Employee Trustee Election
June 30, 2009
In November, IMRF members will elect one Employee Trustee for a five-year term. The five-year term of office will run from January 1, 2010, through December 31, 2014. Members will also elect one Employee Trustee for a partial term of office. The partial term will run from January 1, 2010, through December 31, 2010.
Separate nominating petitions have been created for each term of office (five-year and one-year). Members interested in running for Employee Trustee must decide whether they wish to run for the five-year or one-year term of office at the beginning of the nomination process. A candidate cannot submit nominating petitions for both terms of office. A candidate should be sure to use the appropriate petition when gathering signatures. Each page of the petition should contain the information listed at the top of the petition. The petition may be photocopied, and the pages may be circulated separately.
The petition must have at least 350 signatures of IMRF members who must have participated in IMRF during July 2009. This includes members on seasonal leave, but not retired members. IMRF will verify signatures on the nominating petitions. Signatures of employees who do not participate in IMRF (such as teachers, police officers when there is a local police pension fund, or employees who work less than the hourly standard) will not be counted.
You can obtain additional information on nominating procedures, qualifications, and ballot procedures as well as sample petitions and a biographical questionnaire by visiting the Board of Trustee area of the IMRF website at www.imrf.org or by calling an IMRF Member Services Representative at 1-800-ASK-IMRF (1-800-275-4673).
Public Act 93-615, the State Officials and Employees Ethics Act, includes prohibitions against political activity during work hours. It is our opinion that these prohibitions do not apply to elections for the IMRF Board of Trustees. Gathering signatures and other activities of running for the IMRF Board are not included in prohibited political activity regulated by the Act.