Arbela looks to cut retirement funds
By TOM GILCHRIST
For The Advertiser
ARBELA TWP. — For 24 years, Arbela Township has paid money to the retirement plans of township Board of Trustees members, but some residents want to cut off the cash flow.
“These are part-time jobs,” Gary Rooney told The Advertiser following the board’s July 8 meeting, where Rooney questioned board members about why they continue paying out the money.
Kenneth Panek, supervisor of Arbela Township, with a population of about 3,100, said the Arbela Township Group Pension Plan was created by the township in 1989. That’s when the township began contributing pension money to its five Board of Trustees members and five other workers. The practice has continued through the years and currently the five board members and township employees Deborah M. Cerasoli and John D. Gunnels receive payments to their pension funds.
The officials and workers also contribute; Cerasoli, for example, has been paying $100 per month into her fund, with the township contributing $200 per month, according to township Clerk Mary C. Warren. In past years, the township has used that same 2-to-1 ratio
when providing money to pension funds of the other recipients, township officials said.
Rooney opposes the fact the township pays retirement money for its five board members, but told the board Cerasoli and Gunnels “should have a pension.”
Rooney said the two employees “do a nice job, but (paying) 2-for-1, I think, is quite a bit more than what anybody really gets any more, especially now with everybody having the hard times,” Rooney said at the July 8 meeting.
“It’s generous for a township of this size, that’s for sure,” Panek replied.
In recent weeks, township auditors have required a change to the system to pay the recipients a percentage of their regular pay, according to township officials.
Panek said the township now pays 10 percent of each recipient’s gross pay, though Warren said the township pays 5 percent.
“That’s what the auditor said we had to start doing, and that’s what we’re doing, starting with the (June) payment,” Warren said.
During the fiscal year that began April 1, the amount of pension money set to be paid by the township to the seven recipients totaled $16,224 of the $76,317 collected as regular township taxes, Panek said.
Warren receives money to help administrate the plan, according to Panek.
“The only way you’re going to do away with that is to do away with the whole pension, and I don’t have a problem with that,” Warren said on July 8.
“Sounds like a winner,” replied Pat Jewell, a member of the township Board of Review.
Rooney asked Warren if she was ready to “get rid of” the pension plan. Warren said “Yeah, I don’t care.”
“What about you — do you want to get rid of it?” Rooney asked Panek.
“That’s what I’ve said all along, but it’s messy,” Panek replied. “It’s expensive. You just can’t say ‘Oh, I’m gonna walk away from this pension plan.’ That’s the messy part. The two workers that you’re talking about — we have to somehow fix that pension that they were guaranteed.”
Township documents state the Board of Trustees adopted the plan “with the expectation that it would be permanent.”
The township is making pension-fund payments to current employees Cerasoli and Gunnels, and current board members Panek, Warren, Treasurer Jody Hunt and Trustees William Jacobi and Wayne Schultz.
“There are other people who are still alive and are receiving money under this pension plan, too,” Panek said.
The plan’s purpose is to provide monthly pension payments to retired township officials or workers.