He gets paid over time? WOW! All the taxpayers of the Falls living in single family homes will get hit in the butt when all these TIFs don't work out as planned. Kohls is a great addition to any community, but they already got the benefit of a TIF, made millions and now they are part of yet another TIF. Oh and when this all happens he will be long retired enjoying his pension.

“We’ve got an excellent village manager, and we pay him accordingly,” said Trustee Dennis Farrell. “He’s done a good job and brought a great deal of professionalism to Village Hall.”

........and a wonderful hotel costing you sucker taxpayers millions!

“I’m a strong believer in pay for play,” said Village Trustee James Jeskewitz....
I can't believe he actually said that.

Overtime, really........... What a scam

This is worst than Milwaukee County Supervisors getting paid for a "full-time" job when their job is irrelevant to begin with.

But I'm sure our guys make tough decisions.

I know why my taxes are in excess of $5000 now.

Overtime you have to be kidding that should be a salary job! Don't forget the hotel us taxpayers own, pat him on the back for that one. Oh and all of our outrages water bills, dam good job he's doing.

" I’d be willing to bet there isn’t another community that has had the progress in development that we have”

How much do you want to bet Jame? I actually create income so I've got a little laying around.

LOSING 18 million dollars on a hotel isn't what us in the private sector call progress and development. It's what we call stupidity.

Overtime on top of that salary, hard to believe!

Nice, he makes 6 figures and OT for using our money on a hotel and fighting with police and fire over positions which saves lives. Are there not criminals in jail for doing less to citizens.

I was almost willing to not comment, since a number of large deal went through successfully, like Kohl's etc. mentioned in the article. But overtime for a salaried employee?

For all that overtime, let's list the things that aren't working:
Too many roads need repair.
Too many storefronts are vacant.
Too many hotels are poised to falter.

The funny thing about the Falls is the civic leaders have pushed to the edge of the envelope for so long, that while the community we live in is great in my opinion, there's that bad taste in your mouth at the end of the day, like when you eat a great meal and have the bad luck to finish it up with a really cruddy dessert. The whole evening ends with a less-than-pleasant memory, just as the inner workings of Village Hall consistently gives me heartburn.

What other salaried executives are granted sweetheart stipulations from their friends like the opportunity for overtime?

Wait, this guy is a village manager and he's getting Overtime? Is this a Union Job? How does that work, does he punch a time clock? It should be a salary position and holy Moses, I think $100,000 with benefits would be extremely sufficient, if not somewhat overpaid.

Over time on a leadership salaried position like this is ridiculous. As a falls guy with a crappy road in front of my house, this is quite a slap in the face.

What a joke. Six figure income plus overtime! The village board has all their heads so far up his a**, they can't even see straight. And they want to cut staff by approximately 5 people at MFPD, giving subpar health benefits to those that watch over this community. It is definitely sad. It is not only sad but shameful. He should be ashamed of himself.

Perhaps we should have just paid a new community developer the $80,000. Maybe he or she would have nixed the hotel deal. Seems to me having an extra thinker on board to develop the Falls may be needed instead of letting one person do it all.

In the real world if your hotel goes bankrupt you are out of a job. In the public sector you get: overtime.

Waving tax breaks in front of already established corporations is not what I call all that hard. If you want to wave my property taxes for 10 years I'll promise to keep my business in the Falls.

This story is very reminiscent of what took place with former Village Manger Richard Farrenkopf; Fitzgerald’s predecessor. Farrenkopf was retired for exactly one day before coming back to the village so that he could double dip into a pension and collect a huge six figure salary! He was famously quoted in the Journal-Sentinel for uttering the remarks “show me the money!” Both men are cut from the same cloth! See a pattern of reprehensible fiscal behavior people?

One benefit the article doesn’t cover is that fact that Fitzgerald also gets a free car (an SUV at that) and all the free $3.35 a gallon gasoline it can drink. What an economic boom it would be for any family to have free transportation paid for on someone else’s dime! Imagine the money you would save not having to make car payments, buy gas, pay for insurance or registration and having your own village mechanic at your beck and call to service the thing!

Other notes of interest; Nothing with the Kohl’s deal is written in stone at this point and they could pack their bags tomorrow for the urban pastures of Milwaukee. There are enough areas around the village with closed shops and broken roads to compete with downtown Mogadishu for the “crippling depression” award! And the five million dollars Fitzgerald sent down the Rabbit Hole to clean up the Stolper development.

Wakeup people and let your voice be heard to stop this leach from padding his nest with your hard earned money!

CARL...THIS ONE GOES OUT TO 'THE AUTHOR':
LET'S BEGIN BY GETTING THE 2011 "GROSS" FIGURE CORRECT. $149,692 + $17,500 + $35,910 = $203,102...
EVERY EMPLOYEE 9MARK INCLUDED) NEEDS TO UNDERSTAND THAT 'BENEFITS' ARE PART OF YOUR PAY. IF YOU DON'T BELIEVE THAT, TAKE THEM AWAY AND BUY THOSE BENEFITS OUT OF THEIR 'GROSS INCOME'.
IF YOU'RE GOING TO PUBLISH THIS STUFF, SAY IT LIKE IT IS!!!
SECONDLY: IN THE PRIVATE SECTOR, THERE IS NO OVERTIME IN A 'SALARIED' POSITION. YOU DO WHAT IT TAKES TO GET THE JOB DONE!
OH...AND THERE'S NO CRYING IN BASEBALL!

