By Howard Packowitz
BLOOMINGTON – New Bloomington City Manager Tim Gleason said an ordinance unanimously passed by the city council Monday night requires him to curb “pension spiking” for retiring city workers that costs taxpayers millions of dollars.
Government employees are able to collect big paychecks when they retire based on a 1995 city policy enabling them to buy back unused sick time if they have a combined age and length of service totaling 75 years and they worked continuously at least 15 years.
Gleason said he won’t bring back collective bargaining agreements to the council for consideration unless the issue is “significantly addressed.”
“Understanding that the employees of the city of Bloomington are our greatest resource, but at the same time, the financial impacts to the pension spiking are one that many, if not all communities around the state have had to address,” Gleason said in describing how he’ll have to strike a balance between workers and taxpayers’ interests.
A staff report said there are 198 workers grandfathered into the two-decades old sick leave policy, and 39 are eligible to collect their benefits immediately. The cost to the city over the next several years could run between $3 million to $4 million, according to the report.
In other business, the divisions evident two weeks ago came into view again Monday night as aldermen were asked to act a second time on a $50 registration fee for all city businesses, and higher fees for many city functions. The council had to take another vote because there were errors in the initial ordinance.
The latest vote was 5-4 with Aldermen Karen Schmidt, Scott Black, Jamie Mathy, and David Sage voting no.
“Sooner or later, we’re going to have to come to grips with the idea that we’re going to have to make some changes to services delivered by the city. We can’t keep raising fees and taxes,” said Sage.
Sage, a fiscal conservative, is retiring next spring as the Ward 2 alderman representing the southwest side.
Howard Packowitz can be reached at [email protected]
