By: Diane Benjamin
The City of Bloomington does not act in the best interests of the citizens paying the bills. They act in the best interest of whatever votes can be bought, especially employees.
The City will not be ending pension spiking any time soon because Tari doesn’t want to. In 2012 they ended the program for all new hires, but not for existing employees. The last time it was discussed at Council around 250 more employees are still eligible to increase their pensions by getting paid for unused sick time. Since the City allows them to get paid months before they retire, the employees can pretend their salaries are higher, thus their pensions are higher.
Changing the policy for the City of Springfield has gone through the court system and the courts have ruled Springfield does not have to allow this practice. Tari claimed the labor unions were still challenging and he doesn’t want to incur legal fees. In other words, he would prefer to pay off employees with higher pensions than pay lawyers. The total cost to taxpayers is now close to $2,000,000. Tari claimed the people with the biggest pension spikes have already retired. True, but the City knew in 2012 and did nothing. He did claim the City was going to look at the “rich” benefits, which he corrected to “generous” benefits. Under Obamacare the benefits are SOOOO Rich, they qualify for a 40% Cadillac tax. The wonderful federal government keeps delaying the tax, another reason ObamaCare is failing. That tax was part of the funding.
Tari made these comments during the Town Hall meeting last Tuesday at the BCPA. The Facebook live video can be seen on my Facebook page.
Earlier the “welcoming ordinance” came up. Tari wants it because it makes people feel good. They can report crime and not have to worry about being deported. That explains why the Oath of Office was changed to leave out the important parts, silly things like the Constitutions.
I wonder how long it took Tari to come up with President Obama had to retake the oath? A couple of words were stumbled over, so he did retake it the NEXT day. SIX Council members took out most of the required oath on MAY 1st. Just how is that the same Mayor, especially since I had to expose it – not you?
This is the oath they are required to take:
This is what the took:
Need more proof the City of Bloomington operates only so their employees benefit?
One more email from the chili cook-off, Beth Oakley is the person who put Tari’s girlfriend’s plane ticket to Japan on her P-Card. She was involved with the event and an employee’s retirement party the ENTIRE day:
No taxpayer business conducted!
(Unless her job is to make employees happy).
Oakley’s total compensation for 2016 was $58,662.36 .
http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=12646
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“to the best of my abilities”…thats a pretty low bar.
“So help me God” means nothing if you’re not a christian.
Based on how I see so-called Christians behave, it means nothing if you claim to be a Christian either. Here’s hoping an atheist gets elected. All for it. Religion just complicates things.
You mean a Democrat? Please explain. Are you talking local?
You have no proof why the Oath was changed, only assertions. See if you can get someone to corrobate your assertion. You have nothing to refute Jurgen’s explanation except speculation.
Other than history! Remember when Wire Transfers were mysteriously no longer approved at Council? Gee, we would have known about the pension spiking months if not years sooner if that “mistake” hadn’t been made. How about the Open Meetings Act violations they have been found guilty of? The list is endless where laws are immaterial.
@ Conscience < The sky is green. It is always green. Even though the colors yellow and blue are a part of green, the sky is green. If you do not believe that the sky is green then of course you've engaged yourself in speculation. Seeing with your own eyes is speculation as per your previous assertion. BTW Jurgens is a lawyer that manipulates wording to assert his case. That's what lawyers do, so to challenge Jurgens as a lawyer is what the next lawyer or concerned citizen is going to do. Suggest you find yourself a new hobby.
@sticky bean. Except the sky is blue and there is evidence to prove it. I can look at the sky and see it is blue. I know that because air molecules scatter more blue light than red light from the sun. It is corroborated by thousands of scientists. That is not speculation but fact. The history of Jurgens and the council in itself is irrelevant because you still have to provide evidence that the Oath was changed to purposely exclude references to the constitution. If the clerk’s office did so previously, your assertion looks better, but you still need to prove it. Really your reply to me is quite honestly one of the most ill-informed if not ultra-hyperbolic diatribes I have ever read. Not only that it proves my earlier point that Diane is lacking evidence. I take it you are not familiar with the Argument by Assertion fallacy. I think I’ll deploy Hitchen’s razor at this point and call it done. God still loves you Sticky and so do I.
Prove it? Put the clerk under oath? Who exactly is going to do that. If it quacks like a duck . . .
A nationwide search for a new clerk didn’t happen by accident!
Pressure is being put on Council to change the policy for pension spiking. Jurgen’s supposedly will bring the change to them in January. Jurgens did say something about “fair labor practices.” Seems to me, if the practice of pension spiking is not explicitly part of the employees’ contract, the change should be straightforward. If the City of Springfield can manage to remediate the problem, Bloomington should be able to use them as a model.
Currently, the “average accelerated payment” for IMRF members is about $75,000.00 per employee—250 x $75,000.00 = $18,750,000.00–nearly $20M of taxpayer dollars lost over the next 5-10 years due to unethical practices. FYI, the Police and Fire DO NOT spike their pensions—there is more integrity within that department.
The last couple have been lower than that, but that doesn’t include the $300,000+ for one employee previously!
I can only base my conclusions on history. Ok Renner, show me the totals of future retirees to support your argument that the cost of litigation is higher.
The most recent retiree’s Acelerated Payment was about $30,000.00 and was taken from the Police benefit budget because the IMRF penalty was not budgeted.
If they make no attempt to stop the constant employee party planning, why would they stop pensions spiking – or as Renner said “so called pension spiking”
Public knowledge of the continued pension spinking and its cost plus citizen pressure to stop the practice. There is no excuse!! Renner was a bit uncomfortable when the topic was raised. The pension spiking costs the taxpayer significantly more money than party planning.
One of two more party planning posts coming!