Title
Elected Officials Pension Eligibility
History
To fully ensure that Orland Park elected officials are not eligible to participate or accrue pension benefits going forward, the board needs to address active resolutions filed with the IMRF that directly impact that goal.
After discussions with KTJ, it’s clear that the Village's current resolution 1908 allows full-time employees to purchase pension credit from IMRF for the time they served in the US Armed Forces. That time may be prior to full-time employment with the Village or while they were active Village employees and on deployment.
Further, there are three important IMRF rules to note:
1. Pension calculations for purchased military time are based on the current rate of pay, not the pay the employee received while on military duty which may have been many years ago and/or much lower than Village pay rates.
2. If the Village allows any employees to buy military time, it applies to all employees who are pension eligible. It cannot exclude elected officials who have been made pension eligible by virtue of resolutions filed with IMRF.
3. The IMRF does not have a formal “opt out” only an “opt in.” This means the current enabling resolution with IMRF keeps one elected position, the office of the Mayor, pension eligible.
Therefore, to ensure we meet the stated intention of a Board majority to end elected officials’ participation in pensions or accruing additional benefits, it is recommended that resolution 1908 be repealed.
Recommended Action/Motion
I move pass Resolution Number________entitled: A RESOLUTION REPEALING RESOLUTION NO. 1908 PASSED BY THE VILLAGE PRESIDENT AND BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE VILLAGE OF ORLAND PARK ON MAY 20, 2019 and file the appropriate forms with IMRF.