$435,203 For Suburban Chicago Park District Employee To Pad Pension

The Chicago Tribune reports:

As the economy was taking a historic nosedive, parks officials in Highland Park were paying three of their executives far more — $435,203 in one case — than anyone in similar posts across the suburbs, the Tribune has found.

Parks officials in the northern suburb say it was a good use of taxpayer dollars, even though the off-the-charts spending spree included giving the three executives nearly $700,000 in bonuses while paying one of them $185,120 for no work and signing over an SUV to him as he left town.

The Park District acknowledges it did so, in part, to pad the executives' pensions, a practice pension officials say is wrong. The district's 58-year-old former executive director is now paid more in retirement — $166,000 a year — than he was typically paid to run the agency.

Just a reminder, property owners in Highland Illinois pay some of the highest property taxes in America. For this. What a scam. Eventually, federal taxpayers will be asked to bailout this. Just a reminder.