IMRF qualification discussed at County Board

It seems that determining just how many hours a county board member works is a Herculean task.

The board has been tossing the question around for months, tabling a resolution of the question at the end of three consecutive meetings of the board: June, July and August.

At the September meeting Thursday, Sept. 25 board member Kelly Hefner brought some findings to the board's attention. He went to the IMRF attorneys and asked them for help.

What he learned was that even this outside the county consultation could not resolve the issue Thursday. The discussion went in all directions but no one had an answer to the question, "should board members have to document that they work 600 hours per year and thus qualify for a pension?" The IMRF people seem to be saying that if the board chooses, it can do away with the requirement for 600 hours. But you have to do away with it legally. And that is the problem. No one seems to know how to do it legally.

Board member David Phelps said the Legislature had awarded the power to set requirements for pensions to the county boards.

The discussion was finally dropped with the reminder from Secretary Helen Dunn that the forms which IMRF had sent needed to be returned to her.

A discussion of the number of prisoners being housed in the Saline County Jail was begun by Board Member Joe Jackson who openly questioned Sheriff Keith Brown's efforts to keep the jail filled and thus generate revenue for the county from the housing of federal prisoners. This problem was addressed during the report on the county's finances. Jackson is Chairman of the Budget and Finance Committee. Treasurer Danny Ragan had just reported that the county was $100,000 in the hole as of the end of last month.

Jackson wanted to attribute some of that deficit to Sheriff Brown.

"I cannot control what the Fed does," replied Brown.

"You have to go after federal prisoners," said Jackson, but he did not say how that would be done.

"We received $400,000 to $500,000 in the past. We received $175,000 this year. My point is do we need to have the jail?" Jackson said, and that was the end of his part of the discussion.

Sheriff Brown said, "It's not a requirement by statute to fill the jail."

Also at Thursday's meeting the board approved a contract with the Office of the State's Attorneys Appellate Prosecutor for fiscal year 2015. The board agreed that the county would pay $8,000 for the one year contract for services.

The board approved the Regional Superintendent of Schools fiscal year 2015 budget.