Aldermen criticize Des Plaines mayor over his health benefit cuts
This story has been updated to reflect that elected officials in Palatine and Schaumburg are eligible to receive municipal health coverage.
Des Plaines Mayor Matt Bogusz's announcement unilaterally ending city health insurance benefits for elected officials starting in 2017 drew a sharp rebuke from aldermen Tuesday - and the debate quickly got personal.
Bogusz's decision follows the council's 6-2 vote Feb. 1 to keep the publicly funded medical and dental benefits. Bogusz and the two aldermen who voted to end the insurance benefits don't accept the coverage themselves; the other six aldermen and the city clerk do.
"This to me looks like a blanket transfer of power from the city council to the mayor," said Alderman Malcolm Chester. "I think it's wrong. I think it's the act of a dictator and I strongly object to it."
Alderman Dick Sayad accused the mayor of making the issue political by using his normal time for announcements at city council meetings for "campaign slogans" instead.
"We voted on this 6-2. I always thought this was a strong council, weak mayor and city manager form of government, but with the Bogusz administration, it's changed," Sayad said. "I guess now we don't have to vote anymore. We go to Mayor Bogusz and he does it."
Bogusz argued city officials shouldn't accept a personal benefit that isn't offered to the 50 to 60 other part-time city employees. And he said he thinks the cost to the city for the health insurance - $92,692 last year - could be put to better use.
The mayor's decision directing the city staff to discontinue the benefits for current and future elected officials at the end of their respective terms came in a memo distributed to aldermen last Friday.
Also in the memo was a legal opinion by the city's general counsel, Peter Friedman, who wrote the city's insurance benefits for elected officials "may be discontinued administratively" since city officials haven't been able to find an ordinance that certifies the benefits within city code.
That's despite the fact that allowing benefits for elected officials has been "policy and practice" in Des Plaines for perhaps 30 years or more, Friedman said.
Chester said he believes the city's annual appropriation ordinance - which includes funding for city health insurance benefits - shows the council has voted to certify those benefits for many years.
But after Friedman said aldermen should adopt a formal ordinance if they want to keep the benefits, they voted 5-2 to direct the staff to prepare such an ordinance to be voted on March 7. The vote tally was the same as last meeting, except Alderman Patti Haugeberg was absent Tuesday night.
In Des Plaines, officials pay 12 percent of premium costs; the city picks up the remainder. Elected officials in Palatine and Schaumburg are also eligible to receive municipal health coverage.