Section 6 - IMRF

Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund Member Accounts / Past Service / Employer Resolutions / SECTION 6
Example 5
A County Board member is paid $100 per meeting and $500 extra to be a committee chairperson. In
his last 12 months of office, he attended 53 meetings. You should report his final annual salary as
$5,800 (53 times $100 plus $500).
Example 6
A County Board President is paid $6,000 per year as salary. Your Board President decides to also act
as liquor commissioner and is paid an additional $1,200. You should report his final annual salary as
$7,200.
e. Vacation, Sick Leave, Personal Leave, etc.
Normally, elected officials do not earn and are not paid for unused vacation, sick leave, personal leave
or other such forms of paid leave. However, an occasion may arise that a non-elected employee
becomes an elected official, and the County permits them to carry over any unpaid leave to their
elected position.
Upon termination of office, the official may be eligible for payment of such unpaid leave earned in the
former non-elected position. If the monies are paid before termination or the first month after
termination, the monies are reportable earnings and employee contributions are deductible.
However, those payments may not be reported for a terminating ECO member as either the member’s
final annual salary or the member’s stipend. These payments are neither salary nor stipends as those
terms apply when determining an elected official’s retirement benefit.
f. Determining an Original ECO plan member’s final earnings
If a county has officials participating in the Original Elected County Official (ECO) plan (official
joined ECO prior to January 26, 2000), reporting an original ECO member’s final earnings can be
complicated. When calculating an original ECO retirement benefit, IMRF must use the official’s salary
at the termination of service.
There is no requirement that the final salary be in effect for any stated period of time. The number of
payments or their amount in the official’s last month or year becomes irrelevant. What is crucial is the
annual salary rate at which the official was paid on his or her last day of office. NOTE: The member
must have worked in the position for at least 600 or 1,000 hours (as applicable) in order for the salary
of that position to be used as the final earnings.
Example 7
At the beginning of the official’s term, the salary is set at $40,000 with 3% increases authorized for the
second, third, and fourth years ($40,000; $41,200; $42,436; and $43,709). The term begins on
December 1 and the salary increases occur annually each December 1 st thereafter.
If the official completes his or her term and retires, the ECO retirement benefit will be calculated using
a final salary of $43,709. The $43,709 is the salary in effect at the time of retirement. It is an annual
number.
Example 8
Facts are the same as in the previous example except the official resigns and leaves office on
December 3 of his or her fourth year in office. The official will have been in office for 3 days during
the $43,709 salary schedule. Although the official has not held office for the entire fourth year, the
salary in effect at the time of retirement is $43,709. The ECO retirement benefit will be calculated
using that amount as the final salary.
g. Determining a Revised ECO plan member’s final earnings
If a county has officials participating in the Revised Elected County Official (ECO) Plan (official
joined ECO on or after January 26, 2000), the Revised ECO member’s final rate of earnings (FRE) is
calculated in the same manner as the Regular Plan FRE. However, a separate FRE is calculated for
each elected county position the member held in the same county. The ECO monthly FRE does not
include any lump sum payments for vacation, sick leave, overtime, personal leave, etc.
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