Rolling Meadows offers early retirement incentive to 110 employees

The city of Rolling Meadows is offering 110 employees who have at least eight years with the city a $20,000 cash incentive to retire by July 31, 2011.

Those employees have until Dec. 8 to elect for early retirement. Then there's a 45-day window to finalize individual employment separation and release agreements, so either side could back out before Feb. 1, explained Barry Krumstok, assistant city manager.

To be eligible for the $20,000 incentive, an employee must retire between Jan. 1 and July 31, 2011.

The $20,000 incentive is taxable and will be paid upon release from employment.

A majority of the 110 employees eligible for the voluntary separation incentive program are from the city's police, fire and public works departments.

The city retains the right to rescind the incentive program before final release is granted to any employee.

Krumstok would not say how many people would need to participate in the program for the city to avoid layoffs in future.

However, he noted there are no layoffs proposed in the 2011 draft budget.

“We have not targeted individuals. We have not targeted a definitive number,” Krumstok said. “We are really looking at the current economy that's facing the city and the region. Some of these positions might not be filled. By Feb. 1, we will definitively know how many people have decided to take this.”

The city has had to lay off staff in recent years. It's down from more than 200 employees to roughly 170 full- and part time employees at present.

The city's proposed 2011 calendar year budget calls for a 12.8 percent increase to the city's portion of residents' property taxes.

Fully 98 percent of the increase is to cover the city's obligations toward police and fire pensions, officials said.

Meanwhile, the city's police union, representing officers and sergeants, has agreed to a salary freeze deferring a 4 percent pay increase until Dec. 30, 2011. Otherwise they would have gotten 3.5 percent on Jan. 1 and the remaining half percent on July 1.

However, employees who choose voluntary separation will get their 4 percent increase starting Jan. 1, Krumstok said.

The city and the fire union are working on a possible similar deal.

The fire union contract will be discussed in closed session at a special meeting, 7:30 p.m. Nov. 30. The city council's committee of the whole is expected to vote on a resolution amending the fire contract that night, followed by discussion on the 2011 budget.

Budget talks continue at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 7 and Dec. 14, when a final budget will likely be approved.

The city council this week also authorized borrowing $1.5 million from FirstMerit Bank to plug a nearly $1.7 million budget deficit this year.

The short-term loan will be used to make principal and interest payments on bonds, and will be repaid with anticipated Cook County property tax receipts that have been delayed.