State supreme court won't hear Barrington pension case

The Illinois Supreme Court has declined to hear the appeal of three senior officers in the Barrington Fire Department who were denied the ability to retroactively boost their pensions.

An effort by Assistant Fire Chiefs Char McLear and Chris Toussaint and Fire Prevention Officer Jim Feit to transfer credits from the early years of their careers to their current pension fund failed through both litigation and legislation this year.

The Illinois Appellate Court had ruled in the village of Barrington's favor in June in the lawsuit filed against it by the three fire officers.

In May, a proposed state law that also sought to change the pension eligibility of these three and up to five other fire department employees passed in the Senate but stalled in the House.

Barrington officials lobbied against the bill because they said it would cost taxpayers up to $1.8 million more in pension benefits if all eight people took advantage of it.

The three officers worked as paramedics for Barrington for years before the village established its first full-time fire department in 1995.

During those early years, the employees were invested in the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund. But since 1995, their new earnings have gone to a more lucrative state firefighter pension fund.

Feit, who joined the village in 1975, and McLear, who was hired in 1980, also happened to work for the village's paid-on-call fire department before 1995. But the village's attorney, Jack Siegel, said that work was never intended to provide pension benefits.

Siegel said the paramedics based their case on a 2004 statute allowing firefighters to transfer pension credits.

But the important distinction is that the three were employed full-time only as paramedics, not firefighters, Siegel said.

Representatives of the three officers could not be reached for comment Friday, though Siegel said it appears they have few remaining options for pursuing the case further.