CAHOKIA HEIGHTS – This newly formed city whose residents on average earn less than $20,000 annually will pay its mayor Curtis McCall Sr. $85,025.20, according to its payroll sheet.
The city will pay Democrat State Senator Christopher Belt $64,000, in administration. Illinois state senators earn $67,874 per year, plus per diem.
Cahokia Heights began to exist in May, following a merger vote of the villages of Cahokia and Alorton and the city of Centreville.
According to U.S. Census data, the 2019 per capita income of Cahokia was $18,045; for Centreville, $16,388 and for Alorton, $15,748.
On the list of city employees is the controversial former mayor of Alorton, JoAnn Reed, who earns $72,000, in the department of nutrition.
She has a rap sheet that includes a guilty plea on a 2019 traffic ticket for driving an Alorton police car with lights flashing on Interstate 64. In 2014, she pled guilty to a felony charge of smuggling a cellphone into the Alorton jail for her niece. In 2016, she was charged with a Class 4 felony vote buying, but that charge was dismissed in 2019.
Twenty-two others on the Cahokia Heights payroll will average about $69,000, and 68 hourly employees would average about $44,000 at 40 hours a week.
In July, local resident Kim Diers requested a list of employees, titles, and salaries.
She received it from the city’s attorney, Mark Scoggins of Columbia, on Aug. 2.
It showed assistant police chief Benjamin Callahan drawing the highest salary at $93,932.80, with police chief Steven Brown drawing $91,400.
It also showed:
-$86,400 for Dennis Traiteur, who runs the water system he ran under the name of Commonfields.
- $83,950 for former Cahokia village administrator Francella Jackson.
- $82,175 for LaMar Johnson, currently on federal probation for making fictitious and fraudulent statements to investigators in 2017.
- $77,669 for former Centreville city clerk DeMario Helm.
- $72,675 for Lunetha Matchingtouch in water and sewer.
- $72,000 for Sharlin Pfeffer, former office manager of Commonfields.
- $67,450 for Rory Morgan in sewer, Trevon Tompkins in park, Robert Darnell in code, and the mayor’s son Kerchavian McCall in water.
- $67,080 for human resource coordinator Dawn Crites-Cornwell.
- $61,750 for clerk Marilyn Stringfellow.
- $58,292 for Corey Allen, Malcom Henderson, and Keith Nolden, all in street, and for Ralph Wofford in park and Thomas Hill in code.
- $52,725 for clerk Debra Duncan.
- $52,520 for Stephanie Lynch in finance.
- $27.50 an hour for Jerry Davis, David Heine, Christopher McGinnis, Derek Ruberstell, and Perlisa Wright-Pickett, all in police.
- $26.50 for Gary Craig, Jamal Jackson, Kevin Phegley, and DeMorius Thomas, all in police.
- $25.50 for Tommie Brooks, Troy Derossett, Jeremy Ford, Patrick Hulsey, Shawn Hunt, Andrew Kersting, Matthew Mason, Cody Mersman, Joseph Myers, Kevin Schreckenberg, and Shannon Vaughn, all in police.
- $20.47 for Travanti Hill in water.
- $20.42 for Patrick Belk, Roy Belt, Leo Brown, James Culpepper, Nicholas Gale, Jason McMath, and Joshua Ware, all in sewer.
- $20.42 for Tyrone Crawford, Gary Flynn, Nathaniel McCall, and Ricky Walker, all in water.
- $20.42 for Sandra McClelland and Joi Shewfelt in water and sewer, Linda Clark-King and Felicia Jordon in finance, Tanya Mobbs in police, and Valerie Wright in police records.
- $19.47 for Donna Ayres, John Celistan, Anthony LeFlore, Erma Millard, Jeanetta Perkins, Keenan Wren, and Kenneth Wynn, all in code.
- $19.47 for Kalvin Clark, Isham Gilbert, Roosevelt Hayes, Chester Jackson, Ryan Nordike, Ryan Saxton, and DeMonti Thomas, all in park.
- $19.47 for LaJuan Crisp, Craig Greer, Jeremy Gulley, Phillip McIntyre, Vincent Paulette, Ramez Rias, and Sean Sayles, all in street.
- $19.47 for Jeffery Johnson and Timothy Johnson in police records.
- $19.47 for Gregory Radford in sewer and James Frick in water.