Letter to the Editor: Barocio Responds to Challenges from Park Board Members

Two OPD Board members, Mr. Mattingly and Mr. Slover, publicly challenged Mr. Wass' and my research. We feel compelled to respond.

1. All our sources are carefully noted; our opponents merely make assertions.  We stand behind all our facts.
2. OPD Compensation. These Board members think salaries are compensation costs.  They should know they pay benefit costs too.  We defined compensation costs clearly, and used OPD's own compensation printout.
3. Part-time compensation costs must include benefits, and use Full-Time Equivalent employees in the calculation. We did, and got the FTE number from OPD itself.  $47,500 is the correct average compensation number.
4. They assert only one employeemakes more than a $100,000 salary.  Same problem.  Benefits are costly.  The correct answer is six employees make over $100,000, as we reported.
5. User fees of $176 per resident were challenged, but they agreed with fee numbers we used for three neighboring PDs.  They divided OPD fees by participants, not by residents (for consistency).  Our number is correct; OPD fees are twice that of these other three PDs.  One incumbent acknowledged that OPD's program costs are covered by high fees.
6. OPD's tax rate was reduced over time. Correct. But, they failed to mention: (a). OPD taxes have come down to slightly above four neighboring PDs that we looked at; (b). They "cherry picked" comparisons, and we used four neighboring PDs; (c). OPD raised 2011 taxes 7.8 percent; and, (d). OPD is raiding its reserve fund for $1.5 million to balance its 2011budget. 

Salvador J. Barocio, Candidate for Oswegoland Park District Board