Munger Campaign Asks Mendoza to Return One of Her Pensions to Taxpayers

Chicago City Clerk took two salaries and built two pensions at same time

The Campaign for Comptroller Leslie Geissler Munger called on Chicago City Clerk Susana Mendoza to pass on one of her two public pensions to make up for her ten years of simultaneously taking in two government paychecks.

The campaign noted that Mendoza raked in two salaries – one from the city of Chicago and the other from the state – during her ten years of “service” in Springfield. The paydays coincided with government contributions to her two public pensions.

“Susana Mendoza voted for the unbalanced budgets, tax increases and pension holidays that put Illinois in fiscal crisis,” Munger Campaign Manager Phil Rodriguez said. “At the same time, she picked up two paychecks and sweetened her two pensions. It embodies all the problems that have led us to this place.”

Mendoza started working for the City of Chicago in 1998 as a Project Coordinator. In 2000, she won a Party Primary for State Representative and received a 33 percent raise for her city job a month later. She then served ten years in the General Assembly, all the while remaining on the city and state payrolls.

The salaries coincided with contributions to two public pensions.

“It’s time for a change,” Rodriguez said. “Leslie Munger spent her career balancing budgets and meeting financial expectations. She has dedicated nearly two decades to serving developmentally disabled adults. She doesn’t accept a public pension or state health care benefits. The contrast could not be clearer.”