North Cook News

The city of Rolling Meadows' actuary showed promising numbers over the past fiscal year.

“You can see over the last five years, on average, the city contributes over 100% of the recommended contribution for the fire pension fund, on average, 108%,” Lauterbach & Amen actuary Kevin Cavanagh said in a recent city council meeting. “In this past year, the village did about 101% of the recommendation. And on the police side, the five-year average is, as well, 108.5%. And last year, the city put in 99% of that recommended contribution.”

According to recent data, the recommended contribution to fund both the fire and police departments’ pension packets was just over $7,100,000 down from the previous year’s proposal of almost $7,900,000. With most of the decrease coming on the police side, overall, the recommended contribution saw a 9% dip.

The total breakdown of the expenses that will be funded by local government’s contribution to the departments span normal employer costs - the accrual of benefits for all active members in the departments- with roughly 80% of the suggested contribution pegged to go to the unfunded liability payment for each department.

The report's final analysis also takes into consideration the changing demographics of their department members, including a new hire and some retirements in the fire department and two new hires, a retirement, a termination and a surviving spouse passing away in the police department. In addition, there are also projections for members who are approaching retirement and pension eligibility that would kick in over the next five years.