Peoria Heights Examiner "Lie #1"

I'll keep these as short and sweet as possible.

Bear in mind, what I am writing in response to each of these allegations is an absolute FACT; and can be verified by simply going by Village Hall and getting the information; or contact me and I will forward the info to you from the minutes; or any other verification to show that it is a FACT. Even though these responses might be almost two years late, I hope that they will show how the Peoples Party periodicals were not only filled with "half-truths, innuendos, and outright lies" in 2007, but will more than likely be even more chock full of the same in 2009.

POLITICAL FICTION#1- The Peoria Heights Examiner (Peoples Party "newspaper") stated that shortly after I took office, certain department heads received "40% raises."

FACT: The department heads would have loved this one to be true. In actuality, the Police Chief and the Village Administrator received 10% raises. That's a bit lower than the 40% raises that the Examiner threw out there.

Now, if the Examiner had stated that the department heads had received 40% raises over a THREE year period, it would have been closer to the truth. But, it did not state that. And, the third year of that three year period had not even occurred yet. What did happen was that the department heads received 10% per year, over a three year period.

Why? Because all of the statistics showed that the Peoria Heights department heads were not only near the bottom of salaries for the size of our community in Illinois, they were virtually AT the bottom. Unacceptable. We'll go one step further however. Even if the Examiner had done it over a three year period, the raises would have been 33% OVER A THREE YEAR PERIOD. STILL NOT 40%. Even with these raises, our department heads are in the bottom third of salaries for similar sized communities in Illinois. But, at least we're doing better there.

Someone at the Examiner needs a new calculator... AND a conscience.