Excerpts from the ChicagoTribune.com:
Oak Brook’s police and fire chiefs explained Tuesday that the village’s daytime population doesn’t directly impact their determinations of staffing needs, comments that came after a preliminary report from a village committee questioned the number that has been used for several years. The report, from Oak Brook’s Long-Term Strategic Planning Advisory Committee, contends that village staffing levels may be based on a mistaken daytime population that has been greatly overstated.
Oak Brook staff and officials have often referenced a daytime population, with many business and corporate offices in the village, of about 100,000 in a town with about 8,000 residents. But the committee’s research indicates the current daytime population to be considerably lower — 40,000 to 42,000. The committee also stated that Oak Brook’s daytime population is a key determinate of the size and scope of the village’s overall staff size, particularly with the police and fire departments.
But Police Chief James Kruger and Fire Chief Barry Liss said other factors should be considered. Kruger did say that factors such as call load and activity rate are impacted by the daytime population, which includes those working at any of the many corporate offices and retail businesses in the village and that staffing is based on a daytime population of about 30,000.
A board member said that while he respects Kruger and Liss, he found it disingenuous to hear them say the daytime population figure hasn’t been a significant factor in determining staff needs because the 100,000 number has been brought up in staffing reports and contract negotiations over the past nine years,
A resident and member of the Long-Term Strategic Planning Advisory Committee suggested that staffing for Oak Brook’s fire department should be compared to other communities, and that many in Illinois use an extensive number of all volunteer or paid on-call firefighters, which Oak Brook does not do and that the preliminary report from the committee includes information that neighboring Westmont, which uses some paid on-call firefighters, spends considerably less per fire call than does Oak Brook.
