Lauren O'Hara Will Not Make $184,378 As Joliet's New City Clerk: Sing

JOLIET — Joliet's director of finance Kevin Sing informed Joliet Patch on Wednesday that the proposed city of Joliet budget that is posted online contained "a typo" regarding next year's salary for one of City Hall's newest employees, city clerk Lauren O'Hara, who previously served as the Will County Clerk as Lauren Staley Ferry.

The 174-page 2025 budget that has been posted on the city's website listed the new Joliet city clerk as being set to make $181,720 in regular pay and $184,378 in direct pay.

Realizing that O'Hara appeared to be in line for a salary increase of more than $40,000 less than four months after she started her employment at City Hall, Joliet Patch reached out to the city staff for clarification on O'Hara's salary.

At the time of her hiring, Joliet Patch reported that O'Hara would be making $139,510 as the new city clerk.

On Wednesday, Sing informed Joliet Patch that the salary listed in the 2025 budget for the city clerk is not correct and that it was the result of a typo in the budget. He said that other people brought the salary concern to the city's attention in recent days, in addition to Joliet Patch.

As far as he knows, Sing said, he is not aware of any other high-ranking city official's salary being significantly wrong in the proposed city budget.

He said that O'Hara's current salary of nearly $140,000 is the correct amount that should be entered into the proposed budget. He said the budget document will be corrected before it gets voted on later this month by the Joliet City Council.

Sing also said that O'Hara's salary would not have automatically increased to more than $180,000 come January, when the new budget takes effect.

"Those are supplemental schedules," Sing said, referring to the salary ranges for various city positions.

He also said that positions such as the city clerk are capped under city ordinances at receiving an annual pay raise by no more than 14 percent from the respective city manager. Therefore, raising O'Hara's salary by more than $40,000 next year would be "impossible," Sing explained.

Back in January, new city manager Beth Beatty announced that she had promoted Joliet's long-time city clerk Christa Desiderio to the newly filled position of deputy city manager. Desiderio's new salary was $185,500. Desiderio's city clerk position remained vacant until O'Hara began her new position at City Hall in late August.

At the time of her hiring, Joliet Patch reported that Staley Ferry's starting salary overseeing the city clerk's staff at City Hall would be $139,510.

According to the proposed budget, the city clerk's staff will remain at eight full-time employees and two part-time employees for 2025. The document indicated O'Hara wanted to increase her staff from eight to nine full-time employees, but the city manager's office did not support the request to increase the full-time staff to nine.