Resident Tries to Draw Line on Naperville Township Trustee Benefits

Kurt Dorr is determined to make some waves when it comes to how money is being spent.

Appalled by some of his recent discoveries about his local government's finances, Dorr spoke out at a regular meeting Tuesday night. He said Naperville Township should not be footing the bill for Illinois Municipal Retirement Funds and health benefits for trustees as it has been since 2006.

"People are fed up with the careless way governments spend their money," Dorr said to trustees.

He led a petition effort to get the concern on the agenda of the board's annual meeting scheduled for April 12. His eventual goal is to bring the issue to a referendum vote in a future election—putting the power back in the hands of the people, he has said.

Medical and IMRF benefits are available to all Naperville Township trustees. A trustee position is part-time and in 2010, had a salary of $7,300, according to a township document outlining trustee and elected officials' annual compensation.

Three of the four current township trustees— Fred Spitzzeri, May Yurgaitis and David Wentz —are all enrolled to receive benefits, documents state. Trustee Esin Busche has never opted in.

While providing such benefits is perfectly legal in Illinois, employees are supposed to take a certain level of responsibility for their coverage, said Emily Miller, policy and government affairs coordinator with the Better Government Association.

"It's customary for a township to offer the coverage and the employee must pay the premiums," she said Tuesday. "This is the result of a Supreme Court decision from a while ago. … They are to be offered the same level of benefits as other public employees but the premiums have to be paid by them."

Documents show that as of Feb. 25, Wentz owed $1,000 in premium payments to the township, which has fronted a total of $28,924 in premiums to cover his family's medical insurance from July 1, 2009 to Jan. 1, 2011.

Spitzzeri had also fallen behind in the past—specifically in 2009, when he made a $761 payment in August for a $4,056 July tab that had been accruing since May. He paid the $3,294 balance in December of 2009, documents state.

Spitzzeri said he's always been a public servant and never expected any sort of reimbursements.

"The public government, as opposed to the private sector is often presented that the benefits offset the income," he said. "… I accepted the health insurance benefits that went along with being a trustee. What voters and residents might not understand is that these benefits have to be approved 180 days before the election."

The township's elected officials vote for their own salaries and benefits every four years and annual information is outlined on its Website, said local officials. Other documents are public record and can be attained via Freedom of Information Act requests.

Dorr said he was outraged to learn through his own digging that between 2006 and 2010, the township has paid about $200,000 for trustees' IMRF and medical insurance.

"Prior to 2006, no trustees were given such exorbitant benefits, to my knowledge," Dorr said. " ... We, as residents, have been ignored until I filed this petition."

Keri-Lyn Krafthefer, the township's lawyer, said Dorr's petition confused her because it was incorrectly formatted, had "deficiencies,' and, "wouldn't survive scrutiny in any court because it's biased." If a petition is correctly filed and has the required 15 resident signatures, an issue must be placed on the next meeting agenda.

"But here it's non-binding," Krafthefer said. "I know this is a heated discussion on both sides. … So if you look at the spirit of the petition that was filed tonight … I'd recommend slating this issue for the annual meeting and kind of letting the residents duke it out. … That would be the forum for this."

Trustees voted 3-0 to approve the item— described as a "discussion and possible action on advisory referendum centered on IMRF and health insurance"—for its upcoming April meeting. Busche was absent from Tuesday's meeting.

Despite the "poor wording" of Dorr's petition, Spitzzeri said he was glad to add the agenda item in the "interest of transparency."

"I have no objection to putting this on the agenda," he said.

Residents wanting to weigh in can attend the township's April 12 annual meeting.