu.
It's a frequent question to our website's "Your Concerns":
Sally asks: "...as citizens, who elected these fools, can we not ask and expect them to take days off without pay?"
Here's your answer, Sally:
"I've taken them all. All my furloughs, I've taken. And my staff has, too," Mayor Daley said. "Report it, that I took all the furlough days. All my staff took the furlough days. This is without pay, WITHOUT PAY."
So what about those aldermen? We polled 46 out of 50. Nine admitted taking only some of the six days their employees were required to take; two others took none at all.
Aldermen Manny Flores (1st), Pat Dowell (3rd), Freddrenna Lyle (6th), Danny Solis (25th), Ed Smith (28th), Isaac Carothers (29th), Dick Mell (33rd), and Brendan Reilly (42nd) took some days off without pay.
Howard Brookins (21st) and Scott Waguespack (32nd) didn't take any.
When asked if it struck him as unusual or even wrong that others were taking furlough days and he didn't, Waguespack said: "That's why I took the pay decrease because it actually added up to a lot more than any kind of furlough days."
While Waguespack refused this year's $6,000 raise, he says he will accept next year's, along with an unpaid furlough.
Brookins says: "Unless they suspend my child support payments, I can't afford it."
"I think it's wrong. You need to start by example," said Lillian Nieto of Aurora. "If you're at the top, you should do what you expect the lower part to do."
The mayor, who made it clear he is doing his part, is hoping to avert more drastic measures.
"If everybody pitches in, you won't lay anyone off," Mayor Richard M. Daley said.
A couple of days pay from aldermen may not make a big dent in the budget deficit, but there's a principle here. Especially when you're asking thousands of union members to take unpaid furloughs to save their jobs.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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