Aide's pay: $149,000 -- plus $100,000 pension
James Dencek was 54 when he retired in 1994 from the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago.
Not quite three years later, Dencek landed a new job. Under a $100,000 consulting contract, he was hired to be chief of staff to the district's new president, Terrence J. O'Brien, who used to work for Dencek at the agency.
(John H. White/Sun-Times)
Dencek's one-year consulting deal has stretched into 13 years.
His annual contract is now worth $149,374 -- nearly double O'Brien's salary as part-time president.
He also gets a $100,392 yearly pension from the district -- which he couldn't collect if he had come back as an employee of the district rather than a consultant.
Since retiring 15 years ago, Dencek, 69, of Orland Park, has collected more than $2.5 million from the district. That includes $1.3 million in consulting fees and more than $1.2 million from his pension.
O'Brien defends his old boss' double-dipping.
"We've saved almost a quarter of a million dollars over the past 13 years by having him and not a full-time employee," O'Brien says. "He only gets paid for the time he is here. He hasn't been paid all of the amount of money in his contract. He doesn't get a vehicle, which used to go to the president's -- er, board's -- administrative liaison. It's a tremendous savings. That's how I look at it.''
O'Brien and Dencek have known each other for years. Dencek used to be a supervisor in the district's industrial waste division, where O'Brien once worked before being elected to the board in 1988.
"The only reason I came back here is this place was going to be done right," Dencek says. "Terry was going to be president. The previous president [Thomas Fuller] went to prison. . . . They wanted somebody who could deal with the board and the staff. I know what's going on in every department."
"I could be sitting at home getting my pension and not doing anything for the taxpayers," Dencek says. "You're looking at me as if I'm a millionaire. It's hurting my pension because I'm paying higher taxes.
"I want to retire. I can't wait to retire."