How much would Boone County have to pay its Administrator if he retired?

THIS IS A WORK IN PROGRESS

Well like so many questions you ask Boone County it leads just to more questions.  Here is a summary of what I have discovered.

First the reason for this inquiry.  Each year the county pays some individual  tens of thousands of dollars at retirement for unused annual leave and sick leave.  Board Member Cathy Ward has a list of some of the sums which together amount in the hundreds of thousands over the years. Mrs. Ward’s information is at the bottom of this posting.

In an attempt to understand the situation I ask Mr. Terrinoni, the County Administrator, for his accumulated leave and have attempted to calculate how much the county would owe him if he would leave.

Below is his response to my FOIA request.

Here is my Freedom of Information Request:

During the last several years the county has paid out tens of thousands of dollars to retirees for unused sick leave, unused annual leave and unused compensated time (comp time) for unpaid overtime etc.

Under the Freedom of Information Act please provide the following information:

1. A copy of all policies or county ordinances which limit the accumulation of the various types of leave or deadline the use of such leave.

2. You as a highly paid official maybe eligible for a very large such payment at retirement.

Please provide the following information for County Administrator, Ken Terrinoni, as of November 30, 2017 or a more convenient recent pay period.

a. Accumulated annual leave

b. Accumulated sick leave

c. Any and all leave for comp time

d. Hourly rate to be used to calculate the dollar amount based upon your current salary

e. The number of hours and fractions of hours to be considered one full day for leave purposes

f. Please indicate which county office/department (other than your Admin Office) maintain the current balance for each type of your leave.

3. Accounting wise, does the county reserve/accrue for unpaid leave? If so when and under what account heading? When the retiree is granted the leave which accounting heading/account pays the unpaid leave?

4. What determines which of these leaves payments require personal withholding to Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund?

5. Thank you for your cooperation.

BILL PYSSON

If Mr. Terrinoni would retire/resign today the following would be owed:  $48,269

Hourly rate:  $126,092/2080 hours per year= $60.62 per hour.

Annual Leave owed:  402.5 hours** X $60.62 =  $24,400.

Sick Leave payment due;  720 HOURS   AS A RETIREE WITH 20 YEARS:   first 427. 5  HOURS  x .75 x 60.62 = $19,436 plus 292.5 hours X .25 X $60.62 = $4,433  Therefore Total Sick Leave $23,869.

**Based upon the vacation policy shown immediately  below it would appear that accumulated annual leave for Mr. Terrinoni greatly exceeds the policy.  Mr. Terrinoni was questioned regarding this matter but did not respond. See:  Subsequent Questions of FOIA October 31, 2017

Boone County Vacation/sick leave Policy

Policy statements supplied by October 31, 2017  FOIA

Subsequent Questions of October 31, 2017 FOIA

To:Ken Terrinoni

Nov 22 at 4:54 PM

I had several questions regarding the FOIA and have not received a reply.   Below is a copy of my questions.  Please respond at your earliest convenience.

Thank you for the prompt response to my recent FOIA request. Unfortunately I still have a number of questions.

The personnel policy statement you supplied does not give the definition of the various classes of employees. Those definitions are necessary to properly apply the rules regarding use and limits on the various types of leave.

It appears that you as the Administrator are a “Type C” employee. Based upon that assumption your available annual leave greatly exceeds 20 days of annual accumulation. With 402.5 hours accumulated you have over 10 weeks of vacation coming. Have you been paid for unusable leave in the past? Have you forfeited leave? If leave was forfeited should the record be corrected to reflect the forfeiture? Is there some other reason why your accumulation shows so many hours?

The policy does not mention what happens when there are “budgetary restraints” that do not allow the payment of unused leave for employees unable to use the leave due to “scheduling or operational needs”. Does such leave carryover until such time as the county has the funds? Is this the case for your excess leave?

I appreciate your prompt response to these questions.

Bill Pysson

Response:  No answer since “no additional documentation”