Pension Padding

It's suburban, but hints at issues here:

• A Cook County judge has ordered the halting of an unusual police retirement pay tactic that critics said improperly padded pensions and played a role in a scandal that sent a retired suburban chief to prison.
  
  For years, retiring police officers in west suburban Countryside had been given a one-time $850 pay bump that, through a controversial interpretation of Illinois pension law, dramatically boosted a retiree's pension. It has boosted the amount some retirees have individually collected over the years by more than $200,000.
  
  The state has long deemed the tactic illegal, as has the city of Countryside, which funds the pensions. The suburb stopped setting aside cash for the spiked portion of pensions five years ago. But pensions are set by separate boards controlled by officers and retirees, and the suburb's pension board kept paying out the more generous pensions anyway to new retirees.

Here in Chicago, we have numerous persons, who never passed a single promotional exam, collecting six-figure pensions that they never would have otherwise qualified for. Lawmakers like Shortshanks, are able to roll numerous part-time pensions into something that can only be described as overly generous, along with post-retirement gigs. Hell, even Luberman tried to steal a pension from the CPD, combining time from numerous city departments into one giant pension. That was blocked, but a commentator says he is somehow listed as having 17 years at the CTA, without ever having driven a bus.

Serious fixes are needed, but there's no one serious in charge.