Amendment to Open Meetings Act Requires Posting of IMRF Employee Compensation
by Franczek Radelet P.C. on 10/13/2011
Public sector employers need to be aware of changes to the Open Meetings Act (OMA) brought about by Public Act 97-0609 (formerly Senate Bill 1831). The Act, which became effective on August 26, 2011, contains changes in addition to providing new accelerated payments for certain salary increases provided to members of the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund (IMRF). It also amends the OMA to require an employer participating in IMRF to post on its website the total compensation package for each employee that has a total compensation package that exceeds $75,000 per year. Additionally, the new law also requires an employer participating in the IMRF to post on its website, at least six days prior to approval, any employee compensation package in excess of $150,000.
“Total compensation package” is defined in the statute as payment by the employer for salary, health insurance, a housing allowance, a vehicle allowance, a clothing allowance, bonuses, loans, and vacation and sick days granted.
The Ottawa Web Times posted articles both on August 2 and August 3 with listings of LaSalle County towns, particularly Marseilles, Ottawa, Peru, LaSalle and Streator.
Since I live in Peru and many of you do also, this is what the Ottawa Times had to say about the law and Peru.
"Of particular concern is a similar situation in Peru, where Mayor Scott J. Harl said the city initially posted names and compensation to its website, but after review with the attorney general's office, decided it was best to post the point of contact for anyone wishing to obtain salary compensation information. The initial reaction is to question the decision process that resulted in making information less available. Beyond that, Harl was unable to specify where on the city's website the point of contact information was posted and The Times was unable to find it. Harl said the point of contact is City Clerk Dave Bartley at 815-223-0061. Bartley has not been available this week to provide the information."
21 comments:
Hopefully they will post the true compensation off of the w2 forms. It won't be done.
Reality check:
Act 97-0609 became effective on August 25, 201l.
It became effective January 1, 2012.
This is August 2, 2012, 6 months later and I guess now the question is who gives city advice about legal matters?
We do have a city attorney, is it his job to kept the Mayor abreast of new laws in Illinois that apply to municipalities?
Whose shoulders does this fall upon that once again Peru looks like Bedrock and Barney saying to Fred "what is the OMA anyway?"
How would a W-2 form be a means test of the true and entire compensation of a employee. Fringe benefits such as vehicles, free utilities, pensions and insurances, vacations etc., etc, etc. are not included in a W-2 form.
Am I reading or interpreting this wrong? Doesn't it indicate that Mayor Harl had the appropriate information posted on the city web-site and then had it removed? And now, if we want this information we have to FOIA or call the City Clerk? Makes one wonder why!
HARL LIKE ALWAYS WILL ACT STUPID AND PASS THE BUCK. I TAKE THAT BACK THERE IS NO ACTING.
3:40 I assume you made an error when stating employees receive free electricity. If what you said is true, people should get fired after this is reported to the authorities and to the press.
Check the facts with the actual w2 forms. What he will post will not be accurate. Vacations are not indicated on the w2 form because they do not receive monetary value. free utiliies would be criminal, vehicles are part of the work and would only be taxed if used for personal purposes. Pensions, health insurance have a value and should be indicated as such.
I seriously hope people who read this blog are going to give a long and hard thought on who they put in office. For me personally, I don't care what back ground the individual has, as long as they have character and integrity they will receive my vote.
I agree ... if they seem honest and have some integrity and at least can form a sentence he/she has my vote to replace Harl. This acting (haha) Stupid isn't gonna cut it any more!
1:21 p.m. Thank god for a voice of reason! Also for those people who think the government should be run like a business: I say: the government should NOT be ran like a business! Businesses exist to make profit, government should only attempt to have a balanced budget.
11:47 AM
yesterday
Then we need to define character. People running for office seem to say one thing and when elected do something else totally different. At least that is something some of us have experienced in the last 2 Peru elections.
Each elected city official normally states a campaign statement in their promotion to be elected. For example the present Mayor had a campaign slogan of "Change in 09" along with I believe a 12 step advertisement of what he was going to accomplish in office.
It would be a positive step toward improved politics to have each elected officials campaign displayed in the city building so constituents could keep track of their sincerity.
Very similar to "The Man in the Mirror" concept.
The present mayor if elected promised periodical town hall meetings in his campaign. The amount of good which Peru would have reaped if this promise had been fulfilled during the last four years was unlimited.
The electorate must understand the character of the person they are voting for before the election not after he is elected. I say this because the need to know of the persons judgement of whom and where to take advise from and not to take advise from is going to be a great determining factor in their success and the success of those and what they represent.
One very critical aspect of candidates, Mayor and aldermen, in the next election will be their position on hiring a city manager and how much backing they would give the position. If a candidate could prove that he could accomplish the position without a city manager he will have to step forward and prove it before the election.
Anon 11:33 In full agreement. It is time for Peru to step and get professional management. Presently Peru does not have short or long range planning and is not capable of starting any projects without major obstacles because of its greatest ability of shooting itself in the foot.
A city manager would come into town and instill new ideas upon which the town could positively move. Some outdated ideas from long term influences would be moved aside and replaced.
A city manager would be nice IF they came in from out of town and didn't have any previous ties to the community.
Anon 3:12 "Some outdated ideas from long term influences would be moved aside and replaced". FORGET IT!
ANYONE BUT HARL!!
Did we quickly forget about posting complete wages on line?
Defining character is not easy by any means. The simpliest way is to take the candidates business, organizational, education experience. Then you factor in what their personal life in both past and present terms. You watch who they socialize with and who are their circle of friends. You watch what groups of people influence them. Is the candidate a politician or a manager? Typically a town the size of Peru needs a manager not a politician. If you have a person running for office that has political fund raisers and big funds in the war chest and has littered your city with signs, that indicates you have a politician. Don't jump on the candidate that reacts to one phone call or one issue. Look for the one that has the best interest in a variety of issues.
It would be helpful to have the compensation packages available to do comparisons based on city revenues, city size, etc. I found the newstrib article on township salaries very interesting and would like a similar one on city compensation. Those would be some of the first things a city manager would review to find waste and redirect funds to the long term plan.
When are the salaries and the compensation benefits going to be listed and where?
If $75,000 total compensation is the bar, I believe that the City will need to list almost every employee. And what about those PD promotions in the last year before retirmenet? And what about allowing employees to bank unused sick time until they retire?
Finally - what ever happened to that $10,000 Web Page project? I think the Mayor & Clerk got that money in February - five months and no changes!
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