John Jung chairs the Human Resources Committee.
Appearing today on the agenda of the Human Resources Committee is a resolution to take McHenry County Board members out of the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund.
State Rep. Jack Franks, in his run-up to a candidacy to take over the County Board Chairmanship, convinced the IMRF to make an example of McHenry County Board members by asking them to show when they had worked the required 1,000 hours (basically half of a regular 2020 hour work year) to earn their pensions.
The agenda says the following:
Board / Committee Action Requested: Amending Resolution R-9802-12-29 to remove County Board Members from participating in the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund (IMRF) effective 12/01/16.
Background and Discussion: On February 17, 1998 the County Board of McHenry County, Illinois approved Resolution R-9802-12-29 allowing all elected officials (including County Board Members) to participate in IMRF, if they met the 1,000 hours or more per year in required performance of duty. As pension reform has moved forward and the documenting of the required time has become more challenging, the County Board has made the decision to eliminate current and future County Board members from participating in the IMRF pension program effective December 1, 2016.
Impact on Budget (Revenue; Expenses, Fringe Benefits): Future budgets will be reduced by the County’s share of contributions for participating County Board Members.
The most relevant parts of the accompanying resolution follow:
WHEREAS, the current sitting County Board has decided to eliminate current and future board members from participating in IMRF due to the challenges of accounting for all hours spent on addressing County business, both on and off the Government Center campus effective December 1, 2016.
NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, by this County Board of McHenry County, Illinois that Resolution R-9802-12-29 is hereby amended to remove McHenry County Board Members from the list of elected officials eligible to participate in IMRF effective December 1, 2016;
The meeting is at 8:15 on June 2nd.
Wisdom exists on the MCB.
And so boys and girls, as the opening shots of the DEMOCRAT plan to take over the County Board are just being fired, the single hinge pin issue of DEMOCRAT Lying Jack Franks appears as a sinking ship slowly slipping beneath the waves.
But wait ……….. your faithful corespondent predicts that anyone as devious as DEMOCRAT Lying Jack Franks will find a way to resurface in his attempt to seize power.
Stay tuned.
I see him presenting this as a victory for him.
He sheds light on an issue that otherwise would have stayed in the dark, and in turn the county board immediately drops from IMRF.
The question will inevitably be raised “would the board have dropped from IMRF had Frank’s not shined the light on them?”
And in all actuality, it’s a pretty legitimate question.
I will say I am thankful that John Jung went through the process of doing this the right way.
John, and others, have been working on this in the background for awhile and is doing this the right way instead of retiring State Representative who is just trying some political stunt.
This is a political stunt by State Representative Jack Franks in my opinion.
McHenry County is not dysfunctional like Jack Franks wants you all to believe.
We have always passed a budget
We have held the levy flat 4 years previous to 2015
We CUT our budget by $3 million dollars in 2016
We CUT our levy by 2.72 million dollars in 2016
We CUT our extraction in 2016 as well
Our staff in McHenry County is consistently recognized nationwide for its superior performance
We are not perfect.
We can improve… and personally, I promise you we will.
We on this McHenry County Board, all of us, as much as we personally may disagree with each other on issues, have always come together to do the people’s business.
Pensions have been in the works for awhile and I must confess to you all I wish we would have done this sooner; specifically, come out earlier publicly against pensions.
However, what I can state to all of you now unequivocally is that there is wisdom in quietly going through the legal hoops to make sure that when we pass this resolution it doesn’t come back to bite us.
If one looks closely at this issue you will see the McHenry County Board is is not alone.
The truth of the matter is that Jack Franks has a higher annual pension liability than every McHenry County Board Member… combined.
If Mr. Franks is truly concerned about the taxpayers of McHenry County and Illinois he will renounce is pension immediately, convert his contribution to a 401k, and set the example for other state representatives to follow…
I would note Mr. Franks once said he would term limit himself back 1998 for three terms… nine terms later with a $58,000+ pension later he is going to call it quits.
The annual liability for the McHenry County Board is $43,200 annually.
Your McHenry County Board is not the problem.
Springfield and Mike Madigan are the problem.
Jack Franks has always voted for Mike Madigan.
So by all means if you want Cook County power politics that practice voter deception and thrive political stunts that Mike Madigan uses then Mr. Franks is your guy.
We are McHenry County and I feel we can do better with Mike Walkup.
GIDDY UP and Be Blessed,
Andrew Gasser
If you want ANYONE to believe this would have happened without the embarrassment being caused by Franks you are out of your tree.
I wonder Mr. Gasser why you are not calling on others- say Cal to give up their pension?
