A press release from State Senator Pam Althoff:
New law enforces public disclosure of severance agreements
Chicago—All severance agreements involving government employees will now be subject to public scrutiny and investigation after Gov. Bruce Rauner signed legislation sponsored by State Sen. Pamela Althoff (R-McHenry) into law today.
A bill signing by Governor Bruce Rauner. State Senator Pam Althoff is on the left and State Rep. Margo McDermed is on the right..
Walt Packard floating gently down from his McHerny County College presidency. There was no problem getting his severance agreement.
“House Bill 303 strengthens current law by closing a loophole that has allowed parties to keep certain severance settlements confidential,” said Sen. Althoff.
“Under this new law, all settlement agreements will be subject to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests and public review.”
In 2013, Sen. Althoff and Rep. Renée Kosel (R-New Lenox) started the discussion by introducing legislation that would increase transparency in the severance negotiations process. House Bill 303 is a similar proposal that gained more momentum after a lucrative severance package was awarded to the College of DuPage President Robert Breuder earlier this year, said Sen. Althoff. A closed meeting held by college trustees resulted in a $763,000 settlement for Breuder with little to no public review.
“Increasing transparency and restoring public trust in Illinois government have been my top priorities since day one and I am proud to have sponsored this new law with Rep. Margo McDermed (R-Mokena) that will achieve those goals,” said Sen. Althoff.
A severance agreement is defined as “a mutual agreement between any public body and its employee for the employee’s resignation in exchange for payment by the public body.”
Supported by the Better Government Association (BGA) and Associated Beer Distributors of Illinois (ABDI), House Bill 303 applies to all public bodies which include legislative, executive, administrative or advisory bodies of the state. It also applies to public universities, colleges, townships, cities and municipal units of government.
The two College of DuPage board members running for re-election that voted for the $750K+ Breuder severance package were voted out of office, and a reform majority of 4-3 is now on the board.
The COD Board just fired two administrators in the finance department, who now plan to sue the board.
Next up, collective bargaining agreements, administrator contracts, budgets at the taxing district level, and any legislative pension and retiree healthcare benefit hikes should be subject to voter approval.
Plus the pension sentence added to the Illinois State Constitution on December 15, 1970 should be repealed in its entirety via constitutional amendment which could occur via ballot referendum, so legislative pension benefit hikes that occurred while pensions were already underfunded can be clawed back.
The 40 word sentence that should be repealed reads:
“Membership in any pension or retirement system of the State, any unit of local government or school district, or any agency or instrumentality thereof, shall be an enforceable contractual relationship, the benefits of which shall not be diminished or impaired.”
That sentence did not result in better funded pensions.
Rather, that sentence resulted in legislative pension benefit hikes to underfunded pensions, and the diversion of annual pension contribution funding to other pet projects including salary and benefit hikes.
The sentence did not and does not work, so get rid of it.
Instead the pension sentence emboldens politicians to play the above games because there is a guarantee that pensions will be paid.
Except when the politicians and public sector unions and administrators work to change the rules of the game and expect taxpayers to never catch on; guess what; maybe the taxpayers will catch on.
And when the politicians and public sector unions and administrators think that even if the taxpayers do catch on, to bad, to sad, the pension sentence forces taxpayers to pay unlimited hiked pensions, guess what.
There might be voter backlash and the voters might change the rules back.
Do onto others as you would want others to do onto you.
What goes around comes around.
Thank you Mark for continuing to highlight one of the major problems leading to the current exodus from Illinois.
The State Constitution was approved by the voters.
The voters are never told the downside of Constitutional changes, referendums or even bond issues.
There are always ‘unintended consequences’ which proponents of ‘change’ refuse to mention.
Currently there is a push to have referendums issued for Consolidation of Townships.
Here again, the voters have never been given the downside of the Consolidation; unless they attended a recent Task Force or Board meeting and had their ears open.
Consolidation is guaranteed to increase property tax.
It was an ‘ill advised’ notion by people who refuse to accept the major negative impacts of Consolidation.
Any referendum should contain language to explain any negative impact of such referendum.
The Illinois pension mess will continue until we get an adequate number of legislators in Springfield to pass legislation for a Constitutional amendment.
However, that will be difficult due to current Prevailing Wage laws which FEED the union PACs.
Maybe we first need to repeal the Prevailing wage laws?
An example of feeding the Union PACs can be found:
http://www.elections.state.il.us/CampaignDisclosure/ItemizedContrib.aspx?FiledDocID=581107&ContributionType=Other+Receipts&Archived=True&OrderBy=LastorOnlyName-AtoZ&ItemizedContribFrom=D2Quarterly.aspx
Intl Union of Operating Eng Local 150 State County & Local Area PAC received $118,291.58 in union dues during the 2md quarter this year.
Gee, didn’t we all (obviously only some) learn in 7th grade civics class that the function of the Bill of Rights and State Constitution in our “free” Republic is to list those specific actions government cannot do to its’ citizens rather than what it will do or promise “for them”. . . .
Those IL Representative who approved the pension “goody bag” in IL State Constitution obviously missed civics class on this day.
Then again, Justice Roberts et al approved O’Bama Care as an individual right afforded under U.S. Constitutional.
Maybe it is me who is in need of re-indoctrination.
Yikes, this State, this nation is in deep trouble not only because of the ignorant people we continue and will continue to elect, but because we ourselves are ignorant of who we are and what are founding document envisioned we were to become as a nation!
BTW, that is Rep. Margo McDermed’s photo.
Kosel had nothing to do with this HB 303 as she retired from the legislature after racking up enough years for her pension
Rather see a Perp Walk photo of those responsible for the ‘loophole’ in the first place.
If you want to stop money in politics.
The Koch billionaires are giving one billion dollars to republican presidential candidates.
What will they owe the Kochs back?
Whatever the operating engineers have for lobbying is miniscule compared to corporate welfare tax breaks.
http://chicago.suntimes.com/politics/7/71/513207/rauners-100-million-corporate-tax-breaks-drawing-fire
http://www.nbcchicago.com/blogs/ward-room/Madigan-Signals-
Opposition-to-Corporate-Tax-Breaks-235599751.html
Tell Rauner no more corporate tax breaks in Illinois that come out of taxpayers pockets.
Same with George Soros Karma, so save your breath!
This is good news, NO MORE COD type BS IN SCHOOLS, COLLEGES, COURTHOUSES ETC!!! Rauner is cleaning up IL!
For all those who cry about taxes.
According to Forbes, Wisconsin has the 5th worst taxes and Illinois is not in the top 10.-
If you cry about your property taxes blame LOCAL school boards,etc you were locally elected.
http://www3.forbes.com/business/the-worst-states-for-taxes/10/
I do blame our local schools and local Government offices..
The public schools are completely out of control with salaries and pensions all while not performing well on top of it.
They have become an unregulated gestapo with school boards that consist of former teachers and friends and family of the school board.
Ridiculous.