Barrington will ask voters about state pension reform

For a moderately sized village, Barrington is once again proving itself unafraid of daunting challenges or powerful opponents.

Just as it's joined with Aurora and other communities to fight the conditions of Canadian National's takeover of the Elgin, Joliet and Eastern railroad, the village has now allied itself with Lake Forest in seeking statewide reform of the pension system for police officers and firefighters.

Barrington officials Monday voted to adopt the same language Lake Forest came up with for an advisory referendum of its own on the Feb. 2 primary election ballot.

The referendum in both municipalities will ask voters, "Shall the Illinois General Assembly and the Governor take immediate steps to implement meaningful pension reform which will relieve the unsustainable burden on local taxpayers?"

"The immediate goal of the question is to make the public aware," Barrington Village President Karen Darch said.

She added that current state legislation is ensuring a steady increase in the amount of pension payments - despite the growing percentage of money they're consuming from municipal employers.

"It's unsustainable in the face of everything else," Darch said. "There's only so many dollars."

The vote attracted a gathering of Barrington police and firefighters who appeared eager to speak but were not given the opportunity.

Also there was retired Barrington police officer James McNamee, current president of the Illinois Public Pension Fund Association.

McNamee said that public safety workers and Illinois pension operators are open to discussing funding reform, but he criticized using a referendum to pass responsibility onto a public that doesn't understand all the complexities.

"This is not the way to do it," McNamee said. "Once you start that polarization, it upsets people."

The referendum idea originated with Lake Forest City Manager Bob Kiely, who is also chairman of the pension committee of the Northwest Municipal Conference.

Kiely could not be reached for comment, but Northwest Municipal Conference Policy Director Larry Bury said Lake Forest has been ahead of the curve on the pension issue.