After four months...

(This month's blog has a co-author: fellow Board Member Andrew Rinehart)

With summer officially here, the County Board began addressing some "hot" topics during its meeting of June 26th.  Specifically, the Board (among other things) looked at new precincts and discussed its continued participation in the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund ("IMRF") pension system.

1) New Precincts for Morton and Washington

On the "Consent Agenda," the Board was asked to (and did) approve the addition of precincts to both Morton and Washington Townships.  The hope is that these new precincts best address the growing populations in each area, and in turn, can lead to shorter lines at your polling place(s) during elections.  We greatly appreciated the fact that the Township officials in those areas were advised of the proposed changes to make sure their input was received and considered. 

For your reference, here are the "before" and "after" maps for each area (if you are unable to view them on your computer, let me know, and I can email them to you):

Morton Township

Washington Township

2) Continued Participation in Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund (IMRF)

The Board also considered its continued participation in IMRF.  This is a pension system authorized by state statute for elected officials and employees of various units of government.  Presently, Tazewell County Board members have the right to participate in IMRF (although Andrew and I do not participate).  In light of the (understandably) heightened scrutiny placed on public pension systems, IMRF has begun a series of audits, and have asked government bodies to reassess their continued participation.  Essentially, the governing boards are being asked to: 1) vote to continue participation, but members be prepared to document their time and/or certify in a sworn statement that they work the requisite number of hours on official business per year (1,000 hours for Tazewell County); or 2) vote to discontinue participation.

After some spirited, yet respectful, debate at our meeting, the Board voted 11-10 to table this issue so further questions could be asked of the local IMRF representative.  Both Andrew and I were among the 10 members who were prepared to vote to discontinue participation. We feel that by voting to discontinue participation in the IMRF pension system, we could immediately put an end to the threat of an audit and any potential penalty that could arise for the County, individual board members and ultimately, the citizens of Tazewell County.  

Of course, we encourage you to let us and the other board members that represent you know how you feel about the IMRF pension system for the Tazewell County Board.