1600 Recently Retired Teachers Getting Shafted?

Last week, there was lots of discussion about the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund (Back And Forth About The Chicago Teachers... ).  This week, a retired teacher sent in this letter (below) saying that he and hundreds of other recent retirees may be getting shorted on their benefits.  It's a little different from the previous issue -- take a look and write in or call the author if you want to get involved.

Here's the letter:

I retired from CPS last June along with 1600+ other teachers. I want get touch with these retirees ( especially those who also had some teaching at public schools in Illinois other than CPS) I believe that some or all of us are being shorted on our pension checks. Some of us possibly by more than 40%. Following is an email I wrote to the Chicago Tribune on 10/3/07 that explains how CPS is treating their retirees.

Thanks for taking time to speak with me earlier today. I hope you will be able to help me. My situation is as follows. I retired in June 2007. I worked 16 years in Chicago Public Schools (CPS) covered by the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund (CTPF) and 7 years in the suburbs covered by the Illinois Teachers Pension Service (TRS). Each pension pays their share proportionally. Before I retired I was told by CTPF that I would probably not receive my 1st check until Sept 1. When I did not get a check on Sept 1, CTPF told me that CPS had not sent them all of the payroll records yet and I would get a check on Oct1. When that didn't happen I was told that CPS had sent the payroll records but payroll #13 had errors so that they still could not send me a pension check, but Bill McGowan at CTPF told me I certainly should have one by November 1.

The people at CPS virtually never return your calls, but occasionally I speak to someone. Mostly I  have talked to Ray Sanders in payroll. The last time I spoke with him was Wed. 9/29/07. He said that that CTPF had everything they needed from CPS including a corrected payroll #13. On the same day I spoke with Pat Hambrick, the chief operating officer at CTPF. She made it very clear to me that CPS had not sent them a correct and error free payroll #13 and that I could not receive a pension check until it was received.

After that conversation I left 2 messages for Angela Alonzo ( the head of payroll at CPS). She did not return my call until I started leaving messages for her superior, Ascendion Juraez (the head of human resources at CPS). When I spoke Alonzo she also seemed to be under the impression that CPS had sent everything over to CTPF that was needed including a correct payroll#13. This shocked me because Pat Hambrick ( C.O.O. of the CTPF) said this was not the case and indicated that she had been in touch with CPS on a regular basis to make them aware of this fact. Before I got off the phone with Angela Alonzo on Tuesday 10/2, she said she would get in touch with Pat Hambrick on Wed. and call to let me know what happened. She said she would definitely call me Wed. even if she did not get a chance to speak to Pat Hambrick. When I did not receive a call by 4:55 pm on Wed, I called Angela Alonzo. The person who answered the phone  (I believe it was Ms Porter) said Ms Alonzo was in a meeting, but when she was told I was on the phone, she said she would call me back today as soon as the meeting was over. It is now 9:00 pm so it is safe to assume that her promise to call me is not going to happen.

The last rep I spoke to at CTPF told me that if they get what they need from CPS payroll soon, they should have all the records fully audited by the end of the calendar year. This would mean I would hopefully get my 1st check on Feb 1, but that is only if CPS sends correct payroll records which they seem unable or unwilling to do. In fact they don't seem to be willing to even admit that there is a problem.

As I  said on the phone, there were over 1600 CPS retirees in June 2007. This problem mainly affects those with reciprocal service in another Illinois Pension system ( mainly . TRS). I have no way of knowing how many of us there are. I would guess about 100, but TRS could probably give you an exact figure. At this point I have received no regular pension checks. I also have received no checks to reimburse  me part of my out of pocket health insurance expenses which I am also entitled to.  CTPF has sent me 2 advance checks which  totals less than 60% of what my net check ( after taxes) would be if I had been receiving my regular pension checks and health insurance reimbursement.

I don't enjoy rocking the boat. Believe me it is humiliating to spend countless hours on the phone begging for my money. Your help will be greatly appreciated. Please feel free to contact me through email or on my cell phone 847-830-4257. Thank you. Michael Bortz

Comments

[Barb]

I am one of those people. I have talked to many of the same people. My most recent conversation was with Rebeca Harris of CTPF on October 2nd who informed me that this should be resolved hopefully by January. From what CTPF says it is all dealing with payroll #13. We were informed during several meetings that I attended prior to retiring that we should plan financially to cover ourselves until October, which I did. However, waiting until January or February I feel is totally unacceptable.

