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Galesburg aldermen reduce treasurer to part-time position

The Galesburg city treasurer will see a smaller salary and reduced role after last night’s City Council meeting.

Aldermen voted 5-1 to set the treasurer’s salary at $12,500 down from $54,000. That salary was set after an amendment passed changing the proposed $25,000 salary city administration advised. 

The position will also remain elected, after aldermen toyed with the idea of appointing the finance director to the post. The decision did not come without current and former city officials voicing their opinions. 

Outgoing Treasurer Marv Dahlberg ultimately backed the change, though he felt it warranted the $25,000 salary.

“I would tell you it’s very much a full time job from May to October,” Dahlberg says. “Do think it should be a full time position? Probably yes. Do I think that we needed to make cuts? Yes. I said I would support a half time position.”

Former Treasurer Tom Wilson spoke again after asking the city’s legal staff two weeks ago to speak with the state attorney’s general office about the legality of making this change without a referendum. 

The call was not made and Wilson did not seem pleased.

“In other words, it wasn’t done,” Wilson says.

However, City Manager Todd Thompson argued that the legal staff has concluded no referendum would be needed.

Thompson also told WGIL that for now, the deputy treasurer remains a full-time appointed position, but that could change as the city finalizes its budgeting this winter.

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