By: Diane Benjamin This payment was approved at last Monday’s Bloomington City Council meeting: If you still don’t understand what Accelerated IMRF Payments are: SOME Bloomington employees are still allowed to SPIKE their pensions. Sick Days (possibly others too) are accumulated and then the employee is compensated for unused days when they retire. That compensation […]
By: Diane Benjamin https://www.bloomingtonil.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/32213 Some city employees are still spiking pensions. They rack up leave/sick days, cash out a lump sum at retirement, and use it to substantially boost their pensions. State law changed in 2012 to let IMRF (Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund) bill local governments for those spiked pensions—ones the governments never funded extra […]
By: Diane Benjamin Sometimes I think readers know what I mean when I say Accelerated Payments since I’ve been writing about them for years. Since 1 commentor asked what the numbers in this story mean, I will explain in detail: https://blnnews.com/2025/06/05/bloomington-is-still-spiking-pensions-2/ Bloomington employees are allowed to accumulate sick days (Sick Leave Buy Back). They collect […]
By: Diane Benjamin I was off 1 day getting a letter from Public Access closing my Request for Review with IMRF: https://blnnews.com/2025/06/05/bloomington-is-still-spiking-pensions-2/ Facts: -My FOIA was filed with IMRF on April 28th -On May 8th I sent IMRF a Past Due notice and got NO response from them -I filed with Public Access on May […]
By: Diane Benjamin Previous stories: 2/26/24: https://blnnews.com/2024/02/26/guess-who-is-still-spiking-pensions/ 1/28/21: https://blnnews.com/2021/01/28/how-much-was-wasted-allowing-employees-to-spike-pensions/ 10/19/17: https://blnnews.com/2017/10/19/blatant-taxpayer-abuse/ I sent a FOIA request to IMRF on April 28, 2025 after receiving a tip. Normally IMRF is very prompt, this time they weren’t. I even sent a Past Due notice to them on May 8, 2025 and got no response. I received the […]
By: Diane Benjamin That’s to IMRF (Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund) for answering my FOIA request the same day it was filed! I filed it because there is another Accelerated Payment to IMRF on the Bills and Payroll to be approved Monday night. That practice should have ended years ago. If you don’t know what it […]
By: Diane Benjamín Bills and payroll: https://www.bloomingtonil.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/29123 IMRF wouldn’t have required this payment if some pension wasn’t spiked: . . Agenda for tonight: https://d3n9y02raazwpg.cloudfront.net/cityblm/25841e19-7d4f-11ed-9024-0050569183fa-791fe512-602c-4d20-98c8-ecdbbed39134-1678461338.pdf The meeting is mostly budget. PDF page 30 might be interesting. Take a look. .
By: Diane Benjamin I have looked at numbers for many weeks and I’m not close to answers. I’m going to print what I know anyway. From Open The Books: Why did salaries increase substantially in 2020 and go down in 2021? I FOIA’d these salaries from IMRF: Three of the 6 show less income in […]
By: Diane Benjamin FYI: Committee of the Whole meeting information from 8/15/2022 is missing from the City website. Tonight: https://d3n9y02raazwpg.cloudfront.net/cityblm/5a24c4d2-a62d-11ec-8a90-0050569183fa-36dc0a47-f3e1-4a7f-ab53-55227cac04fe-1660859356.pdf The mayor continues to reappoint the same people to Boards and Commissions, tonight the Transportation Commission. As a comment here stated – Renner is still running the City. Spending more of the free money that […]
By: Diane Benjamin On the 7/25/2022 Bloomington Bills and Payroll report was an Accelerated Payment to IMRF for $5,568.15. Since the Sick Leave Buy Back policy was FINALLY phased out, I FOIA’d information on this payment. This is the explanation I received from the City of Bloomington: Their note doesn’t explain what I received from […]
By: Diane Benjamin The below information is from the Illinois Comptroller website: https://tinyurl.com/w25h7sk9 Start with the Total OPEB Liability. In TWO years it increased 42.86%. What is OPEB? Other Post Employment Benefits, in other word promises to retired employees other than a pension. The Town of Normal pays these costs as incurred. Unlike the private […]
By: Diane Benjamin https://www.cityblm.org/home/showpublisheddocument/26961/637679239022670000 Evidently what is charged on Credit Cards in Bloomington is now a secret, details used to be listed: The BCPA event report tab doesn’t even have a spot yet for this year. When do we find out how much each show lost (or made)? In 2 days there is a show […]
By: Diane Benjamin Unit 5 has two unions. One is teachers – UFEA, the other is for professional staff – UFSPA. Both recommended three candidates for the Unit 5 School Board in the April 2021 election. They got two of the three elected: Stan Gozur and Kentrica Coleman. From their websites: http://www.ufspa.org/vote/ In 2023 FOUR […]
