Desmond Wants To Dump Health Benefits for Elected Officials

In an evening of political fireworks, Tr. Tim Desmond (Dist. 1) called for an end to health and dental benefits for part-time village employees and elected officials as Oak Lawn faces difficult budget decisions in the coming weeks.

Desmond is one of six part-time Oak Lawn Village Board members participating in the village's employee healthcare plan. He said it wasn’t fair to ask employees and residents to make sacrifices if village leaders weren’t willing to do so themselves.

“In the upcoming weeks we’ll be asking police and firemen to possibly reduce their workforce and overtime,” Desmond said in his new business report at Tuesday's village board meeting.

“We’re going to be asking businesses and residents to share the cost of the mismanagement and neglect of the previous administration for kicking the can so long,” the trustee added.

Referring to the village’s and state’s pension crisis, in which municipalities throughout the Illinois are facing mounting pension liabilities, Desmond asked that the ordinance allowing part-time elected officials to opt into the village's benefits package be eliminated.

“We have on this board two senior board members who have received three-quarter of a million dollars in health benefits since being elected,” Desmond said. “Over the past number of years there has been no mention of tightening their belts while asking residents to tighten theirs.”

Mayor Sandra Bury and Tr. Bob Streit (Dist. 3) both carry individual medical and dental insurance.

Trs. Desmond, Alex Olejniczak (Dist. 2) and Carol Quinlan (Dist. 5) participate in the family medical, dental and vision plans.

Tr. Terry Vorderer (Dist. 4), a retired Oak Lawn police officer, receives medical coverage through the village’s post-employment health care plan for non-Medicare eligible retirees. His wife is covered under the village’s dental plan.

Village Clerk Jane Quinlan, Oak Lawn’s only full-time elected official, receives dental coverage through the village.

Olejniczak opted into the village’s family medical and dental plan after a job loss earlier in the year. Olejniczak said that he plans to end the coverage by Dec. 31, the end of the current fiscal year.

"I believe that whether the board agrees to or not, that all elected part-time officials should have no health, welfare, medical or dental benefits,” Olejniczak said. “I, myself … would not be accepting them if there is a change in the ordinance.”

The new administration has come under fire in an anonymous mailer sent to residents’ homes designed to look like a newspaper called Oak Lawn News. The mailer accuses Bury and her Oak Lawn First running mates of hitting up taxpayers for $200,000 in insurance costs

Documents obtained from the Village of Oak Lawn place the village’s share of monthly insurance premiums at $74,349.48, including medical, dental and vision. (See the 2-page pdf).

Streit, a business owner, admitted to participating in the village’s medical and dental plan throughout most of his 22 years as a village trustee.

“Just for the record, I have a wife and kids,” Streit said. “I’ve been on the insurance as an individual because I had that insurance when I was single and wanted to keep my doctor.”

Bury said she supported Desmond’s measure "100 percent" to eliminate insurance benefits for part-time employees and board members.

“He sees the hypocrisy as I did that the very people who have taken the benefits for decades, one person in particular, is the most vocal opponent of this,” Bury said, referring to Streit. “When I took office I did accept the medical insurance. It’s actually a plan inferior to the one I have in my [optometry practice]. I wanted to make the numbers work so I could do this job properly.”

The mayor also noted that she donated the $6,000 she receives as the village liquor commissioner to the Oak Lawn Police Department Club, which raises money for various community organizations. The salary and donation was confirmed by the village finance department.

“It’s nearly a wash for the $6,000 I have for [health benefits],” Bury said. “It’s nice that it’s for the police and community use.”

After the meeting, Desmond said he was unaware of the recent anonymous mailer critical of new village board members participating in the village health care plan until it was brought up on Tuesday.

Desmond, a business owner and union maintenance engineer, said he took the insurance because one of his children needs frequent medical treatments not covered by his union insurance, but is covered under the village’s insurance plan.

“If I knew it was going to be a political football, I never would have taken it,” he said. “It has nothing to do with anonymous mailers.”