Correction: The original article posted indicated that Mr. Fitzgerald earned $17,500 in overtime pay. However, Fitzgerald is not eligible for overtime as he is a salaried employee. That amount would fall under the "extra pay" title in the database.

& THERE'S Your Entitlements! That's what Welfare IS/Looks like...wow, can I apply? OT @ $17.5K? I've worked Plenty O' overtime in my life...perhaps I should add this up & see how MANY YEARS that took...hmmm. Nice. I want this deal,

STILL OVERPAID FOR MAKING POOR DECISIONS

So Carl: what did he get "extra Pay" for?

How much did he get in OVER TIME ???????

I will never vote for an incumbent trustee again. Pay for Play? This is not monopoly money they are wasting - it is taxpayer money. We have more than enough TIFs in the red, and what do we do? Borrow from successful TIFs. Remember, none of the TIF money goes to SDMF taxes, so the true taxpayers are paying a huge sum of money for failure as we, the taxpayers, have inflated tax rates because of the VMF manager and trustees who made bad decisions. Add the Radisson, the stolper properties, Main St. (Toppers Pizza, Walmart grocery - what a find!). The trustees hire the manager, who makes bad judgements and is backed by the trustees. The trustees have to be in bed with the manager. They hired him.,

What about Big Lots that is going in down the block from us in the former Pick n Save bldg!!!! This village is going down hill and so is the value of our home! Thanks so much!

M Falls what TIFS are in the red? Last audit report, from independent CPA's, indicates all TIFS are finanacially viable. You read too much of Davis crap. As far as Stolper, they took an old crappy building and WAC/Froetert is building a 20 million dollar building along with Fiduciary apartments. Main st....you would rather have the old 1970 shopping center. The Radisson is a mess, but let's judge when the results are final. I will take kohl's 3000+ jobs, eaton 100+ jobs and others over the low paying restaurants jobs. MF has alot great things going on.

Whether classified as "extra pay" or "overtime" it doesn't matter. I know Carl has a journalistic responsibility to be technically correct because he takes libel issues seriously, for all intents and purposes the extra pay is basically just that--extra pay. Call it a bonus similar to the private sector if you want, but it is still unconscionable the Village is paying that much.

While many large project are in the works, and I for one appreciate everything from the new Walmart Market, the Big Lots, redeveloping the Stolper site over the long term, and the rest, the point of contention is Fitzgerald is paid too much as compared to surrounding communities. Menomonee Falls doesn't need to continue its reputation of sweetheart deals in the upper echelons of Village management. We already went through that with Greco and the rest cutting deals surrounding the old movie theater, the old Village Manager's double-dipping, the idiotic decision to guarantee the hotel, miraculously deciding a Village trustee was the best candidate out of 75 supposedly interviewed for the school board position, and probably countless other situations we never heard about.

It's still criminal we have to pay extra for garbage collection, considering Menomonee Falls is forever losing land to the garbage dump. We're are being paid too little to use and lose the land if we still have to pay a fee every year.

My property taxes went up while the real value went down.
Perhaps it is time for the whole lot of Village employees and Board members to take a 10% shave?
It is not enough to pay for the Solyndra Hotel, but would be seen as a sign of good faith.

No, he should not be making that much $ salary, especially when everyone in the Village received a "cost of living" raise EXCEPT the 4 Police Clerks!! How does Fitzgerald feel about that....real good that he denied them an increase of about $3,000 total for all four! Disgusting! How did he justify that?

Sue this is just a start that Fitz has planned . Next round of layoffs will be the Cops and dispatchers then back to Village workers for the next round for them. Do you think a 18 million $$$ dollar hole with Huge Atty fees and all the Corp FREE money comes from the money tree in the back yard. This V. Mangt is out of control and will the blessing of the trustees who hired him will stay until the taxpayers remove the Cabal .

Here's my comment... I have a family member on the Menomonee Falls Fire Department.
With all the recent health insurance changes made for the department, I have a grand-daughter that cannot seek medical attention when it's really needed because one trip to the doctor costs them over $200, and they cannot afford it... I find it appalling that a long term fire fighters... who risks their life every day to protect and serve the Falls, is put in this position. I think it’s time to STOP and RETHINK where and how the money is spent.

Jean : Were ya been ?? How about the V-employees who were layoff and the future V- Employees who will be layoff down the road. Do you think spending all this money is about you and your family or about Fitz and his friends [ CABAL ] .
Did you see how they [ CABAL ] circle the wagons on the Hotel and all the TIF spending and how about Millions to a CORP to build in G.T.
Time for you people [ Jean ] to stand up and be heard otherwise just sit back and let
the Good Old Boys [ CABAL ] run things because they know what best for you.
Watch what Fitz does to the Cop's after they filed a lawsuit on the insurance issue
this Guys does pay back in spades . This is MR.Fitz and his MO,,, just ask the taxpayers in Woodland Park CO ,,when a group filed against Fitz and his back room
crap he did to them ::::: Look it up yourself....