Pointing to Algonquin Township Road District Payroll Spiking to Increase Pension Bases Under Bob Miller

Published by Illinois Leaks and republished with permission.

Algonquin Township Road District – Why taxpayers may have to pay for a very long time

McHenry Co. (ECWd) –

The Algonquin Township Road District vacation policy was basically a use it or lose it program.

Bob and Anna May Miller on vacation.

There was no language in the policy that permitted vacation or sick days to be converted to pay.

To show you how out of control things were under the Bob Miller empire, let’s look at just two pay periods for his wife and how these actions will affect every taxpayer moving forward unless she is convicted of a felony that is linked to the job she was performing.

If that happens, no pension!

Anna May Miller pay – April 6 – April 19. 2017

Normally, when a person is paid for sick time, they don’t go to work.

When they get paid for vacation days, they are not at work.

When they are paid for a holiday they are not at work.

Keep in mind, I did qualify the last statements with, “normally”.

During the above-referenced pay period, Anna May was paid for 120 hours that all point to a person not being at work.

Ninety-two hours of vacation time – $2,760.00,

Twenty hours of sick time – $600.00, and eight hours of Holiday time –$240.00.

Keeping in mind a two week pay period only has 80 hours of regular work time, of which we already know, according to payroll, Anna May should not be at work for 120 hours.

We can only wonder how she got paid for Seventy-two hours of regular time-$2,160.00 and 10.75 hours of overtime –$483.00

So in one pay cycle, Anna May was paid $6,243.75.

Her second to last pay cycle followed the same pattern with the exception of no Holiday time.

That pay cycle netted her $6,757.50.

The total spiked amount for those two pay cycles was $6,960.00.

For those that have not figure this out yet, this is known as pay spiking before you leave employment.

A well-known game played by public employees across this state that can boost their pension payouts at the expense of the taxpayer.

In Anna May’s case, these two paychecks were not her last one.

She received a final payment for fifty-six hours of work and of course, one more hour of overtime before she left her employment.

The point in mentioning that last payment is because her lump sum pay spikes were not paid for anything earned after termination of employment, which is key.

“Any compensation, including lump sum payments for accrued vacation and sick time, is IMRF earnings and must be reported to IMRF if paid during the employment period or in the month following the month of termination.”  If paid after the month following the month of termination, it is not reportable to IMRF – (IMRF Vacation and Sick time payouts)

So looking at the IMRF rules on this, everyone now knows that these pay spikes are reportable to IMRF as “earnings” and those earnings are how her pension payouts will be calculated.

For those that are not aware of who pays those pensions, it is you, the taxpayer.

In this case, it appears the taxpayer gets to pay an artificially spiked pension payout under the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund rules.

This pay spiking was also done for Douglas Helman with his third to the last paycheck.

His spike amounted to an extra $7,869.60 that are reported earnings to IMRF.

We can only wonder what the State’s Attorney’s office may do with all the things that have been exposed in Algonquin Township.

Our work is funded entirely thru donations and we
ask that you consider donating at the below link. 


Comments

Pointing to Algonquin Township Road District Payroll Spiking to Increase Pension Bases Under Bob Miller — 18 Comments

  1. I continue to question why a salaried employee gets overtime.

    Was she salaries or hourly?

  2. IMRF allows service credit for unused, unpaid sick time when you retire.

    Be interesting to know if any service credit was taken for this individual.

  3. Rotton criminals!

    When is the McHenry County States Atty, Patrick Kenneally gonna grow some balls and do the right thing?

  4. There was no sick time policy.

    All vacation time used it or lose it, which means April 1st, 2017 is when they start earning it again.

    The courts have ruled that unused vacation time is on a prorated bases, which means they had not earned enough to get what they got.

  5. He will not indict and we need to know why?????

    We all should insist on a special prosecutor to investigate our SA unwillingness to do his duties.

  6. More is never enough to satiate the insatiable greed of the Miller Clan.

  7. While taking the benefits you’re entitled to at retirement does increase your pension a tad, that is not really what spiking is.

