Time moves ever so slowly for the Village of Lake Orion’s DPW Director John Ranville. He’s been trying to talk village officials into improving their retirement program for non-union employees since 1989.
Ranville’s been working for the village’s department of public works going on 37 years.
‘I will be retiring. I can’t stick around here. I’m losing money, ? he told village council members on Jan. 26.
Unfortunately, he’s not 60.
Under his current program with the Municipal Employees Retirement System, he has to be 60 years old. Ranville’s asking that it be changed to age 55 with full benefits after 30 years of service.
According to LO Village Manager JoAnn Van Tassel, the DPW/Clerical Union already has that retirement program. The Police Union has 50/25 for employees hired prior to July 1, 1999 and 55/25 for employees hired after that date.
Ranville said if he would retire early without any changes in the current program he would lose 30 percent of his pension.
‘Before any change in the MERS benefit can be implemented, the regulations require a valuation study be done by the MERS actuaries,? Van Tassel said.
She indicated the cost for the study would be $500 but would cover all non-union employees impacted by the change.
The only other two affected would be LO Police Chief Jerry Narsh and zoning/planning coordinator Nancy Stauffer.
‘Neither Arlene Nichols (village clerk) and Jan Adams (village treasurer) are likely to become 25 year employees because of their age when they became village employees,? Van Tassel said.
The valuation would determine the village’s financial burden if the change is implemented.
‘It will be a financial impact,? councilman Harry Stephen said. ‘We’ll have to fund this at the end of his working career.?
Village council members decided to go ahead with the valuation. They have up to one year to adopt any changes after the study is done.
They showed no interest in investigating another request by Ranville that he also receive an E1 benefit that would increase the dollar amount received by a retiree by 2.5 percent annually.