Brookfield trustees voted 4-0 on Oct. 10 to amend their contract with Village Manager Timothy Wiberg, granting him a 3-percent raise in salary. The action was taken without comment as part of the omnibus agenda passed by the village board that night.
Wiberg has received annual raises of 5 percent in 2020 and 2021, plus a one-time $10,000 pay bump in 2019 at his nine-month anniversary, since being hired in 2018. The most recent 3-percent raise approved earlier this month brings Wiberg’s annual salary to $198,726.
That represents an increase from his initial $165,000 salary in 2018 of 20.4 percent. In addition, the village pays Wiberg $6,000 annually for a vehicle allowance and contributes an amount representing 6.5 percent of Wiberg’s annual salary into a deferred compensation plan. With the raise, that annual contribution will be about $13,000. The village also contributes about $8,500 annually toward Wiberg’s pension through the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund (IMRF).
Such additional compensation is not unusual for a municipality’s top administrator. Riverside Village Manager Jessica Frances’s annual salary in 2022 is $194,749. She also receives a $6,000 vehicle allowance and a $15,000 annual village contribution to a deferred compensation plan in addition to a $17,000 annual contribution toward her IMRF pension.
North Riverside Village Administrator Sue Scarpiniti was hired in 2021 as permanent village administrator after serving for more than a year as an interim at a salary of $185,000. The village provides its administrator with a vehicle, a $1,200 annual cellphone allowance, an IMFR contribution of about $17,700 and a contribution toward Scarpiniti’s post-retirement insurance benefits.
The village stopped offering the post-retirement benefit for village hall employees hired after 2011. Those hired prior to that date, including Scarpiniti, are grandfathered into the program.
Wiberg came to Brookfield in 2018 after serving in the same capacity for 15 years in northwest suburban Lincolnwood.
Under his direction, the village has undertaken a number of initiatives related to economic redevelopment through the Energize Ogden commercial corridor planning study.
In October 2021, Wiberg recommended hiring a consultant at a cost of $20,000 to complete a report assessing the feasibility and identifying possible locations along the Ogden Avenue corridor for a grocery store.
Wiberg confirmed that the consultant, Mike Mallon, has delivered that report to the village, but its contents have not been made public. The Landmark submitted a public records request for the report. However, the village’s attorney denied the request, saying it was exempt from disclosure per the Freedom of Information Act, claiming it contained privileged commercial and financial information and “information relating to real estate purchase negotiations,” which are exempt from disclosure “until those negotiations have been completed or otherwise terminated.”
In May, the village board approved a three-year economic development plan, which was authored by Cindy Klima, who was hired as an economic development consultant in August 2021.
Wiberg also pushed for and convinced the village board in May to create the nine-person Brookfield Economic Development Commission, an advisory body made up of local businesspeople from the village’s various commercial sectors.
