Establishing special procedures preceding a vote that could change library employee retirement benefits was discussed by Niles Public Library trustees during a Feb. 18 board meeting.
The library currently offers a 401(k) style retirement plan for its employees. During the first half of 2014, some trustees proposed the possibility of switching over to the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund (IMRF), a public pension fund for municipal government employees.
During the Feb. 18 meeting, Board President Morgan Dubiel proposed changing voting procedures for any vote that would make that change. Under his proposal, the board would be required to hold three separate readings and vote on the issue at the conclusion of the third reading. Dubiel argued that, given that the change would be permanent, the public should have as much input as possible. But trustees Karen Dimond and Linda Ryan argued that the change was unnecessary and created needless burdens.
The IMRF was created to provide for employees of municipalities and school districts that were not covered by other pension funds. Since then, other municipal organizations, such as airport authorities, park districts and libraries joined the system. According to the IMRF database, this includes the Village of Niles government, Niles Park District, Golf-Maine Park District, governments of Maine and Niles townships and all area school districts.
A library can join the IMRF by either a referendum or a board vote. Once it joins, it won’t be able to leave the fund.
If the Niles Public Library joins the IMRF, its employees would be enrolled in the Tier 2 Regular Plan. The library would deduct 4.5 percent of the employee salaries, which would go into their retirement plan accounts. The library would also need to make contributions from its own budget. The amount the library would contribute would be set by IMRF based on employee earnings, actuarial estimates, the library’s finances and how the library would handle pension costs.
Niles Library Marketing Supervisor Sasha Vasilic told the Niles Herald-Spectator that the discussions have been ongoing for several months. Most libraries throughout the state, he explained, were enrolled in IMRF, and some staff members were interested in joining the system.
Ferolo said if the board felt that they already discussed everything they needed the first or second time, they wouldn’t need to keep discussing it, but the public would still be able to comment.
Dubiel argued that a decision like this deserved full public scrutiny.
Ryan expressed reservations, noting that, when making significant changes, the board usually discusses them for several meetings before adopting them.
Dubiel and Trustee Chris Ball voiced concern that the decision to join the IMRF can’t be undone.
Dimond said she wasn’t persuaded.
“Rebuilding the library can’t be undone, but we didn’t have three readings on [the 2013 library renovation project],” she said.
Dimond also questioned the timing, noting that the library board election was less than two months away. She argued that the trustees who get elected should get to decide whether to change the voting procedures.
After the meeting, Dubiel told the Niles-Herald Spectator that he was concerned that, if the library joins the IMRF, the board would lose control of how much it would contribute to retirement plans.
“I think the trend in private sector and government is to move toward employee-owned 401(k) style plans, as opposed to public pensions, which are killing Illinois,” he said. “It’s a big change. Once it changes, it can never be undone.”
Igor Studenkov is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
An earlier version of this story incorrectly referred to the IMRF as a state pension fund.This post was updated at 9:50 a.m. on Feb. 24.
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