Two towns to take police, fire pension fight to state

Barrington and Lake Forest officials Wednesday expressed optimism over the strong voter support for police and firefighter pension reform reflected in the advisory referendum both towns had on their ballots Tuesday.

Eighty-seven percent of Barrington voters and 91 percent of Lake Forest voters answered yes to the question, "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?"

Now, officials say, they must make sure the victory is more than just a moral one.

"The next step is to pass on the results to our respective legislators," Lake Forest City Manager Bob Kiely said.

It was Kiely, pension committee chairman of the Northwest Municipal Conference, who came up with the referendum for his own city. The village of Barrington, alone among Northwest Municipal Conference members, acted quickly enough to follow suit.

Kiely said Northwest Municipal Conference Executive Director Mark Fowler would soon be preparing a legislative package for leaders in Springfield to consider.

"I'm hoping that we will have reform before the fall," Kiely said.

But local legislators Wednesday were already expressing different opinions of the referendum's impact.

Republican state Rep. Mark Beaubien of Barrington Hills said that while he personally supports reform of the pension system used by the state's police officers and firefighters, he doubts a referendum run in two affluent suburbs would be enough to persuade legislators statewide to finally address the thorny political issue.

"The rest of the state doesn't know where Barrington and Lake Forest are," he said.

Republican state Sen. Dan Duffy of Barrington was much more optimistic about the referendum's ability to start a discussion he felt had been deferred too long already.

"I think it's likely, because we're bankrupt," Duffy said. "Enough is enough. We need to look at everything, even though it is a sore subject."

Duffy believes financial necessity has been pushing the question in Springfield anyway, but that voter support is helpful in that it provides legislators a defensible cause for action.

More useful, though he hopes not absolutely necessary, would be a similar referendum being run across a larger area of the state.

"I want to try anything and everything to get this state back on track," Duffy said. "People shouldn't be shooting holes in ideas that could help. But first we need to start the discussion."

Neither community reported any organized opposition to the referendum.

But retired Barrington police officer James McNamee, who founded the Illinois Public Pension Fund Association, criticized the referendum for putting before the general public in loaded language a complicated issue even most government leaders don't understand as well as they should.