In regards to benefits I wanted to continue my life insurance with the board through Prudential. I have contacted Human Resources several times who have told me almost every other week since August that we should be receiving something in the mail so we could continue coverage. During my last phone call I was told to call Prudential, when I did they told me that this is a group policy and only the Board could call them.

[Michael]

Barb, sounds like you are having problems also. There is strength in numbers. Lets talk further. call or email me at teachercpsmab@yahoo.com This problem may not go away on its own because CPS says there is no problems and they have supplied CTPF with all info they need for payroll #13. In other words, a stalemate with retirees getting the shaft. Thanks Michael Bortz

I thought CPS retirees get no insurance. Is this not true?

[George Schmidt]

People who are trying to get help having CPS provde the information to calculate "reciprocal" service (in this case with the TRS) are not the only ones facing problems.

Many of the problems can easily be laid at the door of CPS and its crazed policies. Two of these are mercenaries and dysfunctional "deficit" driven cuts. The first involves outsourcing key funtions to mercenaries (the People Soft debacle). That mess has left the integrity of the payroll systems in question, as thousands know. The second policy involved cutting trained direct service staff (last year's "administrative" cuts, which actually dumped clerks on the streets while expanding the number of $100,000 per year people at the top).

Both of these are policies, proposed by Arne Duncan and approved by the Board of Education. They are driven by a dysfunctional ideology that seeks to privatize as much as possible (People Soft; IMPACT; worse in the capital programs) and eliminate as many direct service employees as possible (the messes at Payroll and Personnel).

I know that some people don't want to attribute causality here, but those are the facts of history. One the sad thing is that everyone is suffering except the contractors (and sub-contractors, and consultants) who have gotten those "cost plus plus plus" deals and the top dogs in the $100,000 per year corps who surround the palace like Praetorians (or are dispatched to the provinces to put down rebellions when people figure out they've been lied to and are being cheated).

Now to current events, both the general impact of all of the Daley administration's incompetence on the schools in general, the recently retired teachers in particular, and the retired teachers entitled to reciprocity with TRS most particularly.

Yesterday at the RTAC (Retired Teachers Association of Chicago), the CTPF people told the (large, filled the State Ballroom on the 4th floor) group that CPS had failed to provide the complete information on the final payrolls and that this year's retirees were getting interim pension checks until CPS straightened out its problems and they could calculate the complete amount.

I'll be following this story, majorly. But if it's a choice between the CTPF explanation and the explanation coming from the people who put in People Soft (and simultanrously cut just about everyone who understood payroll from the front lines), I think CTPF has more credibility. Even with the recent scandal over investments with Mayor Daley's family, CTPF has been much more professional in due dilligence, staff training, and maintaining the integrity of its work.

At this point in history, the person you talk with at CPS may only have been working there one year (or less) thanks to last year's cuts and may still be trying to learn the difference between Bogan and Bowen.

[mq]

WoW! I felt bad because they have my pension checks all screwed up and the board is in the worst shape its ever been in. I retired in June and I went back to work as a sub in a critical need area because I can't live on the estimated amount that they are giving me on my estimated pension check. They told me to call back next month. That eventually it will get straightened out. I took the ERO and its just unbelievable that we have no recourse. What about the Union? When I went back to work it took two weeks for my fingerprints to clear and I don't know if they ever wouldve called me to let me know. I had to make 3 trips to Elizabeth st. and 3 trips to Clark St. Who ever heard of having half your human resources at one location and half at the other location? What was wrong with 39th st. Wasnt it Arnie that came up with this wonderful alternative.

[George Schmidt]

October 6, 12:53.

How many times did they "lose" your fingerprints at Elizabeth St.?

Anyone with a clear eye would call it sabotage.

And anyone with a clear head would see that it's deliberate. All that prattle about "accountability" and Arne Duncan's still running the mess he created? Give me a break. Even Citicorp is about to hold its latest "CEO" accountable as a result of that disaster in unique investment thingies he encouraged diving into. (See yesterday's New York Times business section for the lengthy details). Only under crony capitalism and in a kleptocracy like CPS does "accountability" simply become a way of dumping on the heads of the peasants (and trying to make the peasants, from the children to the principals think its our fault).