By: Diane Benjamin 1) Buying a Rivian? How are you going to charge it? According to this story Rivian will connect you with a company called Qmerit: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/qmerit-ev-charger-installations-homes-141700627.html You can sign up and pay seamlessly on line to get a charging system installed in your home! How much will it cost? https://www.qmeritcharging.com/owner-faqs Installation: $750 to […]
By: Diane Benjamin I’m just going to pick a couple items to write about. Item one is a check written to CIRBN for $256,985.34. Listen to Pam Reece describe this payment at 14:15. It sure sounds to me like the Town of Normal is refunding the contributions made by CIRBN for their 3 employees who […]
By: Diane Benjamin The law was changed in 2012 to require additional contributions to IMRF retirement fund if employees received large payouts that increased their pension at retirement. (accelerated payments) That law was badly needed because cities and employees never contributed to the higher payouts. Since the spiking practice should now be over in Bloomington […]
By: Diane Benjamin http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=21959 Tari Renner’s list of proclamations will take longer than the business portion of the meeting. Public Comment will be interesting because Citizens to Ensure Fair Transit will be back. The Connect Transit budget is scheduled to take effect on July 1st with both towns having oversight. It has yet to be […]
By: Diane Benjamin Agenda and documentation: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=21652 The agenda is slammed with final spending from the budget that expires 4/30/19 and spending from the new budget just passed. Either this never made the news or I missed it, a fire at Lake Bloomington destroyed two vehicles that are being replaced. The fire was in March […]
By: Diane Benjamin Bills and payroll for Monday night: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=21241 6 more employees will be spiking their pensions: This is the penalty for the last group who spiked theirs: The legal budget must be running out of money, this is less than a normal month. I filed a FOIA request for the […]
By: Diane Benjamin Bills and Payroll: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=21131 The BCPA hasn’t posted an event report since my last FOIA. Transparency isn’t part of their game! Most artist fees are $5000 or less, not this one. Do I really need to FOIA every report to get them on the website? Looks like throwing parties for themselves. […]
By: Diane Benjamin City Manager Tim Gleason was on WJBC this morning. The latest example of “leading from behind” is the new pension spiking policy. Non-union employee policy will change AFTER all the union contracts are changed – if they are changed. Those non-union employees are likely management. Instead of setting an example of putting taxpayers […]
By: Diane Benjamin PDF page 336 http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=20206 Sick Leave Buy Back and the resulting pension spiking is finally being addressed (years late) Monday night. The law changed in 2012 to allow IMRF to penalize municipalities who practice pension spiking. Without doing another FOIA to IMRF, I believe the penalties Bloomington has paid are nearing $2,000,000. […]
By: Diane Benjamin Spiking pensions in Bloomington has cost taxpayers over $2,000,000 since 2012. Spiking a pension means collecting more in retirement than employees are entitled to. Your government “gifts” them more retirement at taxpayer expense. The IMRF retirement system started charging for spiking when they realized the pension funds would not remain viable if […]
By: Diane Benjamin “One of the best-funded pension plans in the country is the nearly 90 percent funded Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund, which has long had the ability to enforce payments into the plan.” IMRF funding isn’t a problem. That’s why pension spiking penalties were enacted, the fund couldn’t afford to pay pensions for employees […]
By: Diane Benjamin Bloomington has done nothing to stop employees from “spiking” their pensions. Besides collecting a higher pension for life at taxpayer expense, taxpayers are forced to pay penalties to cover the increased cost. The “spiking” comes from accumulating unused sick days. Bloomington has changed the policy for new hires, but they refuse to […]
By: Diane Benjamin Bills and Payroll: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=17440 How did Alderman Hauman travel to One Voice in Washington DC for half the cost of Renner? https://blnnews.com/2018/04/03/remember-the-one-voice-air-fare/ Is your full service City planning to throw parties? Note it’s an Admin expense. The Springfield Lawyers are running out of budgeted funds, only $33,175 is left for April. (see […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Town of Normal finally decided to post some employee compensation: http://www.normal.org/documentcenter/view/7527 They only included salaries over $75,000, a little over 300 of them. Since they don’t have many more employees than that, it’s close to everybody. I was looking around on OpenTheBooks.com and found some interesting numbers. This information comes […]
