By Steve Schmadeke

Special to the Tribune June 8, 2007

Sgt. Charles Gurke retired from the Roselle police force 20 years ago and moved into a new home in St. Augustine, Fla., with his wife, Bonnie. After Gurke died in 2005, his line-of-duty disability pension helped pay the bills for Bonnie, now 60, who works part-time as a nurse. But the Village of Roselle objected to the police Pension Board's decision to let Bonnie Gurke continue co llecting a 3 percent cost-of-living increase, which lawyers involved in the case say amounts to a few hundred dollars a year. The village sued the Pension Board in DuPage County Circuit Court -- the first time in Illinois that a town has challenged such payments -- and won. On March 20, Judge Bonnie M. Wheaton reversed the Pension Board's decision, finding it had no legal authority to award cost-of-living increases to surviving spouses. The case, which is being appealed, will affect pension boards across the state. At least 50 police pension boards, which administer pension funds, are required by law in towns with populations of more than 5,000 to pass on the cost-of-living increases to officers' widows, according to Richard Reimer, an attorney representing the Roselle police Pension Board. Bonnie Gurke, who has followed the proceedings only through the notices mailed to her, was disappointed in the Circuit Cou rt's ruling. "It feels bad because prices go up -- food, clothing, everything is going up -- yet my pension doesn't go up, it's staying the same," she said in a phone interview. "It's not just me in this situation, either." The case has angered the Illinois Public Pension Fund Association, a nonprofit organization representing the state's police and fire boards. Its president, James McNamee, a Barrington police officer, said if the ruling is not overturned on appeal, the group will push Springfield leaders for legislation specifically allowing the cost-of-living adjustments for surviving spouses. Attempts to change the law have failed. "I think it would hurt a lot of widows out there," McNamee said. "It's just like 'A Christmas Carol' with Scrooge -- people just lose perspective chasing after pennies. Now they're squeezing widows. You're not talking a significant amount of money." But Ericka Wagner, an atto rney representing Roselle, said the village intervened because the police Pension Board was breaking state law. "Once this case law comes down, these boards are going to have to change their way of doing things," she said. "The Circuit Court found that there was no statutory authority to grant those [increases]." Reimer, the Roselle Pension Board attorney, said the law, which states that the "surviving spouse shall be entitled to the pension to which the police officer was then entitled," was vague and that pension boards deciding to pass on the cost-of-living increases had acted within their powers. The state's Department of Insurance, which regulates the pension boards, had issued a memo supporting Roselle's view, noting that there is no provision for a pension increase going to an officer's surviving spouse. When the officer dies, the pension is fixed, according to a March 4, 2004, memo. Gurke said her husba nd spent more than 20 years with the Roselle Police Department and was awarded a disability pension after slipping on ice while pursuing a suspect. "He just liked his work," she said. "He loved talking about his experiences."

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