Eye-Popping Retirement Buyout For Deputy Police Chief Tab Jensen

JOLIET, IL — When Joliet's Deputy Police Chief of Administration Tab Jensen walked out the Joliet Police Station last month, he received a retirement cake, a farewell party and plenty of hearty handshakes from fellow members of the Joliet Police Department. And Jensen also walked away with one of the highest retirement payouts in the history of the city, Joliet Patch has learned.

On Monday, the city of Joliet complied with a Freedom of Information Act request submitted last week by the Joliet Patch in regard to Tab Jensen's departure. Jensen collected nearly $131,500 for his unused vacation, his accumulated sick banks and his nest egg of compensatory time that he squirreled away many years ago.

For buyout purposes, Jensen's hourly salary was calculated at about $76.65. His base salary at the city of Joliet was about $150,800, plus he made an additional $3,000-plus as an annual longevity payment, and he received what's termed an annual holiday stipend, at more than $5,500.

So how did Jensen leave the city of Joliet with a severance payment of $131,498?

The city of Joliet's generous fringe benefits system let Jensen rack up a huge nest egg of unused vacation and compensatory time. These were hours Jensen stockpiled prior to being promoted to a deputy chief in 2014.

The city of Joliet compensation data turned over to Joliet Patch shows that Jensen, at the time of his retirement, had amassed more than 820 hours of unused vacation; that is more than 20 work weeks of unused vacation.

Paid out at Jensen's deputy police chief hourly salary of $76.63, the unused vacation was worth $62,943.

As for Jensen's payout for his unused sick bank, Jensen's employee benefits program let him cash out 45 percent of 1,012 hours that he had on the city books last month.

That turned out to be another $34,898. (Did you know that you can get Joliet news delivered straight to your inbox for free? Sign up for our free daily newsletter and our breaking news alerts at Joliet Patch.)

Third, city records show that Jensen had also banked 439 hours of comp time, which is nearly 11 work weeks. At the time of his retirement, Jensen was able to cash out his comp time banks at $76.63, rather than the rate he was making many years ago when he accrued the comp time. (As a deputy chief, Jensen was ineligible for overtime and ineligible for accumulating compensatory time.)

In any event, Jensen made another $33,657 for his 439.20 hours of comp time, city records show.

The city also informed Patch that Jensen's upcoming pension will be based on making around $161,500.

Besides Jensen, Patch also requested the severance buyout for Joliet Police Chief Brian Benton, who, less than two weeks ago, abruptly announced he was retiring from the police department after a tumultuous year on the job. Benton's performance of leading the third largest city in the state was regularly being called into question.

The city responded to the Patch FOIA by stating that Joliet's Human Resources Department "has not received an 'official' letter of intent to retire from Brian Benton as of this date."

In late May, after Officer Nick Crowley was found not guilty of two felony charges of reckless discharge of a gun, regarding an incident last summer inside the home of his girlfriend, his attorney Jeff Tomczak blamed Benton for the debacle that resulted in criminal charges against Crowley.

"It begins with the chief," Tomczak said. "He's not guilty. There was no direct evidence (of any crime). All the evidence was that this was accidental."

By that point, Chief Benton had developed an adversarial relationship with members of the local press. For instance, Benton stopped returning phone calls to the J0liet Patch late last fall.

In terms of moving forward, the city of Joliet is expected to appoint an interim police chief in wake of Benton's pending departure in the next week or so.

RELATED PATCH COVERAGE:

• 'JPD Administration Does Not Back Its Police Officers': Tomczak
• $116,000 Buyout For Joliet Deputy Chief Brian Dupuis
• O'Dekirk Announces Chief Brian Benton Is Stepping Down
• Ferak: City Manager David Hales May Need To Go

Image of Tab Jensen via City of Joliet Police Department Facebook page