Will-Grundy-Kendall Counties, Ill. (ECWd) –
This is part 5 in a series of articles on the Will County and Grundy-Kendall Counties Regional Offices of Education (“ROE”). Read parts 1 – 2 – 3 and 4.
We attended the PDA board meeting earlier this month and just prior to the meeting starting I overheard a person discussing if they were going to have a quorum or not. That seemed odd to me for the following reason.
In July of 1996, the PDA passed a resolution authorizing its employees to participate in the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund. That document indicates to IMRF that the governing body, the PDA, is made up entirely of 2 members.
Having read that document before, I found it odd that a person was concerned with a quorum being present since the two ROE’s were present in the room. I raised the question about their membership during public comment and was told they are a six-member board and that it was outlined in the agreement they had provided.
The original IGA from May of 1996 outlines that the PDA Board is in fact a six-member board. However, it appears some word games may have been played with the preparation of key documents. The IGA in one paragraph references a “Board of Governors” and indicates it is made up of two members, the ROEs.
Two paragraphs down they refer to the “Board” as being made up of additional members. Why in that paragraph they did not call them the “Board of Governors” is very odd. Is the Board of Governors different than the Board?
The resolution adopted 2 months after the IGA for IMRF participation uses the “Board of Governors” language and alleges that the entire governing body is only 2 members. That appears to be a very selective interpretation of the IGA and clearly is inconsistent with how the PDA board has been conducting business as a six-member board.
By all indications from the documents, it appears IMRF was told something that was not true, and the result was numerous PDA employees getting IMRF benefits which were not approved by the full board of the PDA. The resolution has all the appearances of a false document in light of the fact the PDA board has been operating as a six-member public body for years but failed to disclose that fact to the officials at IMRF when seeking participation for its members.
The minutes from the meeting where IMRF was approved indicate only 2 people voting, however, the IGA indicates the board is to be a six-member board. This conflict must be resolved, and as it stands, we are not getting answers to key questions.
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