Give up the healthcare and I will be impressed.
Never a victory for Franks, plenty of people have been
Working on this issue.
All Franks did was get PUBLICLY nasty & aggressive towards The board as a political maneuver.
The dysfunctional person here is Jack Franks.
Who are you Inish?
I am telling anyone who is reading this blog it would have happened.
More than a few of the board members were thinking about this LONG before the political stunt ever occurred.
And I have called on others to give it up – specifically Mike Tryon.
I did so last week in fact.
The bottom line here is that in McHenry County for too long we have had anonymity with our politics.
The leaders of the party played “gotcha” politics and people just danced around the issues.
Good people with good ideas bring them to the public only to have them cut down privately by party bosses and publicly by the likes of “pablo” or “Tom”.
We have great new leaders in this party that are shining the light on things like nepotism, pensions, and taxes.
We get our clocks cleaned at committee meetings but the committeemen have our backs and we are so thankful for them.
The political wheels can only move so quickly.
Elections occur only so often.
The new committeemen and the new leadership actually work together and things will get done.
Sadly, some electeds are not on the same page yet…but we will get there.
In the meantime, under the Leadership of John Jung we have a real plan and real, meaningful resolution that will never make the headlines but will actually get something done.
More importantly though – the voters and the party will see what we have done and while they demand much more (and they deserve it) we hope they see that what we have done is not some smoke and mirrors act, but instead we actually fixed the problem.
McHenry County – your board will eliminate an estimated $43,200 a year in pension liability via IMRF.
Jack Franks could eliminate an additional $58,000 plus if he eliminates his own.
If Mike Tryon refuses his pension that is an additional $52,000.
Between us all we can reduce the annual pension liability
Like I said elsewhere Inish people hiding behind screen names doesn’t do anyone any good.
Hopefully you will pop tall, stand up for muster, and bring more to the fight. We will accomplish so much more together.
http://www.nwherald.com/2016/01/18/letter-it-is-time-to-stand/aytdn3o/
Respectfully,
Andrew Gasser
County Board District 1
Tax Fighter
Overall Nice Guy
Thanks John Jung for taking this step to a more fiscally friendly McHenry County!
Maybe Lying Jack can get his cohort at IMRF to put forward the following information:
Who is currently getting a pension as a former McHenry County Board member?
How much is the pension?
What was the County and employee amount of total contribution to IMRF?
Who is currently a sitting Board member who will be qualified (vested) for a pension?
AND What is the total amount of money that will have been transferred from the McHenry County taxpayers to IMRF between 1998 and Dec. 1, 2016?
BTW is 1998 not the year lyin Jack was first elected to the State Legislature?
Next step: ELIMINATE MEDICAL INSURANCE FOR ALL ELECTED OFFICIALS.
To John Jung,
Thank you for handling the pension issue the correct way.
We The People appreciate it.
Inish,
You need to take that aluminum foil off your head every once in a while.
Last time I looked, Cal is not even running for one public office.
No reason to ask him to give up his pension.
Your boy, Jackie, is running for at least two public offices so far., while he, 1%er that he is, claims to be a fighter for the poor and downtrodden.
We are just asking him to stop talking about his alleged commitment and show us how serious he is with actions.
“Inish” and do you think for one minute that Jack Franks would be going after Cournty Board IMRF if he wasn’t running a campaign for County Board Chair???
Great job John Jung!
This is an example voters want. While politicians collect pensions and their own social security and benefits, they try to break the unions because of pensions.
The Illinois pension problem has put Illinois in a financial mess.
To ask unions and government workers to convert to a 401k plan is horrendous when the politicians collect pensions!
Pensions sadly have been abused and the funds for the government pensions have been mishandled by government officials by borrowing against them.
As a result the compound interest is not accumulating.
John Jungs work is perfect at this time, except all politicians pensions should be converted to 401ks like the average voter.
That would help convince the average voter that the politicians understand their problem.
As for Lying Jack Franks…
Let’s see, is he trying to collect a second government pension?
I wonder how much Franks and his buddy Madigan have due in pensions?
We have too many politicians in the job for the pay, pensions and benefits.
How many would leave the political scenario if the benefits were removed?
Maybe it would clean house of the career politicians and bring new motivated people to replace them.
As for 401ks, have them with up to 6 % matching if the balance the budget and clean up the deficit along with the percentage would vary by the cost of living.
The private world has moved forward. Now it’s time for the politicians to join the real world.
I looked at my tax bill about 8% goes toward pensions, with the biggest at 2.5% going to Algonquin Village Pensions.
That’s a 1/2% more than the teachers and over 2% more than the firefighters.
