By Annemarie Mannion
Chicago Tribune
DOWNERS GROVE, Ill. — When Robert Porter retires as police chief in Downers Grove, he will begin accepting a pension that will amount to $8,242 a month in the first few years, according to records released by the Downers Grove Police Pension Board. Those same records show it will grow to more than $26,000 a month by the year 2055.
Porter, 50, is scheduled to retire Oct. 9 and start a job Oct. 12 as chief of police for the village of Huntley. His salary in Huntley will be $135,000 a year, not including his health and pension benefits.
The annual amount of Porter’s pension from Downers Grove will be $98,904 until Oct. 1, 2019, when it will begin to increase by 3 percent a year under compounding cost of living adjustments.
By 2025, the pension board estimates that Porter’s pension will grow to $131,973 a year. In 20 years, by 2035, it will be $177,361 a year. By 2045, Porter’s pension will be $238,358 a year. By 2055, it will increase to $311,003 a year.
In the final year for which the village has made projections — 2062 – Porter’s pension will amount to $393,970 a year.
The village calculated Porter’s pension based on his 28 years of working in the village and an annual salary as chief of $141,292.
The decision to retire and begin accepting a pension from Downers Grove while taking another public sector job is legal. But the practice doesn’t sit well with State Rep. Ron Sandack, who formerly was the mayor of Downers Grove.
Sandack said he has no problem with Porter or his service to the village, but objects to the practice called “double dipping” in which a public service employee “retires” from a public sector job only to continue working in another public sector job and begin building another pension.
Sandack said it’s adding to the pension costs that are crushing for communities and taxpayers across Illinois.
“In this instance, Chief Porter is not retiring. He’s walking away from his job,” Sandack said. “I think the practice needs to stop. It costs the taxpayers a lot of money, and it doesn’t make sense to 99 percent of taxpayers.”
Mayor Martin Tully said it’s unfair for Porter to be called out as a representative of a practice that’s legal if troubling to some.
“He doesn’t deserve to be excoriated for what the system allows. I think Ron Sandack, you or I would do the same thing (as Porter),” Tully said.
He said the police and fire pension system has numerous aspects, not just double dipping, that are adding to pension woes across the state and should be reviewed if the system is to be overhauled. They include the 3 percent annual compounding COLA increases, eligibility for retirement after 20 years of service, and pensions that extend to spouses.
Porter is married.
“This (double dipping) is a symptom of a much bigger sickness,” Tully said.
Sandack said, if the practice of double dipping is not made illegal, he foresees it impacting the ability of communities to provide public safety services.
“The only control mayors have is head count. We’re going to have to outsource police and fire because we can’t afford to pay for it,” he said.
Sandack said he plans to introduce legislation that would hold public pensions in abeyance until a person actually retires from a public sector job.
“Going from one public sector job to another is taxing the system,” he said. “This is an indictment of a practice that is way out of whack.”
Neither Porter or David Johnson, village manager in Huntley, responded immediately to calls for comment.
Copyright 2015 the Chicago Tribune