Addison Township employees will soon see an increase to their paychecks in the coming months. At the Jan. 13 Addison Township Board meeting, board members, aside from trustee Linda Gierak who had an excused absence, voted unanimously to approve the resolution of a five percent wage increase for the fire department, township supervisor, clerk, treasurer and all township employees.
According to the 2019/2020 Wage Compensation Schedule, Addison Township Supervisor Bruce Pearson, Clerk Pauline Bennett and Treasurer Lori Fisher all received base salaries of $38,487.80 that went into effect last April. With the five percent wage increase, base salaries for the three positions will be bumped to $40,412.32. The raises will go into effect on April 1 of this year and is something Pearson believes is needed in order to help retain employees.

“We are the lowest paid township as far as elected officials and as far as our expenses. The only one that comes close to us is Rose Township and they have fewer people and they’re paying more than us,” said Pearson at the Jan. 13 meeting. “We keep a very tight budget here; we don’t ask for a whole lot.”
“I think that we have done a great job of trying to catch up after a lot of years of no raise at all,” echoed trustee Joel King.
The raise comes after last year’s five percent wage increase as well as several years without an increase at all.
“When I came into office in 2008, that’s when the whole country started to freefall and in March 2009, that’s when the stock market hit its lowest point and I had just taken office. So we were in the worst recession since the depression,” Pearson told this reporter.
According to Pearson, the worst didn’t come until 2010 when “(numerous townships) had to put on emergency millages for their police and fire,” which is something Addison Township didn’t do. “I told people, ‘don’t panic, I’ve prepared for this,’ and I rearranged a lot of the staff and the hours at the sheriff’s department and we came through and we never raised the taxes,” Pearson said.
Even after the recession, Pearson did not give out raises right away and when he did, Pearson made sure they went to township employees, not elected officials.
“We’re not here to make tons of money, we are here to do a job,” he said. However, Pearson recognizes the talent and hard work the township puts in and does a wage increase “a little bit at a time” each year.
“I try to treat everyone equally and that’s the reason we look good is because (the employees) make us look good,” he said.
The next Addison Township Board meeting will take place on Feb. 20 beginning at 6 p.m. Meetings are held in the Township Hall, located at 1440 Rochester Rd.