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Janu ar y 21, 2016 • $1 .0 0
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NIU Art Museum features works from its own faculty / C1
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KishHealth officials host merger forum By BRITTANY KEEPERMAN bkeeperman@shawmedia.com SYCAMORE – KishHealth System officials said they plan to address communitywide concern over mental health care access in DeKalb County but have no plans to open an inpatient mental health unit in the near future, KishHealth President and CEO Kevin Poorten said
Wednesday. “We do have limited resources,” he told a crowd at the Gathertorium during an informational meeting hosted by the DeKalb County Board. “Just like any business.” KishHealth leaders used the community forum to provide information and answer questions about how it would operate as part of Northwestern Medicine. Northwestern
Medicine’s parent company, Northwestern Memorial HealthCare, acquired KishHealth in a deal that was finalized Dec. 1. KishHealth operates two hospitals, the 98-bed Kishwaukee Hospital in DeKalb and the 25-bed Valley West Hospital in Sandwich, and more than a dozen clinics and health facilities in the DeKalb County area, includ-
GOP: Put CPS under control of state board
ing the Ben Gordon Center, which KishHealth acquired in the fall. “Partnering with Ben Gordon, that is truly a good way to demonstrate our commitment to behavioral health in the community,” said Michael Kokott, assistant vice president of marketing and planning for KishHealth. KishHealth plans to expand services under the Ben
Gordon umbrella by creating an intensive outpatient treatment program for youth who struggle with substance abuse and add group therapy for adults, Kokott said. “We’re targeting to open that as early perhaps as this summer,” he said. The youth program would be based at one of the existing Ben Gordon Center locations, most likely at 12 Health Ser-
vices Drive and potentially at the First Street location as well, said Kim Volk, director of KishHealth System Behavioral Health Services, the department responsible for oversight of Ben Gordon Center. Intensive outpatient programs provide a higher level of care than traditional,
See FORUM, page A6
COSTS OF DOING BUSINESS
By SARA BURNETT and SOPHIA TAREEN The Associated Press CHICAGO – Backed by Gov. Bruce Rauner, top Illinois Republicans called Wednesday for a state takeover of the financially troubled Chicago Public Schools, which faces a nearly $1 billion budget deficit that could lead to thousands of teacher layoffs and a possible strike in a matter of months. Senate GOP Leader Christine Radogno called the plan a “lifeline” for CPS, and Rauner said it’s a way to protect children and taxpayers, although Democrats quickly shot down the idea. Radogno and House Republican Leader Jim Durkin said the legislation would give the Illinois State Board of Education control over the nation’s third-largest school district. They also noted that GOP lawmakers may reveal a bankruptcy plan for CPS and the city of Chicago in the coming weeks, but didn’t offer many details. “What we’re proposing is a lifeline,” Radogno said of CPS, which has a massive unfunded pension liability. “We didn’t come to this lightly, but the track record of Chicago and its public school system is abysmal.” The plan calls for the state schools superintendent, who is chosen by a governor-appointed board, to name up to seven members of an independent authority that would essentially replace Chicago’s school board, which is chosen by the mayor. They also would negotiate teacher contracts, although Republicans said the authority wouldn’t be able to “unilaterally cancel or modify” existing agreements. At least seven districts in Illinois have come under state management since 2003, including East St. Louis in 2012, which was fought hard by people in the struggling St. Louis suburb. Rauner announced his support for the takeover not long after Radogno and Durkin’s news conference, saying a new board and superintendent would “stand up for children and stand up for taxpayers the way the current administration has failed to do.” He also said that would include standing firm in negotiations with the Chicago Teachers Union on a new contract rather than using state money to help CPS,
See SCHOOLS, page A4
Photos by Danielle Guerra – dguerra@shawmedia.com
On his last day on the job with the DeKalb Fire Department, Deputy Chief Greg Hoyle talks to his firefighters Jan. 14 at the scene of an apartment fire on Lucinda Avenue in DeKalb across from Northern Illinois University. Hoyle retired after 30 years with the department.
City officials defend raises to top police, fire leaders Negative debt rating because of pension liabilities led city to increase tax levy By BRITTANY KEEPERMAN bkeeperman@shawmedia.com DeKALB – DeKalb officials stand by decisions to promote police and fire department leaders – in some cases giving out double-digit raises – despite the city’s debated tax levy raise to cover the departments’ pension funds. The City Council in December voted to raise its property tax levy this year specifically to fund police and fire pension costs at a higher level. The owner of a $150,000 home will pay about $458 in annual property tax to the city this year, not including a $500,000 increase in the DeKalb Public Library’s levy request to cover withheld payments from the state.
Combined, DeKalb levied a total of $7.9 million, a more than 12 percent raise from last year. Six people within the police, fire and public works departments were promoted in July as a result of a $56,000 study by Sikich LLP, which examined salaries, benefits and performance reviews for the city’s 35 nonunion positions. The study also reviewed job descriptions for all fulltime city positions. The promotions were aimed at addressing “compression” – where a lower-level employee can earn more with overtime pay than a manager – and planning for the future. “It became very apparent that we had various suc-
cession planning issues,” DeKalb City Manager Anne Marie Gaura said. “It is best to be proactive. We knew there were retirements coming up, so we had to put a system in place to have the next level supervisor ready to stand up and take that responsibility.” DeKalb Deputy Fire Chief Greg Hoyle retired from the force after 30 years last week. He had recently received a more than 10 percent raise, which will lead to a higher pension. His salary in 2014 was $117,509, and he retired with a salary of $129,492, according to city documents. Jeff McMaster was one of those promoted and became co-deputy fire chief in July, working alongside Hoyle. He
DeKalb Police Chief Gene Lowery speaks during a panel discussion about nonviolence and the inspiration of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. during Monday’s grand opening of the DeKalb Public Library expansion. received a 16 percent salary increase from 2014 to 2015 and earned $126,456 in 2015, according to city documents. The average DeKalb firefighter will earn between about $62,800 and about $84,500 annually, with deputy chiefs entering those six figure salaries. Fire Chief Eric Hicks earned about $138,000 in 2015, up 10.2 percent from 2014. Assistant Finance Director Robert Miller said it was difficult to tell what financial impact the restructuring will have on the city’s future pension costs. “Pension is based on sal-
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NIU women’s basketball team loses to Bowling Green / B1
DeKalb County Board approves lawsuit asking state to pay officials / A3
Maple Park’s police chief eyes May retirement / A3
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ary, so obviously the more they make, the more gets kicked in,” he said. “Pension as a whole should be roughly the same, as long as salaries are close to the same. … On our end, if a fund doesn’t perform well, then the city has got to adjust their levy based on the fund’s performance.” DeKalb had been funding police and fire pensions at the lowest level allowed by law, but that wasn’t sustainable, officials said. Unfunded pension liabilities contributed to the negative outlook that Moody’s
See RAISES, page A6
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