Editorial: VBT Board agrees to finally get rid of blended rate

It’s taking a big payoff to six public safety employees for the Van Buren Township Board of Trustees to finally get rid of the blended rate for mostly police officers also working as fire fighters for a huge salary.
According to the most recent salary list published by the Independent, for 2020, the police officers also working as fire fighters all made more than the salaries of Supervisor Kevin McNamara or Public Safety Director Greg Laurain.
And this blended-rate program has been going on since 2003, after Supervisor Cindy King fired former Public Safety Director Chris Elg and hired Jerry Champagne. King and Champagne quietly signed the blended-rate agreement with the employees without a vote of the township board. But, it was in place and grew in cost after the federal government decreed they had to be paid overtime rates for each minute doing a second job in the township. The agreement could have been canceled if the employees agreed, but they didn’t.
Every year, after the Independent publishes its list of salaries for the previous year, readers say they take the papers with that information to their friends in other police departments and those out of town who are shocked at the figures. This year should be much higher than usual because of bonuses given for COVID service. We can hardly wait.