La Salle considers retirement match program for qualifying police officers

A possible retirement match program for qualifying La Salle police officers may help the city find qualified candidates for its police department.

La Salle city officials discussed the potential pros and cons of a retirement match program at Monday’s City Council meeting. The match program would only apply to officers who have reached retirement and have a pension from another community, said Finance Director John Duncan.

The match program would apply to officers who are able to retire from another community because they have either 20 years of service or reach age 50. Both are minimum requirements to maximize benefits. Once retired, officers’ pension is ensured and they have the ability go to another community and continue to serve if they wish to remain in the workforce.

The example of such a scenario played out when the council hired a new patrol officer Monday night who retired from his previous community in the Chicagoland area and wanted to continue his career in a smaller community. Duncan suggested creating the match program for officers in his situation to help La Salle stand out and bring in more recruits.

“Contributing something to his retirement is upping the attraction for candidates leaving Chicago or the Chicago area to come here and contribute to their own retirement,” Duncan said.

If the program is approved, the city would match the officers’ retirement contributions in a 401(a) plan at a max rate of either 3, 4 or 5% of their annual salary. The final percentage has yet to be determined.

Duncan outlined a few potential benefits of creating a match retirement fund for officers in this situation. It would offer an extra incentive to choose La Salle as an employer and set the city apart from other communities with similar salary offers.

The program also has the potential to save the city money. For example, hiring a younger officer with a $70,000 salary means the city also is contributing $70,000 to the pension. With the match program, the city would only be contributing between 3 and 5% of that salary.

“The little bit we would contribute to a match is much less than we would contribute to a pension,” Duncan said.

On the flip side, Duncan said the argument also can be made the city doesn’t need to contribute to officers’ retirement funds at all because an officer who has retired from a community already has a full pension. However, the overall reaction from the aldermen was in favor of the match program.

“I think we should definitely do that,” said Alderman Tom Ptak. “We’d have the opportunity to attract officers.”

Alderman Joe Jeppson agreed, saying it’s a great idea.

Since the city doesn’t have a program like this, Duncan said he’ll work with Nationwide Insurance on creating plans. The item is expected to appear on the City Council’s agenda to be voted on within the next few meetings.