Council approves moving police and fire to higher PAR tier; village to pick up increased employee contribution share

Councilors approved a set of consent-agenda resolutions (items 4 through 8) that collectively move the police and fire departments into Public Employees Retirement Association (PAR) Plan 5 and pick up a larger portion of employee contributions for those public-safety employees.

Administrator Melanie Romero and the chiefs explained the change is the product of a yearlong process working with PAR representatives. Melanie said the move allows police and fire to access the highest plan available going forward; the village will pick up the remaining employee contribution so that officers and firefighters do not have higher paycheck deductions than before. For non-public-safety municipal employees, the village will reduce contribution rates (from roughly 12.65% to about 9%), with the village picking up a portion of required contributions for those staff.

Fire and police chiefs thanked the council for the approvals, calling the change "huge" for retention and recruitment. The police chief reported staffing would reach 16 of 17 sworn positions early the following week and that recruitment was ongoing; the fire chief said new hires were in training and that internal wildland and EMT training was under way.

Councilors asked technical questions about tier blending for employees with mixed PAR history and about the state-law limit (75% pickup cap). Staff responded with blended-calculation explanations and pledged to provide written policy language and implementation steps. The council approved the resolutions by roll-call votes during the meeting.