SPRINGFIELD – Former state senator James Clayborne of Belleville misled the public by voting to cut his pay and suing to recover what he lost, the Supreme Court declared on Sept. 22.
The Justices reversed Cook County Associate Judge Allen Walker, who ordered comptroller Susana Mendoza to pay Clayborne $104,412.93.
They also reversed Walker’s decision to award $71,507.43 to former senator Michael Noland of Elgin.
“We find that plaintiffs are barred by their own conduct from asserting any rights to additional salary,” wrote Justice Scott Neville.
Walker found the General Assembly’s salary reductions violated the state Constitution, but the Justices reached a decision on lesser grounds.
They invoked the doctrine of laches, which prohibits a lawsuit if passage of time prejudiced a defendant.
Neville wrote that Clayborne and Noland sat idle and did nothing and that the Court “will not come to the aid of such complainants.”
He found Walker’s order would require transfer of funds already assigned elsewhere to pay for services legislators performed in previous years.
He found it impossible to restore money that existed in budgets for those years.
In 2009, Clayborne, Noland, and their colleagues passed a bill to eliminate their cost of living adjustments and take 12 days without pay in each fiscal year.
Noland said at the time, “Most working families in Illinois are not seeing raises...The least we can do is cut our own pay.”
Legislators voted to keep the pay cut in effect each year through 2014.
Noland gave up his Senate seat in 2016 and ran for Congress, without success.
He sued Mendoza in Cook County in 2017, on behalf of all legislators who lost pay.
He quoted a constitutional provision that any change in a member’s salary can’t take effect in the member’s term.
Mendoza estimated that relief for all legislators would cost $10 million.
Clayborne joined the suit after announcing he wouldn’t run in 2018.
Walker declared the laws void from the start last year, finding Mendoza didn’t provide any authority to construe her duty to pay salaries as discretionary.
He ordered back pay for Clayborne and Noland but not for all legislators.
Mendoza appealed, and Clayborne and Noland filed a cross appeal for a ruling that all legislators could collect.
“Plaintiffs contend that a public officer holder’s right to compensation is not based on any personal or contractual rights but rather a constitutional right and that they as individuals cannot forfeit, waive or gift this right by affirmative action or by delay in seeking to enforce it,” Neville wrote.
“We disagree.”
He found Clayborne and Noland asserted a private right to protect a personal entitlement, not a public right on behalf of the people or for their benefit.
He found they publicly touted their sponsorship of salary reductions and might have benefited in elections based on their championing of this position.
“The public was misled by these plaintiffs when, soon after retiring from office or indicating an intention not to run for retention, plaintiffs filed this lawsuit claiming that defendant was not allowed to implement a change in their salary and that defendant must pay them the amounts of the reductions in their salaries that occurred over and eight year period,” Neville wrote.
He found they acquiesced by their silence.
Five Justices concurred and rookie Justice Lisa Holder White did not participate.
Attorney General Kwame Raoul represented Mendoza.
Michael Scotti III of Chicago represented Clayborne and Noland.
Clayborne practices at Clayborne and Wagner in Belleville.
Noland presides as circuit judge in Kane County.