The Illinois Police Officers’ Pension Investment Fund (hereafter “IPOPIF”) was created by the Illinois Legislature and signed into law by Governor JB Pritzker on December 18, 2019. The law, Public Act 101-0610, provided for the mandatory consolidation of the investment assets of the state’s public safety pension funds into two investment funds, one for police officers (Article 3) and one for firefighters (Article 4). The investment fund will be governed by a nine-member, independently elected and autonomous Board of Trustees.
The Transition Board of Trustees of the IPOPIF conducted the nomination of candidates and election of Permanent Board of Trustees in accordance with the Act. An election was not needed for the municipal representatives nor beneficiary representatives and all Trustees currently seated in these positions were elected to the Permanent Board by acclamation. Governor Pritzker’s Illinois Municipal League representative was reappointed and will be seated on the Permanent Board. All Trustees will take the Oath of Office at the January 8, 2021 board meeting.
Six candidates were interested in running for the three participant representative positions and an election was conducted by the IPOPIF’s independent election service provider, Survey & Ballot Systems. Election ballots were mailed to 12,903 eligible participant members of Article 3 police pension funds. A total of 4,771 ballots were received and accepted for tabulation, which represented a 36.98% return rate. There was one ballot received that was deemed invalid and was not counted in the final tabulation. Also, 29 ballots were returned as undeliverable and were not included as a part of the total count of 4,771 ballots. The following three participant representatives were elected by Article 3 active member participants, pending certification at the December 14, 2020 board meeting. Once certified, these participant representatives will take the Oath of Office at the January 8, 2021 board meeting:
Shawn P. Curry, Sergeant, Peoria Police Department
Lee Catavu, Officer, Aurora Police Department
Paul Swanlund, Officer, Bloomington Police Department
The Transition Board of Trustees offers their appreciation to Art Holecek, Aaron Porter and Steve Witnik for their candidacy and interest in serving on the IPOPIF Board of Trustees.
The Permanent Board of Trustees will be seated at the January 8, 2021 board meeting. All Trustee terms will be established at this meeting. Please contact me with any questions.
