Lake County police officers sue for overtime pay
By Teresa Auch Schultz tauch@post-trib.com August 6, 2012 2:18PM
Updated: September 8, 2012 6:12AM
Lake County has failed to pay overtime to 12 Lake County Sheriff’s Department officers, according to a lawsuit transferred to the U.S. District Court in Hammond.
According to the suit, which was originally filed July 25 in the U.S. District Court in Northern Illinois, the officers worked their full-time jobs with the Sheriff’s Department but also worked for the Lake County Parks and Recreation Department part time, often patrolling park properties and responding to complaints.
The officers say they received pay for both jobs in one paycheck from the county.
The officers claim that all of the hours should be counted together, meaning that they worked overtime and should receive time and a half for those hours.
The officers also argue that any speciality or proficiency pay they received should be counted as part of their normal pay, which should then be used to calculate their overtime pay.
The lawsuit lists William Poe, Joseph Kraus, George Nestorovich, James Stahl and Michael Buehrle as plaintiffs, but Jesse Vargas, Jill Baumgardner, Richard Graham, Chris Kostoff, John Verbich II, Aaron Dowling and Bryan Zabrecky have also signed forms to file suit, according to the lawsuit.
John Bushemi, attorney for Sheriff John Buncich, said that he was aware of the lawsuit but that the sheriff had not been served yet.
The Lake County Board of Commissioners and the Lake County Parks and Recreation Department were also named in the suit. Representatives for them could not be reached for comment.
