Mayoral Veto Overridden in South Suburbs, 10 Village Employees Laid Off

Ten Village of Dolton employees have been laid off after the Board of Trustees overrode a Mayoral veto of the previously approved Budget and Appropriation Ordinance for the fiscal year 2018-19. Photo Credit: Provided by the Village of Dolton
Ten Village of Dolton employees have been laid off after the Board of Trustees overrode a Mayoral veto of the previously approved Budget and Appropriation Ordinance for the fiscal year 2018-19. Photo Credit: Provided by the Village of Dolton

Mayoral Veto Overridden in South Suburbs, 10 Village Employees Laid Off

BY KATHERINE NEWMAN

The Village of Dolton Board of Trustees recently voted to override a Mayoral veto of the previously approved Budget and Appropriation Ordinance for the fiscal year 2018-19. The 4-2 vote in favor of overriding the veto subsequently caused the immediate lay off of 10 Village employees, but the Mayor, Riley Rogers, thinks those jobs are essential.

“What’s going on is that some of the Board members voted to amend our budget to exclude some of the vital employees that we have here that are in very important positions that actually make this village run,” said Rogers in a public statement. “I feel like this is a plight against me. It appears that some of the people being laid off here, some of the trustees think that they are supportive of me and they are actually going to put them out of their jobs and it’s going to create an issue for some of the employees in regards to health and medical care.”

The positions that have been eliminated in the Village of Dolton include the communications director, media director, human resources director, public works superintendent, public works supervisor, a property preservation engineer, two public works clerks, one water department clerk, and the mayor’s chief of staff.

Ordinance Number 18-010 which is the Budget and Appropriation Ordinance for the fiscal year 2018-19 was introduced earlier this year and approved by the Village of Dolton Board of Trustees on Aug. 4. The Mayor then vetoed the board’s approval of that ordinance on Sept. 4 and publicly stated that he believed the layoffs were not necessary and would have a negative effect on Village operations.

The Village of Dolton’s Finance Director, Yvonne Redmond, also stated at several public village meetings that she does not believe the layoffs are necessary.

“I still believe we do not have to do these layoffs,” said Redmond. “I looked at our budget and the monies we actually have received and I was able to come up with the conclusion that we don’t have to do layoffs and we can still have a surplus for this fiscal year 2018-19 Budget.”

A village of Dolton Trustee, Duane Muhammad, disagrees and believes that the layoffs are necessary despite Redmond stating that she has found a way to keep these 10 employees and have a surplus this year.

“To bring more clarity, that simply solves the problem for one year. But years thereafter, that is still not being solved. We cannot continue to borrow money to pay the corporate account,” said Muhammad. “What should we do for the following year when we come up with the same issue because we have not generated the necessary revenue?”

The trustees that voted to override the mayoral veto included, Trustee Muhammed, Trustee Valeria Stubbs, Trustee Deborah Denton, and Trustee Robert Pierson. The trustees that voted against the override were Trustee Jason House and Trustee Tiffany Henyard.

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