For our lead article on City Council’s uneven commitment to furlough days, click here.
Most city workers were forced to take 15 unpaid days off in 2009, and Mayor Richard Daley and most — but not all — members of the City Council voluntarily took furlough days also. Here you can search to see how many furlough days each of Chicago’s elected officials took last year.
| Name of Official | Position/Ward | Furlough Days |
|---|---|---|
| MELL, RICHARD F | 33 | 21 |
| CARDENAS, JORGE A | 12 | 18 |
| DOHERTY, BRIAN G | 41 | 18 |
| SOLIS, DANIEL S | 25 | 17 |
| NEELY, STEPHANIE D | Treasurer | 17 |
| BALCER, JAMES A | 11 | 16 |
| THOMAS, LATASHA R | 17 | 16 |
| LEVAR, PATRICK J | 45 | 16 |
| DEL VALLE, MIGUEL | City Clerk | 16 |
| RUGAI, VIRGINIA A | 19 | 16 |
| DALEY, RICHARD M | 1 | 16 |
| LYLE, FREDDRENNA M | 6 | 16 |
| ZALEWSKI, MICHAEL R | 23 | 15 |
| ALLEN, THOMAS R | 38 | 15 |
| SUAREZ, REGNER E | 31 | 15 |
| DALEY, VIOLA E | 43 | 15 |
| LAURINO, MARGARET L | 39 | 15 |
| COLON, REY | 35 | 15 |
| JACKSON, SANDRA S | 7 | 15 |
| BURNETT JR, WALTER | 27 | 15 |
| BURKE, EDWARD M | 14 | 15 |
| BEALE, ANTHONY A | 9 | 15 |
| FLORES, MANUEL | 1 | 15 |
| DIXON, SHARON D | 24 | 15 |
| MOORE, JOSEPH A | 49 | 15 |
| WAGUESPACK, SCOTT E | 32 | 15 |
| SMITH, MARY ANN A | 48 | 15 |
| STONE, BERNARD | 50 | 15 |
| PRECKWINKLE, TONI J | 4 | 15 |
| LANE, LONA M | 18 | 15 |
| POPE, JOHN A | 10 | 15 |
| SCHULTER, EUGENE C | 47 | 14 |
| FOULKES, TONI L | 15 | 14 |
| HARRIS, MICHELLE A | 8 | 14 |
| COCHRAN, WILLIE B | 20 | 13 |
| AUSTIN, CARRIE M | 34 | 13 |
| SHILLER, HELEN | 46 | 12 |
| MITTS, EMMA M | 37 | 11 |
| SMITH, ED H | 28 | 10 |
| BROOKINS JR, HOWARD B | 21 | 10 |
| FIORETTI, ROBERT W | 2 | 9 |
| TUNNEY, THOMAS M | 44 | 9 |
| RICE, JOHN A * | 36 | 7 |
| MUNOZ, RICARDO | 22 | 7 |
| HAIRSTON, LESLIE A | 5 | 7 |
| REBOYRAS, ARIEL E | 30 | 7 |
| DOWELL, PATRICIA R | 3 | 7 |
| MALDONADO, ROBERTO # | 26 | 6 |
| CAROTHERS, ISAAC S | 29 | 3 |
| O CONNOR, PATRICK J | 40 | 1 |
| OLIVO, FRANK | 13 | 0 |
| THOMPSON, JOANN | 16 | 0 |
| REILLY, BRENDAN | 42 | 0 |
* – Rice joined the City Council on Oct. 7.
# – Maldonado joined the City Council on July 28. Mayor Daley appointed them to fill vacancies created by resignations.
Source: City of Chicago | Download data: .CSV format
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City Council Salaries
Furlough days are subtracted from the salaries of aldermen, but the annual pay for each City Council member varies:
- Five aldermen declined their 6.2 percent cost-of-living increase last year, which would have boosted their pay above $110,000 a year, and have voluntarily kept their salaries frozen at the 2008 level of $104,101 a year. Those aldermen are: Fioretti, Balcer, Waguespack, Reilly and Tunney.
- Seven aldermen agreed to accept the lower, newly adjusted annual salary of $106,644 for 2010. (The local Consumer Price Index declined in 2009 by 3.5 percent). Those aldermen are: Flores*, Preckwinkle, Pope, Burke, Munoz, Burnett, Shiller.
- Thirty-eight aldermen told city officials they did not want their salary adjusted downward in line with the decline in the CPI. They are entitled to $110,556 in wages for 2010. Those aldermen are: Dowell, Hairston, Lyle, Jackson, Harris, Beale, Cardenas, Olivo, Foulkes, Thompson, Thomas, Lane, Rugai, Cochran, Brookins, Zalewski, Dixon, Solis, Maldonado, Ed Smith, Carothers#, Reboyras, Suarez, Mell, Austin, Colon, Rice, Mitts, Allen, Laurino, O’Connor, Doherty, Daley, Levar, Schulter, Mary Ann Smith, Moore, Stone.
* – Flores resigned from the council last month to accept a post in state government.
# – Carothers resigned from the council Monday after pleading guilty to federal corruption charges.
Stupid muckrakers.
Don’t you have anything else to do ?
This Co-operative thing is really catching on, huh ? – NOT!
Why are they getting paid this amount of money and not doing anything for the neighbors but putting it in a friends pocket. I don’t believe that we need alderman, the mayor has enough people working for him to go out and check out the city problems or better yet get a website that people can leave comments/questions/concerns where things can be taken care of it will save the city a lot of money.
50-40= $100 million
40 less alderman and term limits for all.
Great work guys. Keep it up. We really need to downsize the number of aldercreatures in this city!
People wake up the alderman why are they earning 3 figures. Look at the west side of chicago from cermak to grand or a little further north, western to kostner. Looks like haiti. if dont’s believe me go drive round and you see what I am talking about. Why is the city full of abandoned buildings in this area. what are the alderman doing about it. Nothing!!!!!!!!!! but hey they still get payed 3 figures.