Excerpts from the DailyHerald.com:
Earlier this year, Buffalo Grove officials agreed to abide by court ruling requiring the village to pay full pension benefits to the widow of Firefighter Kevin Hauber, who died of colon cancer in January 2018.
Now Kimberly Hauber is asking the village pay health insurance benefits for her family also, arguing they are entitled under the Public Safety Employee Benefits Act, which provides health care benefits at the municipality’s expense to a firefighter who dies in the line of duty responding to an emergency.
The village board will decide Monday whether to convene a hearing to hear her claims. If Buffalo Grove trustees decide to convene the hearing, as village staff recommends, the village president would appoint a hearing officer to oversee the proceedings. If the village does not follow staff’s recommendation Monday, the Hauber family would receive the benefits.
Kevin Hauber, 51, died after a nearly 24-year career with the Buffalo Grove Fire Department. The village’s fire pension board later determined that his cancer was caused by his work as a firefighter, making his survivors eligible for full line-of-duty benefits. After the village disputed the finding, a Lake County judge ruled that Kimberly Hauber was eligible to receive about $101,549 a year in pension benefits. The village lost its appeal and decided not to ask the Illinois Supreme Court to consider the case.
After the pension case was resolved, the family applied for health benefits.
In recommending the hearing, Village Manager Dane Bragg contends that there is insufficient evidence to establish that Hauber’s cancer resulted from a response to an emergency situation. If there is evidence, Kimberly Hauber should have the opportunity to provide it at the hearing, he said.
#1 by FFPM571 on August 18, 2020 - 7:17 PM
Buffalo grove will waste more money fighting this again than it would be to just pay it. Chuck the Law is the Law. If I remember correctly his kids were younger and were still school age. That 101K don’t go very far when you have college to pay for in their futures… I guess having what is rightly yours under law is greed? Right???
#2 by Mike on August 18, 2020 - 10:31 AM
Fred the hang up is you can’t link it back to a certain response unlike if he had a building fall on him where it’s cut and dry.
#3 by Fred M on August 18, 2020 - 8:03 AM
Mike, why were the Health Benefits left out of the initial claim? I can only assume it was for legal reasons, as now the City will be hard pressed to decline Medical Benefits to a pension recipient under the Benefits Act.
#4 by Paul on August 18, 2020 - 5:45 AM
Chuck not to mention the fact that shes now a single parent with 4 kids. Don’t talk about what you don’t know, and take your crap somewhere else!!!
#5 by Mike on August 17, 2020 - 9:46 PM
Chuck why don’t you sit this one out. They are entitled to this benefit as her husband was a line of duty death as awarded by the cities pension board. The state law says she gets the healthcare. Maybe do some research before you go calling a widow and 4 fatherless children greedy.
#6 by Chuck on August 17, 2020 - 9:26 PM
Can’t pay for health insurance out of $101,000 tax free pension? Talk about greed.