chicagoareafire.com

Keeping track of Chicago area fire departments

Posts Tagged Buffalo Grove Fire Department Pension Board

Buffalo Grove Fire Department news (more)

Aug 17

Posted by Admin in Fire Department News | 6 Comments

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.

Tags: , , , , , ,

Buffalo Grove Fire Department news (more)

Feb 6

Posted by Admin in Fire Department News | 2 Comments

Excerpts from the DailyHerald.com:

Buffalo Grove will not ask the Illinois Supreme Court to overturn a landmark lower court ruling that grants full pension benefits to the widow of Kevin Hauber, a village firefighter who died in 2018 after a four-year battle with colon cancer.

Village Manager Dave Bragg announced the decision in a written statement Tuesday, stating that while the village continues to disagree with the decision, it will no longer challenge it in court. The decision to end the litigation comes a little more than two weeks after a state appellate court upheld a Lake County judge’s decision awarding a full pension — about $101,549 a year — to Kimberly Hauber.

Kevin Hauber, 51, died in January 2018, 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. The village disputed the finding, arguing that Hauber’s family instead should receive 75% of his pension, about $76,161 a year. The difference, according to the village, will amount to about $1.7 million.

Tags: , , , , ,

Buffalo Grove Fire Department news (more)

Dec 11

Posted by Admin in Fire Department News | 1 Comment

Excerpts from the ChicagoTribune.com:

The financial future of the family of a 51-year-old Buffalo Grove firefighter who died of colon cancer will soon be decided by a trio of appellate court judges who on Tuesday began considering a decision to award his widow and their four children her late husband’s full pension benefits.

The case involves the Village of Buffalo Grove’s appeal to the Second District Appellate Court to overturn a 100% line of duty death pension benefit award to the family of late Firefighter Kevin Hauber. The move to award full pension benefits was approved by the village’s Firefighters’ Pension Board in 2018 and upheld earlier this year by a Lake County Circuit Court judge.

Village officials said earlier this year that they appealed the lower court’s ruling to award Kevin Hauber’s widow the 100% line of duty death pension benefit award due to concerns that it could set what they described as, a dangerous and costly legal precedent. The village attorney said while Kevin Hauber provided 23 years of honorable service to the village, including some 127 calls that involved a fire, the burden of proof to receive the 100% line of duty benefit was not met under the state’s statutory requirements.

“There is no direct evidence of whether he was actually exposed to carcinogens and toxic smoke” that caused him to develop colon cancer, Nichols said.

One of the attorneys representing the Hauber family, disagreed, saying that the village’s job description for firefighters states that part of the job duties involve situations where they will be exposed to various toxic substances, including carcinogenic materials.

Appellate Justice Joseph Birkett on Tuesday said the lower court before making a ruling reviewed Hauber’s medical history, which found no history of colon cancer in his family, which was affirmed by genetic testing.

“He was 51, and otherwise in good health, and was not a drinker, and there’s no genetic predisposition found, and he was exposed to fires. The village’s own job description describes exposure to toxic substances,” Birkett said. “Firefighters are exposed to cancerous substances, and in this case, there’s proof in the record that he was exposed to smoke and chemicals.”

The village attorney told the justices to consider that Hauber never filed a formal complaint with the department regarding concerns about any incidents in which he may have been exposed to toxic chemicals.

Village officials have said that Hauber’s widow and daughters are entitled to a surviving spouse benefit, which is equal to 75% of her late husband’s final salary of $101,549, or $76,161 annually. The Buffalo Grove Firefighters Pension Board awarded the additional pension benefit of about $25,000 annually to the Hauber family, a ruling based on the pension board’s conclusion that his service as a firefighter caused his colon cancer, of which he died in January 2018.

Village officials have said previously that they appealed the lower court judge’s ruling to uphold the 100% pension benefit to the Hauber family, as it would cost the village an estimated additional $1.7 million due to the line of duty death award.

Tags: , , , , ,

Buffalo Grove Fire Department news (more)

Mar 9

Posted by Admin in Fire Department News | 2 Comments

Excerpts from the cookcountyrecord.com:

After a judge decided a pension board could award the widow of a firefighter who died of colon cancer an additional $1.7 million, the village of Buffalo Grove has asked a state appeals court to weight in, maintaining its argument the pension board needs more evidence the firefighter’s death can be directly connected to his service as a firefighter.

“This is the first known decision in the State of Illinois where a firefighter’s widow has been awarded the maximum 100 percent line of duty death pension without having to prove that specific acts of duty during the firefighter’s service actually caused (or contributed to) the death,” the village said in a press release announcing the appeal.

The appeal to the Illinois Second District Appellate Court comes about a month since Lake County Circuit Judge Diane Winter backed the Buffalo Gove Firefighters’ Pension Fund Board in its dispute with the village over the pension awarded to the wife of Buffalo Grove Firefighter Kevin Hauber.

