Barrington hopefuls debate pension reform

The four candidates for the Barrington village board are not all of one mind when it comes to the leadership role the village has played on the issue of public pension reform.

Incumbents Jim Daluga and Paul Hunt and newcomers Robert Windon and Michael Kozel are contending for the three available trustee seats on April 5.

But while Windon is siding with his chosen running mates Daluga and Hunt in supporting the active role the village has taken in lobbying Springfield for reform, independent candidate Kozel believes Barrington has too much on its own plate right now to be at the forefront of such a statewide issue.

“When I was raising my kids, they had a lot of issues, but I had to pick my battles,” Kozel said. “We’re a small town. We have to pick our battles.”

Downtown redevelopment and the ongoing struggle to adapt the village to increased freight train traffic from Canadian National’s purchase of the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern railroad are enough to command the village board’s attention and resources right now, Kozel argued.

But the others are fully supportive of the village’s lobbying efforts and its advisory referendum of a year ago, which both targeted pension reforms for government workers, particularly police officers and firefighters.

“It’s either bankruptcy or reform,” Hunt said, representing the commonly held opinion among the current village board that the pension system of today is unsustainable in the long run.

Hunt said public employee benefits are climbing to a level not even close to the private sector, meaning that the village is paying some of its retirees significantly more than current employees.

He praised the dedication of village President Karen Darch to addressing this issue in Springfield.

“Our village president has the energy to make the Energizer Bunny look like a mouse,” Hunt said.

“We need to get public sector benefits more in line with the private sector,” Daluga agreed, citing the fact that rising costs forced the village to cut 19 percent of its employee base in 2008 to stay in good financial shape.

Windon, a McHenry County assistant state’s attorney for the past four years, said he too recognizes the unsustainability of the current public pension system even though he belongs to it.

“As someone paying into a public pension system, I can say it doesn’t work,” Windon said.

Furthermore, he believes the number of truly important issues the village is involved in is no excuse for it to turn its back on one more.

“I don’t think we should shy away from the big issues,” Windon said. “If an issue affects our town, we should address it.”

Barrington’s referendum last year was criticized by retired Barrington police officer and president of the Illinois Public Pension Fund Association James McNamee.

McNamee, while acknowledging that some type of reform was probably appropriate, condemned the referendum for what he described as stacked language and a polarizing effect on public safety employees from soliciting the general public’s input on such a complicated problem.