By: Diane Benjamin
All the City of Bloomington had to do to prevent paying the penalties below was change when accumulated sick and vacation got paid to employees.
David Hales, Steve Stockton, and Tari Renner refused to change their policies, so the below was paid as a penalty. These employees were allowed to spike their pensions and taxpayers were forced to fund it. (The Council is considering giving Hales another raise!)
The first list is from a story I did in 2016: https://blnnews.com/2016/08/20/proof-the-council-is-immaterial/
This information was received by FOIA from IMRF – Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund. Yesterday I received the updated numbers in the second chart.
Because the City refused to change their policies, taxpayers have been forced to pay:
$1,812,392.45
Obviously government exists for government employees, not you.
Elections matter!
1,597,264.60
+ 2,654.61
+ 212,473.24
__________
$1,812,392.45 Total penalties for pension spiking
.
.
.
Disgusting.
The City should take a look at this from the IMRF website and maybe HR should participate in a webinar. A panel of judges has ruled that stopping pension spiking does not violate the State Constitution. Let’s stay up-to-date and save the City some $$.
https://www.imrf.org/en/employers/employer-resources/pension-spiking-and-the-accelerated-payment-webinar-resources