Des Plaines mayor ends health benefits perk for elected officials
Two weeks after Des Plaines aldermen voted to keep their publicly-funded city health insurance benefits, Mayor Matt Bogusz has unilaterally decided to terminate the benefits when their current terms end.
"The city council had the opportunity to fix it themselves and they chose to keep this perk," said Bogusz, who has declined to take the city insurance himself. "I've taken action to do away with this backward benefit. It's time we remove the personal interest from public service in Des Plaines."
After the council's 6-2 vote Feb. 1 to retain city health coverage for elected officials, Bogusz said he asked the city's attorneys to research the issue.
General Counsel Peter Friedman wrote in a memo distributed to aldermen Friday that previous court decisions and Illinois Attorney General opinions have determined compensation and benefits for elected officials requires enactment of an ordinance.
And though health insurance benefits for Des Plaines elected officials has been "policy and practice" of the city for perhaps 30 years or more, city officials haven't been able to find any ordinance certifying it, according to Friedman.
Absent such an ordinance, Friedman wrote, Des Plaines' insurance benefits for elected officials "may be discontinued administratively."
That explanation was enough for Bogusz to direct the city's staff to discontinue the benefits for current elected officials at the end of their respective terms, and for those elected in the future.
The mayor said he planned to make the announcement publicly at the beginning of the city council's meeting Tuesday night.
Already on Saturday, Bogusz's most vocal council critics were criticizing the decision, and questioning whether he had the legal power to do it.
"This has been going on 25-30 years and no one in that whole time frame said it was illegal," said Alderman Dick Sayad. "The personnel manual (in the early 1990s) said elected officials get it, and now all of a sudden he says it's no good?"
Sayad said Bogusz was "stirring the pot" and using the insurance controversy as a political issue on which to run for re-election.
The six Des Plaines aldermen who voted last council meeting in favor of the benefits all receive the city coverage as does the city clerk. Along with Bogusz, Aldermen Denise Rodd and Don Smith, who are in favor of ending the benefits, don't take the coverage themselves.
Rodd has advocated for an end to the benefits since she was elected in 2013. But the item wasn't formally debated until last meeting, when Smith, chairman of the council's finance and administration committee, agreed to put the item on the agenda at Rodd's request.
The health and dental coverage for elected officials cost the city $92,692 last year. Officials must pay for 12 percent of premium costs; the city picks up the remainder.
Besides Des Plaines, elected officials in Palatine and Schaumburg receive municipal health coverage.