Des Plaines aldermen delay vote on health insurance

Des Plaines aldermen delayed a decision Monday on Mayor Matt Bogusz's plan to reduce health insurance perks for city council members, setting up a potentially politically-charged final meeting before voters go to the polls.

Aldermen voted unanimously to defer Bogusz's resolution, which cuts the lowest-deductible health insurance plans.

Bogusz has repeatedly tried to remove health insurance for city council members. He's made the pitch part of his re-election campaign, arguing eliminating the "selfish perk" will root out public servants with improper motivations.

Elected officials contribute 12 percent of premium costs, and the city pays the remainder. The health plan costs taxpayers about $90,000 annually.

Two city unions have agreed to reduce the health insurance plan for members in recent collective bargaining agreements, and nonunion employees will also no longer have the plan available Jan. 1, 2018.

Dissenting aldermen argued Bogusz's plan is yet another example of the mayor attacking fellow elected officials, and they questioned the timing of the resolution.

"You sit up there and all you want to do is beat up, punch the aldermen because they get health insurance," 4th Ward Alderman Dick Sayad said to Bogusz. "I didn't choose to have health insurance. It was given to me."

Sayad argued aldermen hadn't been given a raise in more than three decades.

Fifth Ward Alderman Jim Brookman, who said he's supportive of removing the lowest-deductible health insurance, questioned the timing of the mayor's resolution. He said city council members had agreed in closed session to wait until collective bargaining negotiations with other unions are complete.

Brookman said the mayor's comments at a recent campaign debate describing elected officials who accept health insurance as selfish were unacceptable.

"That's how you destroy teamwork. That's how you destroy cooperation," Brookman said.

Health insurance has been one issue dividing Bogusz and a bloc of aldermen. A year ago, Bogusz directed the city staff to remove the six alderman and the city clerk with city health insurance after attorneys determined an ordinance authorizing them didn't exist.

Aldermen Sayad, Brookman, Patti Haugeberg, John Robinson, Mike Charewicz and City Clerk Gloria Ludwig are covered by city health insurance. Bogusz and Aldermen Denise Rodd and Don Smith are not.

Bogusz later vetoed an ordinance allowing elected officials to retain health insurance, but aldermen voted to override the mayor.

Sixth Ward Alderman Malcolm Chester, who's running against Bogusz in the mayoral race, questioned the practicality of the resolution. Chester, who recently tried to change his health insurance plan with the city, said employees told him he couldn't move to the lower-deductible plan in the middle of the year.

Bogusz argued the timing is pertinent because alderman had recently approved to cut the benefit from about half the city's workforce.