County votes to outsource maintenance work

NORTHBROOK, IL — The Lake County Board voted to privatize 13 county maintenance jobs yesterday, a move that will save the county more than $250,000, according to the Lake County News-Sun.

The Lake County Board voted to layoff the employees because their union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 5372, would not agree to delay their scheduled pay raise by a year, the story stated.

Lake County Administrator Barry Burton said: "The county has less revenue coming in and cannot afford to increase employee salaries. The reality is we don''t like having to do outsourcing, but these are extraordinary times. We have to make cuts. This was a difficult decision we did not take lightly."

It would have cost $259,000 to give the 13 employees the $3.25 raise they wanted, but by outsourcing to Northshore Building Maintenance Inc., the county will save $275,000, the story noted.

The Lake County Board passed the resolution to outsource maintenance tasks with a vote of 17 to 6, the story added.

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