By: Diane Benjamin Bloomington changed the pension spiking policy for all new hires after they became liable for the increased cost – that was in 2012. The policy has not been changed for existing employees. Why should any person be entitled to a pension they didn’t earn? Employees are getting paid months before they retire for […]
By: Diane Benjamin The City of Bloomington knew the law had changed on pension spiking in 2012. They changed the policy for NEW hires, but not for existing employees. Here’s the recap: The IMRF retirement fund was tired of paying for spiked pensions because of Sick Leave Buy Back payments that inflated ending salaries. Since […]
By: Diane Benjamin I saw this on the agenda for the Town of Normal last Monday: http://www.normal.org/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/2634 The document goes on to appoint the Deputy City Manager as representative to IMRF. The Town of Normal hasn’t paid the huge penalties Bloomington has from pension spiking. Bloomington has paid $1,877,252.40, in August of 2015 Normal had paid […]
By: Diane Benjamin Tonight’s Bloomington Council packet contains this statement on PDF page 4: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=12802 Now jump to the Bills and Payroll for tonight: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=12794 PDF page 107 The City if THROWING away money by allowing employees to spike their pensions! This payment of $64,859.95 brings the total to $1,877,252.40 since the law was changed in […]
By: Diane Benjamin $135,743.79 + an adjustment of $130.75 got paid to IMRF so one employee can have a fabulous retirement with a spike pension! See page 130 Monday Bills and Payroll That expense was completely avoidable, but employees came before taxpayers. Page 109 – $580 for Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting. […]
By: Diane Benjamin I will be on Cities 92.9 today at 3:30 with Ben Yount to discuss the future of BlnNews. Now for last night’s Bloomington City Council meeting: Bring in the CLOWNS! Oops, they were already there! Starting at 1:05, and ending 45 minutes later, the Council droned on about spending $300,000 at The […]
By: Diane Benjamin From Monday’s Bills and Payroll: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=12446 Employees are still allowed to SPIKE their pensions by getting paid for accumulated sick and vacation days. TWO courts have recently ruled that employers do not have to allow this, of course the rules haven’t been changed. It just cost you another $32,106.66. The City is […]
By: Diane Benjamin I was looking for something else when I came across this again on my computer: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/watchdog/ct-municipal-pension-padding-met-20150816-story.html The story is from August 2015. It is where we found out for the FIRST time that City employees were allowed to spike their pensions, and then taxpayers had to make additional payments to IMRF (the […]
By: Diane Benjamin The daily rag has a new story about pension spiking at the City of Bloomington. In an effort to deflect from the City’s unethical practice of allowing employees to spike their pensions with unused sick days, they even call the practice legal. It is legal because Bloomington’s Mayor, City Manager, and Council […]
By: Diane Benjamin I few days ago I posted how much citizens of Bloomington have been forced to pay because City employees are allowed to spike pensions: https://blnnews.com/2016/08/20/proof-the-council-is-immaterial/ Only $1,597,264.60! That’s money that could have been spent for the benefit of citizens, instead of employees. When I did a FOIA request for Bloomington, I included […]
By: Diane Benjamin I’ve now got proof that Bills and Payroll, approved by the Council at regular meetings, is meaningless. Nobody is holding checks waiting for the Council vote. I wonder how many aldermen even read what they are asked to approve! If you don’t know what Bills and Payroll looks like, see this webpage. […]
By: Diane Benjamin See Bills and Payroll for Monday night – the LAST page: http://www.cityblm.org/index.aspx?page=242&parent=9535 Remember how Bloomington was exposed in the Chicago Tribune paying massive penalties for allowing employees to SPIKE their pensions? http://blnnews.com/2015/08/26/imrf-what-did-hales-know-and-when/ Remember when the Budget Task Force recommended fixing the problem but never did? Well, it just cost you another $122,735.32! […]
By: Diane Benjamin Name a problem we face today not caused by government. Bad roads, invasion by illegals, minimal economic growth, flat incomes, high taxes, unfunded liabilities, unfunded mandates. Another endless list. Tari’s mug is in today’s paper saying Springfield has to fix problems caused by local government. If the City never allowed employees to […]