The county pensions is at 1.5% and township road and BR pension at .08%.
Going after the board trustees is small, but a start.
Who would like their ILL real estate tax bill 8% smaller?
That is how much extra we are paying annually for pensions!
Granted, about 8% is the total pensions.
After conversion and matching 401k funds there still would be savings.
John Jungs plan is just a start.
We have lots more low hanging fruit to go after.
It’s time trim the budget and go for all government pensions.
Now that would open the voters eyes and help the States financial problems
No way this would have happened without Franks.
No way the MCB was working behind the scenes on this.
What else is going on behind the scenes?
This coming from the MCB member who prides himself on transparency(hypocrite).
Meanwhile, the MCB is still getting taxpayer funded IMRF without having to prove they’re working for it.
John Jung – Good job in getting in front on this pension issue.
Martha
How many other counties or jobs or functions have the same issue?
Is he attacking any Dem controlled counties with the same issue?
Is Franks putting the same level of attack on the other counties with the same issue, or is it just a coincidence that he is focusing his attack on McHenry County, where, at least for now, he appears to be going after the Chairman position?
Keep in mind, he has 9 terms of experience with Dem machine politics in Illinois, the worst in the nation, and he is connected to both the Springfield and Chicago regimes.
Do you actually know precisely what the requirements are for these pensions or are you just a Flemming (Franks Lemming) and believe whatever press release is put out by the machine?
Just curious…
What I was pointing out is that Andrew is a hypocrite.
I think the IMRF issue is about right and wrong not GOP or DEM.
Martha is right!
And gas bag gasser is a hypocrite.
Gas bag gasser is the grand stander who is powerless and meaningless.
No one likes gas bag gasser.
Board members hate gas bag gasser.
It’s always about gas bag.
That jerk gets a pension himself and now he tells everyone else screw you, you cannot have one?
Hypocrite gas bag.
And thank you Martha for calling out gas bag for the jerk that he is.
We need Jack Franks to real in the GOP.
Thank you, John Jung.
We need strong leaders who will do things to try to save our state, not politicians, like Franks, who desires to create another layer of government.
How long before the chairman needs a secretary, an assistant and who knows how many more employees.
To the likes of Inish, Dirty Gasser. Martha etc….
Your posts are worthless, if you can’t put your name behind your words then it shows how little a person you are and that you have no integrity.
If you want to insult or accuse someone, please put in your name behind your words.
Be accountable!
We will get this done.
Just watch.
John thank you for taking the initiative to move forward on this matter. I fully support your efforts.
Thank you John Jung for getting out front on this issue.
As a McHenry County taxpayer, we need more folks taking on issues that will benefit all of us.
The following is the email reply I received from Mr. Kosiba when I asked him to investigate whether other part time officials qualify for pension benefits–including Township Officials:
TO BE ELIGIBLE FOR IMRF PARTICIPATION, AN INDIVIDUAL ( ELECTED OR NON-ELECTED ) NEEDS TO SATISFY AN HOURLY STANDARD OF EITHER 600 HOURS OR 1000 HOURS.
IN OTHER WORDS, IF A PERSON IS EXPECTED TO WORK 600 HOURS IN A 12 MONTH PERIOD, THEY ARE REQUIRED TO PARTICPATE IN IMRF.
PLEASE NOTE: IT IS THE “expected” HOURS not the “actual” HOURS WORKED.
THE IMRF BOARD OF TRUSTEES REQUIRES THE GOVERNING BODY OF UNITS OF GOVERNMENT WITH PAID ELECTED OFFICIALS TO PASS A RESOLUTION IDENTIFYING WHICH ELECTED OFFICIALS SATISFY THE HOURLY STANDARD.
CURRENTLY THERE ARE PART-TIME ELECTED OFFICALS PARTICIPATING IN IMRF WHO SATISFY THE HOURLY STANDARD.
AS YOU MAY KNOW, QUESTIONS HAVE ARISEN REGARDING WHETHER SOME ELECTED OFFICALS SATISFY THE HOURLY STANDARD EVEN IF THE GOVERNING BAORD HAS PASSED THE RESOLUTION.
IMRF AUDITS PARTICIPATING EMPLOYERS ( THERE ARE OVER 2970 DIFRFERENT EMPLOYERS ).
IMRF ALSO INVESTIGATES PROBLEMS BROUGHT TO OUR ATTENTION.
THAT BEING SAID, IMRF IS WORKING TO ENSURE THAT INDIVIDUALS ARE PROPERLY REPORTED TO IMRF.
Thank you, Sir, for your leadership!