Riverside Village Manager Jessica Frances received a major vote of confidence – in the form of a 17-percent pay raise – from the village board on Feb. 16.
Village trustees voted unanimously to increase Frances base salary to $140,000 annually from her previous salary of $119,925. The increase is retroactive to Jan. 1.
The raise comes on top of a $10,000 cash bonus the village board approved for Frances in December 2016 after “careful consideration to Frances’ performance during this most recent year of employment.”
At the time the board gave Frances the bonus, Village President Ben Sells said he was holding off on a straight-up raise in part because it came during the candidate filing period for the 2017 Consolidate Elections.
That filing period is over, and Sells and a slate of three trustee candidates are running unopposed this spring, ensuring Sells would remain in charge of the administration later this spring.
In approving the salary increase, Sells pointed to Frances’ leadership in establishing the West Central Consolidation Communications (WC3) emergency dispatch center as a particular accomplishment.
“Everywhere she goes, she’s chosen as a leader,” Sells said in December. “Her performance exceeds the job she has. It’s hard for me to imagine a better village manager.”
Frances was named Riverside’s permanent village manager in January 2015 after serving about four months in an interim capacity. For three years before ascending to village manager, Frances served as Riverside’s finance director.
The raise also put Frances’s salary more on par with her counterparts in Brookfield and North Riverside.
Brookfield Village Manager Keith Sbiral had his pay bumped 10 percent in 2016 to $150,000 annually. He also receives $15,000 annually in deferred compensation.
Sbiral has been Brookfield’s village manager since October 2014. He was hired to be Brookfield’s assistant village manager in 2006.
North Riverside Village Administrator Guy Belmonte’s annual salary for the 2016-17 is $147,500, which was a 4.5-percent raise over his 2015-16 salary. He also gets a $1,350 vehicle allowance.
Belmonte has served as the village administrator in North Riverside since 2001.