    Spiking is intentionally high increase in wages like a bonus to retire, or extreme wage increases in the last few years that exceed cost of living raises normally given.

    Taking a payout of your benefits at the end of employment is not a artificially spiked deal.

    Seems like Kirk misused the term Spiked for political gain, like his misuse of the word Restricted on a earlier post.

    Come on, it’s all about the game after all.

  8. Advice from an idiot that doesn’t understand how to use a dictionary or a thesaurus but totally makes up his own meanings for words – now, that’s spiking.

  9. Actually, I think that the nob is correct in this instance (wonders never cease).

    There’s nothing wrong with considering all the normal benefits that an employee “cashes out” with so long as it’s a written and approved policy, and not a “one off” deal for a select individual. In this case, it appears to stink to high heaven simply because of the numbers crammed into one pay period and it may well be wrong/illegal/unconscionable on a number of points.

    In the bad old days, “spiking” occurred something like this: The pension plan based the pension on last day’s pay or last pay check.

    Goober worked 25 years and his pay that last year was $1,000 every two weeks.

    THAT should have been his base upon which his pension was calculated.

    The game players started thinking, “Hey, Goober’s a good guy, my buddy, my relative so let’s give him a good sendoff.

    I hereby promote him for his last two weeks or day to Superintendent of Silly Shit and bump his salary to $5,000 every two weeks.”

    NOW his pension is based on a percentage of $5,000 of which he has been paid exactly one pay check.

    Fortunately for Algonquin Twp suckers, er, taxpayers, IMRF sets the basis for the pension at the highest three or four year average of the last ten years of the employees tenure.

    So, yes, Anna May’s and Booby’s pension WILL be a higher amount (until or unless they are convicted of felonies), but if not, this screwing around with the payroll in the last month or so will not have a longstanding affect.

    It’s a quick and dirty money grab right here and now.

    The only lingering effect will be the bad taste in everyone’s mouth over their poor choices at the polls.

    Other pension plans were slow to come to the party, but IMRF instituted good policies long ago which is why they are one of the, if not the most, solvent public pension programs in this state.

  10. I just checked the IMRF site and it IS the average of the highest 48 consecutive months in the last 10 years. That $7,869 translates into about $123/mo extra.

    It’s not chump change but not as bad as it could be.

    And, if it had been provided for by law and their own rules, totally legal.

    Bottom line: If it was due them it’s not a spike. If it’s NOT due them, it’s a crime even if it’s only an additional penny a month.

  11. They corrected some of the problems with IMRF, but the percentages of payouts should be reduced, max of 75% to 70% and the whole table should be changed to mirror that change.

    The state pension fund needs the most change from 80% down to 70% max.

  12. IMRF is close to 100 percent funded.

    The rest are way way below that.

  13. She is a thief from Canada and thought she could play her own game and Miller is non educated has clearly been proven I’m sure the son in
    Laws and there sad children have many regrets happy days to come all there toys are now outdated which means they may have to pay like everyone else game on keep digging Amazon back up anyone?

  14. She is a thief from Canada and thought she could play her own game and Miller is non educated has clearly been proven I’m sure the son in
    Laws and there sad children have many regrets happy days to come all there toys are now outdated which means they may have to pay like everyone else game on keep digging Amazon back up anyone?

    Run them out of town

  15. Under what circumstances is it legal for a person to be compensated for salary + overtime + vacation + sick time + holiday pay, for the same hours?

    I’ve never heard of such a thing.

    The Miller’s have stolen from taxpayer’s in every imaginable way.

  16. I wonder if the same sick time was also used for IMRF service credit towards the pension calculation.

    I am not saying it was but probably should be checked.

  17. @Murmuring Mutton

    Well, Miller always claimed to be innovative, didn’t he?

    Look at the other township road districts hiring him as a consultant (and once you’ve identified them, start investigating them!)

    @CP

    Good thought.

    As bold as some of their other acts appear to be, it wouldn’t surprise me.

    Gasser should be able to pull those records from IMRF easily enough.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *