The Lisle-Woodridge Fire District has terminated their entire finance department and outsourced all financial work to Governmental Accounting, Inc of Inverness, IL. The move will save the district money - eventually. Its questionable if taxpayers will ever see the savings.
It will take 9 months to recover the costs of the severance and release payouts for the 3 LWFD employees who were terminated.
The LWFD Board of Trustees approved the severance agreements on March 22, 2016. There was no public disclosure prior to Board approval - a blatant violation of the IL Open Meetings Act. It took Lisle Watchdogs 3 weeks to get the District to release the Board-approved severance documents with multiple communications to the LWFD FOIA officer, James Weaver, and correspondence to the IL Attorney General. Under the IL Freedom of Information Act these records were required to be provided in 5-days.
Better late than a lawsuit.
$123, 300 Severance to Terminate Three Employees
The District terminated the Finance Director, the Finance Assistant, and the Accounting Specialist.
Each was given a separate severance agreement. The total of all three severance packages is $123,319. The three employees had a combined total annual salary of $198,015 and a combined total compensation package of $295,631. We are waiting to hear when the severance payments were made to see if they were structured to provide a pension spike.
Barbara Beshears, the Finance Director received a severance package of $73,983.07.
Her annual salary was $97,619 and her total compensation package was $133,402.
Her annual salary was $66,452 and her total compensation package was $102,311.
Her annual salary was $33,944 and her total compensation package was $58,918..
All of the work done by the Finance Dept - including budgets, purchasing, annual financial reports - has been outsourced for an annual cost of $107,640.
Net savings to the District - and hopefully to the taxpayers - is significant.
After the first nine months it takes to recoup the cost of the severance packages, the District will see an annual savings of $187,991.
Governmental Accounting, Inc. proposes to do the work of 3 full-time district employees working a combined 120 hours per week with only 2 part-time employees working a combined 28 hours per week - a reduction of 77% in work hours. Some work will be done on-site and some work will be done remotely.
WILL THE $187,991 ANNUAL SAVINGS BE PASSED ON TO TAXPAYERS?
Not likely.
Don't get your hopes up that this will result in a tax cut to taxpayers. Far more likely, the so-called "savings" from outsourcing will shift more money into the District's underfunded pensions.
Nothing more than moving money from one pocket to the other. We have to ask, why wasn't this done years ago? Why aren't other governmental entities outsourcing their finance work?
See Also:
Lisle Woodridge Fire District Quietly Approves Major Reorganization.
- March 2015 Job Cuts Hit Lisle-Woodridge Fire District
Alarm Sounds, Lisle -Woodridge Fire District Fails to Respond.
- Oct 2014 - LWFD Fails to respond to Finacial Alarm 2 years Later.
- July 2015 - Tom Althoff Appointed to LWFD Board conflict with Village of Lisle.
Moody's Downgrades Lisle-Woodridge Fire District
-June 2014 The Aa3 issuer rating reflects a recent trend of underfunding annual pension payments, highlighting the financial risk stemming from the district's elevated pension liabilities and statutory requirements that require the district to fully fund its employer contributions.
We are Still working on it...
- Oct 2015 - 3 1/2 years after the May 2012 Crowe Horwath Report, LWFD was still working on a financial plan to address the underfunded pensions.
Reference:
All of the severance agreements and the outsourcing contract approved on March 22, 2016 are now available (as of yesterday) on the LWFD website.
FOIA Documents
- FOIA 3/25/2016
- FOIA Correspondence
- FOIA Response
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