Excerpts from the ChicagoTribune.com:
The family of 51-year-old Buffalo Grove Firefighter Kevin Hauber was granted a full pension benefit by the pension board, which ruled his fatal cancer was caused in the line of duty.
The ruling, which was approved on a 3-2 vote Friday by the Buffalo Grove Fire Department Pension Board, can be appealed by Village of Buffalo Grove officials who have to pay the pension benefit to the family of the veteran firefighter/paramedic who died in January, roughly four years after being diagnosed with colon cancer .
Following the vote, Buffalo Grove officials said they have not yet decided whether to challenge the ruling but added that the board’s full pension award for Hauber’s type of cancer is unprecedented.
The death-in-the-line-of-duty benefit would ensure Hauber’s wife and four young daughters receive his full annual salary. Conversely, the compensation to a firefighter’s family, who is granted a non-duty-disability pension, typically is a percentage of the employee’s final salary, ranging from 50 percent and upward.
During the pension board hearing Friday, an attorney representing the Hauber family, said two of the three doctors who conducted independent medical reports on the case concluded that Hauber’s death from cancer likely was related to his work as a firefighter. Before the board’s vote, an attorney for the Village of Buffalo Grove who described the case as tragic, urged board members to make their decision based on the evidence, saying “… there’s virtually no evidence at all that this is a line-of-duty pension.”
The three pension board members who voted in favor of granting the full benefit included Buffalo Grove firefighters Dan Pasquarella, and Josh Himmelspach, and retired firefighter Thomas Gough. The village’s human resource director, Art Malinowski, and village resident Ed McKee, voted against granting the duty-related death pension.
Village officials now have 35 days to decide whether to file a motion with the Lake County Circuit Court and appeal the pension’s board’s administrative decision granting the Hauber family the duty-related death benefit.
In a statement, Deputy Village Manager Jennifer Maltas said Buffalo Grove officials will wait to decide whether to appeal the ruling until Clifford, the pension board’s attorney, submits findings of fact, which outline the basis for which the pension board made its decision Friday.
“First and foremost, the Village of Buffalo Grove continues to mourn the loss of firefighter and paramedic Kevin Hauber,” she said. “The village has the responsibility to be the stewards of the taxpayer dollars. Given that there is no precedent for the award of an enhanced pension for this type of cancer, it is not clear whether the pension board’s decision today is consistent with the standards set forth in state law.”
thanks Dan