Do you think this system is rewarding people for doing a decent job in public schools' classrooms or for those who work in public schools?

Just listen to the teacher bashing conversations on the 5th floor (Arne's palace guard; and "New Schools"), the 6th floor ("Communications" and the Board), or the 7th Floor ("Law"). These people are being trained and paid $100,000 or more to teacher bash and sabotage public schools. That's why most of the highest paid people now working in the top ranks at CPS had the same crucial qualification Arne Duncan did -- absolutely no professional training or experience in a real Chicago public school. (I'd love to insert a lurid metaphor or two at this point, but won't because some of the Limbaughs out there would go nuts if I compared Arne to the whore who still believed he was a virgin, or something Chicago like that...).

These people have insulated themselves inside a Green Zone of teacher bashing and public school hating nonsense, blaring inside their heads louder than their iPods.

Welcome to the New Age.

This is about destroying, not improving, the public schools of Chicago for most people. That's why the Chicago Boys are now running the New Orleans schools, too.

Arne is trying to replace as many public schools as possible as fast as possible under "Renaissance 2010." He's encouraging every other teacher bashing program that can come out of places like The University of Chicago and other right-wing think tanks as quickly as he can, the nutsier the better. Woe to anyone who actually knows how to teacher real children in a real urban school (or even to principal in one). These creeps do not want to know how to do that, because their objec tive is the same as their soul-mates in Baghdad: privatize as fast as possible; make as much money as possible; ignore the screams and bodies and get out as fast as possible.

[Charlie]

Limbaugh is the one who uses the lurid metaphors, not the one who calls others out for using them...get your metaphors straight...You want to turn this blog into the Jerry Springer Show, go ahead, but count me out.

No, what Limbaugh does is delberately pounce on one part of a person's comment and interpret it for the audience as a slur to somebody else in order to incite his followers (who clearly must have auditory memory and discrim problems) to riot.

But hey, thanks for the terrific working example, Charile.

to 12:53 -

My first thought when they sent HR to Elizabeth Street was that Arne wanted to make sure that if anybody went postal, they wouldn't be anywhere near 125.

Isn't that why payroll's been at Medill?

[Drag the baby to Idiot (Elizabeth) Street]

12:53 Why would a recently retired teacher who wants to sub need to be fingerprinted? It took this teacher six trips just to get rehired as a sub! Maybe this is why we are short of certified teachers.
A young teacher at my school had to bring her baby to Elizabeth Street to prove that she had adopted even though CPS had the doctor's exam for the baby, the new birth certificate and all of the paperwork from the adoption agency. Some administrative idiot came out of his office to look at the baby who really could have been anyone's baby. CPS is full of idiots making big bucks.

It is a shame that a teacher has to go to work after retirement to make ends meet
What are all those retired principals and AIO getting paid to do at 125?
And How much?

[George Schmidt]

In addition to drawing pensions that begin at around $80,000 a year (I'll have the information precisely under a FOIA by November 1), the principals and other administrators who kissed ass long enough and thoroughly enough generally are drawing between $60,000 and $110,000 a year for their consulting and other work. The low end includes the Ed Klunks. The high end, Bill Rice and Buzz Sawyer. Remember, too, that many of the highest paid retirees at the trough are drawing Municipal Employee pensions. The Municipal Fund, at least as late as a year ago, refuses to provide the complete data on pensioners. CTPF views it as a FOIA request.

It's even better than than, George. The City Hall invasion of central administrators who were never teachers make that kind of money, most with no more than a bachelors degree in who knows what (meaning not even in governmental administration or planning, much less educational administration or leadership).

They are indeed Municipal Fund employees, like aldermen, firefighters, police, etc.
Their pensions max out at 80% of their working salaries, not 75 like ours.

That's one of the things they did not 'equalize' when they blurred the line between Board and City empoloyees.

City employees also gained paid days off for school holidays that Board employees received.

And teachers? They leveled our playing field by reducing our health plan benefits to 'match' that of the City.

Only recently has Arne's salary been posted on The Champion website. That database is comprehensive for most other districts because their administrators have educational background and credentials as principals, superintendents and school business officials.

You won't find information on non-certified staff on that site, but even if you could, it would probably not include all the bonuses this crowd has awarded itself for beating down the Union and getting 'these' teachers in line.

[Nicholas]

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