[Peace-discuss] Craig Bazzani

[Carl G. Estabrook]

...Bazzani, now 65, says he deserves his pension because he ...  
authorized arrests of student protesters...

\Well-known in Urbana-Champaign and Springfield, Bazzani has an annual  
public policy lecture series named after him...

"There's nothing I have done ever in my career that has been  
unethical," he said. "It sickens me a little bit to have to personally  
go through this."

Bazzani said his motives in requesting a police pension were  
unselfish. He said he and other university officials wanted to ensure  
that future employees who had "bundled" or varied responsibilities  
also be recognized appropriately by the retirement system.

He first tried to qualify for a police officer's pension in 1988, five  
years after he was given oversight of some of the university system's  
law enforcement functions. When he was rebuffed by SURS staff, who  
argued that Bazzani did not do actual police work, university  
officials gave him the title of director of police. Again SURS  
rejected his application.

...he was the university's first director of police — and he was also  
the last. Only one other U. of I. administrator whose main  
responsibilities were outside the Police Department has claimed the  
police formula.

Bazzani said his only financial motive was the ability to put an extra  
1.5 percent of his salary into the pension fund before taxes.

But records show that retiring under the police formula provided  
additional financial benefits. Because the police formula allows  
participants to accrue pension credits more quickly, Bazzani was able  
to reach the maximum payout of 80 percent of his final salary by age  
55. Had he retired under the regular formula, he would have received  
about 72 percent of his average salary during his last 48 months.

Those factors boosted his pension during his first year of retirement  
by nearly $32,000. Since then, because Illinois provides a generous  
cost-of-living adjustment to all retirees equal to 3 percent interest  
compounded annually, the difference has grown to about $42,000 last  
year...

Hired at the U. of I. in 1977 as an executive assistant making $35,000  
a year, Bazzani quickly rose in the ranks. By 1983 he was named vice  
president for business and finance.

Minutes from the U. of I. board meeting when he was appointed describe  
his job as a "general business officer." But Bazzani said he also had  
police-related duties and that in 1983, several months after assuming  
the position, he took the police oath and was given a badge. He said  
he still keeps it in his car.

"I never stopped and said to anyone, 'Hey, I want to be a cop.' This  
came at the board's request," Bazzani said.

In 1987 or 1988, Bazzani said, a university Police Department employee  
mentioned that there was a different retirement formula for police  
officers. Bazzani asked SURS whether he could use that special  
formula. His request was rejected.

"As Chief Financial Officer, you do not perform the duties of or  
assume the risk of a Police Officer," wrote Donald Hoffmeister, then  
executive director of SURS. "Without clarifying legislation, I urge  
you not to claim the police formula."

Bazzani persisted. He said he worked with university legal counsel and  
the president to formally add "director of police" to his titles, a  
move accepted by university trustees and the Civil Service Merit Board.

Stanley Ikenberry, the U. of I. president who endorsed the police  
director title, said the change was meant to "clarify his  
responsibilities." Ikenberry said it was important to have a high- 
level administrator in charge of security issues. "The issues of both  
white-collar and violent crime, all of those issues occur in  
universities just like any aspects of society," Ikenberry said.

After obtaining the title, Bazzani petitioned SURS staff twice more in  
1988 to allow him to contribute to his retirement fund under the  
police formula, according to SURS documents. The SURS board ultimately  
rejected his request in December 1988.

Hoffmeister said he continues to believe that having the university's  
chief financial officer admitted into a pension for police officers  
"isn't logical."

"He had an important job and did a good job," said Hoffmeister, now  
80. "He knows all the ins and outs, and what he has done is legal, but  
I sure don't think it's right."

[...]

On Jun 26, 2012, at 4:34 PM, David Green wrote:

> Check out these two links:
>
> http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/education/ct-met-pension-bazzani-20120622,0,1844411,full.story
>
> http://igpa.uillinois.edu/public-engagement/bazzani/about
>
>
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