Kevin Hauber died of colon cancer in January 2018, and was 51 years old at the time of his death. He had served since 1994 in the fire department. He was diagnosed with cancer in 2014. While undergoing treatment, Hauber applied in October 2014 for a line-of-duty pension benefit. However, he returned to duty less than a year later and withdrew the application.

But in 2017, Hauber’s cancer returned, leading to his death a few months later. Before he died, Hauber applied again for a line-of-duty pension. The pension board evaluated that application in the summer of 2017, soliciting three independent medical evaluations of Hauber’s condition to determine if firefighting made him more likely to suffer this particular kind of cancer. After his death, two of the three medical evaluators indicated they believed it was possible.

The village, however, said more evidence was required because, the village claimed, two of the three doctors – both oncologists – did not “identity any aspect of … Hauber’s particular service as a firefighter that appeared to actually cause or contribute to his colon cancer.”

The pension board approved Hauber’s pension request, prompting the village to ask the courts to review the decision to award the enhanced benefit, which they estimated would conservatively add at least $1.7 million to the total lifetime payout to Hauber’s wife. Under a line-of-duty pension, Hauber’s widow would receive 100 percent of her late husband’s salary as an annuity, rather than the usual 75 percent under a non-line-of-duty pension.

According to the village, a standard pension would entitle a surviving spouse benefit of $76,162 per year. Under a line-of-duty pension, she would receive $101,549 per year.

After months of proceedings in Lake County court, Judge Winter sided in early February 2019 with the pension board, saying the medical evaluations and other research relied upon by the board sufficed. In her ruling, Judge Winter noted a number of specific calls Hauber purportedly responded to in his 23 year firefighting career, which likely exposed him to toxic inhalants and other hazards. She also noted Hauber “was in apparent good health and physical condition” and “didn’t have any of the factors typically responsible for contributing to the development of colon cancer.” She said tests also did not reveal a genetic predisposition to cancer in Hauber.

“The village has demanded that there be strict proof of specific occurrences in firefighter Hauber’s firefighting career that caused or contributed to his cancer,” Judge Winter said, according to the transcript. “With an illness such as cancer, such proof is unreasonable and certainly not required” under state law which requires “only … a showing of the cumulative effects of acts of duty over time…”

“The village asserts there is no evidence to link Kevin Hauber’s cancer to his career as a firefighter, and that’s simply untrue. There may not be a lot of evidence, but the Illinois Pension Code only requires some evidence as the pension board engages in its literal construction of determining Kim Hauber’s entitlement to a line-of-duty surviving spouse benefit,” the judge said.

In a prepared statement in the village’s news release announcing its appeal, Buffalo Grove Village Manager Dane Bragg said village officials “continue to mourn the loss of Kevin Hauber and are grateful for the contributions he made to our community.” But he said, the village continues to believe “the burden of proof to receive the additional pension benefit was not met under the statutory requirements.”

Tags: , , , , , ,

Buffalo Grove Fire Department news (more)

Feb 5

Posted by Admin in Cancer in the fire service, Fire Department News | 1 Comment

Excerpts from the ChicagoTribune.com:

Lake County Circuit Court Judge Diane Winter ruled Tuesday that the family of 51-year-old Buffalo Grove Firefighter Kevin Hauber who died of colon cancer last year should receive a full pension benefit, upholding an earlier decision by a local review board that his fatal cancer was caused in the line of duty. Winter said two medical experts already found that Hauber’s death was likely the result of performing acts of duty, or cumulative acts of duty, which involved repeated exposure to toxic smoke and carcinogens while on the job.

Last summer, Buffalo Grove officials announced they were challenging a decision made earlier in 2018 by the Buffalo Grove Fire Department Pension Board that the family of  should receive a full line-of-duty death pension. Hauber, a veteran firefighter and paramedic in Buffalo Grove, died in January 2018, roughly four years after being diagnosed with colon cancer.

In the village’s lawsuit filed June 2018, Buffalo Grove officials said they were appealing the pension board’s decision because of their fiduciary responsibilities to taxpayers, arguing the state’s pension laws require more evidence that Hauber’s fatal cancer was the result of his 23 years of firefighting. Village officials at the time estimated the full, 100-percent pension award of Hauber’s annual $100,000 salary would create an additional liability of $1.7 million compared to a 75-percent award that the Hauber family was qualified to receive.

The ruling also comes as debates about the still-unclear link between firefighting and cancer unfold across Illinois and the rest of the country. An ongoing, multiyear study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Institute for Occupational Safely and Health of nearly 30,000 firefighters from the Chicago, Philadelphia, and San Francisco fire departments has found higher rates of certain types of cancer among firefighters than the general population.

The study also supported a newly signed federal law, the Firefighter Cancer Registry Act, requiring the CDC to collect data via a voluntary registry as part of its ongoing research into whether firefighters’ work increases the odds of them developing some types of cancer.

Tags: , , , , , ,

Buffalo Grove Fire Department news (more)

Jun 21

Posted by Admin in Fire Department News | Comments off

Excerpts from the ChicagoTribune.com:

Buffalo Grove officials announced Wednesday they are challenging a decision to award a full line-of-duty death pension to the widow of a 51-year-old Buffalo Grove firefighter, arguing not enough evidence exists that his fatal colon cancer was related to his work.

