Well that may be true but so often they spike the last years of their salary so as to pump the benefits that totally wipe Check out Harry Briggs for example who came back for a short stint as the Superintendent so as to spike his salary to pump the pension benefits.
Agree with that 100%. Our county officials for years did this an bumped their pensions. I forget the name but one county board member took a job in administration for a year or so and tripled his pension. That's clearly wrong.
However, if a person retires from a city job and runs for office, he/she is entitled to the offered pension. Personally I wouldn't mind seeing the law changed to said person only getting the salary with no additional retirement benefit. Granite, as a home rule unit could do that with the swipe of a pen.
Remember that all the firemen and police officers pay into their pension system and they are forced to live here and pay taxes here. So they're not just getting a free pension.
I provided a 401 K program for all of my employees. They also contributed to it. It's part of the cost of doing business.