Details of RTAC legal victory
January 10, 2008
RTAC WINS FOR THOSE RETIRED 1999 THRU 2004 WITH PETITION TO INTERVENE IN CPS LAWSUIT AGAINST PENSIONERS
by James F. Ward

Traditionally the salary deductions for pensions were deducted on the basis of a ten month school year with ten day pay periods as the unit of credit.  In 1999 the CPS designed school calendars that did not quite fit the system provided in the pension law for pension deductions.  This resulted in the unusual effect of having the pension salary be higher that the contractual salary. The CPS and the Pension Board accounted for the deductions as they always had with the pensions being slightly higher that they would have been with straight forward ten month calendars.  In these years the teachers and the CPS paid for the higher calculation.

Sometime in 2003 the CPS saw that their strangely shaped school calendars were not dividing the annual pay in equal parts and the yearly salaries were slightly higher than the contracted salary.  They said, “We will no longer pay on the higher calculation. Use the lower amount.”  The Pension Board said, “What is done is done.  We shall use the lower calculation prospectively, but we cannot change the benefits already granted to retirees from 1999 to 2004.”

The CPS sued in Circuit Court.  On June 15, 2007 the judge ruled the CPS is right because the pension salary should not be higher than the contractual salary.  But the judge did not, as of July 31, 2007, rule on what remedy should be imposed on the CPS, the Pension Board, or the 3500 pensioners.  On July 31, 2007 attorneys for RTAC filed a petition asking to be allowed to intervene in the case.  The judge’s decision was to grant the RTAC the right to be a party to the suit and represent the 3500 affected retirees.  RTAC instructed its attorneys to argue that the judge should hold the pensioners harmless and make no changes to their benefits because they come with clean hands.  They did nothing wrong but relied on the experts at the CPS and Pension Office to make irrevocable retirement decisions.  After months of nail biting and some $40,000 or more in legal fees, your RTAC board is proud to note that we won the case in late December.  What a Christmas present! 

In short, Judge Nancy J. Arnold dismissed the CPS lawsuit and even vacated her original decision that the original calculations were wrong.  She said the CPS had a limited time to file for corrections and the statutory time limit had expired.  Many of the 3500 affected pensioners may never know what RTAC did for them in not having their pensions reduced by 3-4% and paying back thousands of dollars in what the CPS claimed was “overpayments.” 

When you are looking for someplace to send donations, please keep RTAC in mind.  We need the money for the next emergency affecting Chicago teacher pensioners.  

Back to the RTAC home page