The LaSalle County Board has turned down a request to alter the settlement agreement that got two deputy auditors their jobs back. Tori Artman and Pamela Wright were fired in April last year but returned to work in June this year, after they won court cases in which they were accused of stealing extra pay for work they didn’t do.
Their union says they returned to work the day after they signed the settlement agreement; the county says they returned five days later when they physically showed up for work at the Etna Rd. courthouse. The American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees wants Artman and Wright to be paid for those five days.
The union also asked for rewording to make things clear to the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund how the women are to be credited for 15 months in the pension system while they were off work. County Board Chairman Jim Olson says the wording from the June agreement is as the AFSCME attorney wanted it and he believes the IMRF will credit the employees properly. He says IMRF is getting the proper funding for that.
County Board members talked about the issues in closed session Thursday. In open session afterward, they voted 16 to ten against making the union’s requested changes.