Hales: Bloomington has taken steps to curb pension spiking

Posted on August 19, 2015
David Hales
Bloomington city manager David Hales says city staff hopes to have proposed pension changes for the city council to consider by next week’s meeting.
(WJBC file photo)

By Eric Stock

BLOOMINGTON – Bloomington city manger David Hales said the issue of spiking pensions is not as big of a problem now as its been in years past.

Hales told WJBC’s Scott Laughlin only new hires in the police and fire departments can still use the sick leave buy back benefit which the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund claims cost the city $1.2 million since 2012 as some employees inflated their average salary by cashing out unused sick and vacation time along with retirement bonuses.

Bloomington city spokeswoman Nora Dukowitz said police and fire pensions are not a part of the IMRF and to the city’s understanding, their pensions can’t be spiked the same way as pensions can be under IMRF rules.

“The sick leave buy back benefit goes back decades and in the last 6 1/2 years we not only eliminated the benefit for all new hires with two big exceptions, police and fire continue to accrue this benefit,” Hales said.

Hales noted the city got the cap on sick leave buy back reduced for fire department employees in 2012.

“The issue is now is the veteran employees, those who (still have) this benefit,” Hales noted.

Hales said city staff is working on proposed changes that could be ready for the city council to consider next week, but he’s not sure whether any changes would be upheld in court.

Eric Stock can be reached at [email protected].

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