Des Plaines alderman tries again to eliminate insurance for elected officials
Des Plaines Alderman Denise Rodd is renewing her push to eliminate health insurance benefits for the city's elected officials, but whether other aldermen go along with the idea remains to be seen.
Rodd has been trying to get her city council colleagues to have a formal discussion on the topic since early 2014, but so far she hasn't even been able to get enough aldermen to agree to put it on a meeting agenda. She says she keeps bringing the issue up because it's a recurring topic at her 3rd Ward resident meetings.
Rodd proposes stopping medical and dental coverage for those elected in April 2017 and beyond. She estimates ending the benefits could save $120,000 a year.
“That's a lot of street resurfacing and sidewalk replacement,” Rodd said at a budget meeting this week. “Let's have this discussion, please.”
Des Plaines is one of three towns in the Northwest suburbs that offers health plans to elected officials. Palatine, like Des Plaines, pays 88 percent of each person's premium cost. Schaumburg offers a village plan, but the official must pay the full premium.
Rodd believes the “tradition” of offering Des Plaines elected officials health insurance goes back to the time when the city had a mayor-council form of government and insurance was cheap. Today, the city has a council-manager form of government, and elected officials are listed as “part-time” officials on the city's compensation report. Rodd warned that insurance costs will continue to rise, especially with an expected federal government “Cadillac tax” imposed on Des Plaines starting in 2018 because of the city's generous health insurance plan.
Alderman Dick Sayad, who has been on the council for 12 years, defended the practice of making insurance available to elected officials, arguing they are employees of the city.
“Do we get the perk of that? You're darn right we do,” Sayad said. “To compensate for the work we do, at least I can (speak) for myself. I know a lot of the aldermen work very diligently.”
Sayad, the former chairman of the city council's finance and administration committee, said he declined to put the issue up for discussion last year because no other aldermen on the committee wanted to talk about it. The committee's current chairman, Alderman Don Smith, said he would take Rodd's request under consideration and “perhaps” have a meeting.