The full pension award for Kevin Hauber’s wife and their four children represented an unprecedented claim and marked the first award of its kind in Illinois after the Buffalo Grove Fire Department Pension Board determined earlier this year that his cancer was caused in the line of duty, village officials said in a statement.

But the board’s decision on a 3-2 vote back in March was made with the “absence of clear evidence or research proving that firefighting has a direct or indirect causal relationship with colon cancer,” officials said.

In announcing their appeal, Buffalo Grove officials said the only appropriate and fiduciary response was to challenge the pension board’s decision, which was reaffirmed by the board in May. Village officials estimated the full, 100-percent pension award would create an additional liability of $1.7 million compared to a 75-percent award that the Hauber family was qualified to receive.

Hauber, a veteran firefighter and paramedic in the village, died in January, roughly four years after being diagnosed with colon cancer. In the statement, officials believe a surviving spouse pension benefit equal to 75 percent of Hauber’s final salary is more appropriate than 100 percent.

The issue over Hauber’s death benefit touches on a volatile debate happening among local, state and federal lawmakers over whether cancer found in firefighters is the result of their work in the line of duty.

To that end, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) began a multi-year study in 2010 of nearly 30,000 firefighters from departments in Chicago, Philadelphia, and San Francisco to better understand the potential link between firefighting and cancer. Researchers found the firefighters who were studied showed higher rates of certain types of cancer than the general U.S. population. Based on U.S. cancer rates, firefighters in the study had a greater number of cancer diagnoses and cancer-related deaths, which were determined to be mostly digestive, oral, respiratory, and urinary cancers.

Tags: , , , , ,

Buffalo Grove Fire Department news (more)

Jun 16

Posted by Admin in Fire Service News | Comments off

Excerpts from a letter to the editor at the ChicagoTribune.com:

Your editorial criticizing Buffalo Grove Firefighter Kevin Hauber’s pension award shortchanged the subject of occupational diseases in firefighters. The pension board’s decision was based on Illinois law, and your editorial showed disregard for that law and the medical evidence behind it.

Hauber’s death to colon cancer is not an anomaly among veteran firefighters. Extensive scientific research shows compelling evidence that specific cancers — including colorectal cancers — are strongly associated with firefighting. That evidence is a result of extensive university studies as well as that of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

The editorial also neglected to recognize other critical medical factors: Hauber’s age, family, personal health history, and genetic testing showed he was not a colon cancer risk. Rather, an overriding environmental risk for the 23-year veteran firefighter was cited as evidence of increased risk to colorectal cancer.

Any attempt at empathy for his widow and children was negated by the contention that the pension vote was a misguided gesture. Indeed, it is irresponsible to ignore Illinois law while criticizing the pension board.

Illinois law governing presumptive disability states, “The type of cancer involved must be a type which may be caused by exposure to heat, radiation or a known carcinogen as defined by the International Agency for Research on Cancer.” Furthermore it says that the cancer must “arise as a result of service as a firefighter.”

Hauber was exposed over 23 years to soot, asbestos and formaldehyde. The IARC identifies them as primary carcinogens associated with an increased risk of cancer.

Not every firefighter succumbs to the ravages of colon cancer, just as not all airline mechanics get sucked into jet engines. But a reasonable person takes time to read scientific evidence and why it is incorporated into state law.

— Pat Devaney, president, Associated Fire Fighters of Illinois, Springfield

thanks Dan

Tags: , , ,

Buffalo Grove Fire Department news (more)

May 15

Posted by Admin in Fire Service News | Comments off

Excerpts from the DailyHerald.com:

Buffalo Grove’s Firefighters Pension Board on Monday reiterated its findings that the January death of a firefighter from colon cancer was job-related and his family deserves his full pension as a result.

The finding, initially made in March, would grant the family of Firefighter/Paramedic Kevin Hauber his full salary of $101,000 annually, instead of a lesser amount had his death been ruled unrelated to his job.

Hauber, who had worked as a Buffalo Grove firefighter since 1994, died earlier this year after a four-year battle with cancer, leaving behind his wife and four young daughters. He was 51.

Pension board President Dan Pasquarella said the panel looked into Hauber’s history in making its decision to find the death was related to his job.

“We did not have one specific incident to tie it to,” he said. “The final say is with the pension board. So we determined it was a line-of-duty death. (The village board) can appeal it. They would have 35 days once we mail the report to them.”

Village manager Dane Bragg said the village has not yet decided whether to appeal the finding in court.

“I would reiterate what we stated after the initial hearing. We were not sure that the pension board’s ruling was consistent with state law,” he said Monday.

Bragg said the village will have its attorney review the findings and then likely discuss it in closed session with the village board.

thanks Dan

Tags: , , ,

Buffalo Grove Fire Department news

Mar 25

Posted by Admin in Fire Department News | 3 Comments

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

Tags: , , ,