The first round of pension back-and-forth left Mayor Lenny Curry “surprised.”
It left fire union head Randy Wyse “confused.”
And it’s just the start of talks.
Wyse and the local chapter of the International Association of Fire Fighters provided Curry and the city a counter to the mayor’s wage and pension offer made this month.
The changes from that offer were stark, with the biggest being the retirement plans for new employees. Instead of the defined contribution, 401(k)-style plan Curry is pushing for new employees, the union countered they should enter the Florida Retirement System, commonly called the FRS.
Wyse said the idea of shifting to a defined-contribution plan for public safety employees is “insulting.”
“We have been hearing the mayor wants out of the pension business,” Wyse said Tuesday afternoon. “The FRS is a premier system in the U.S. and we have the ability to do it.”
Wyse said the suggestion was flatly rejected by Curry’s team, which surprised him.
Curry at the outset of collective bargaining labeled defined-benefit pensions as “dinosaurs” and Tuesday afternoon said his team had spoken “loud and clear” about such plans.
Employees being shifted to the FRS would mean the state, not the city, would control costs. It also would allow those employees to pay into and receive Social Security, which the city doesn’t pay in the current plans.
As for his initial proposal, Curry said it was in line with the promise he made to current employees about their benefits not being changed. The proposal for defined contribution doesn’t impact them.
“I’m a little surprised that would be viewed as insulting by leadership,” Curry told the media Tuesday afternoon.
Wyse said afterward he was “confused” by Curry’s stance on the union's offer to join the FRS, given his past statements of wanting out of pensions.
Curry’s offer had new employees paying 8 percent of their salaries toward retirement, with the city match starting at 12 percent the first five years. That would increase every five years, ending with a 20 percent match after 21 years of service.
There were other parts of the union proposal that greatly differed from Curry’s.
Union leadership sought a 5 percent one-time, lump sum bonus for employees paid in fiscal 2016. That would be followed by 5 percent wage increases, starting in fiscal 2017 and continuing through fiscal 2020.
Curry’s initial offer was for a 2 percent one-time payment, followed by a 5 percent raise in fiscal 2017, a 4 percent increase in fiscal 2018 and 3.5 percent hike in 2019.
The union also sought some clawbacks to the first wave of pension reform struck in the closing months of former Mayor Alvin Brown’s term.
Under the deal struck then, rates for Cost of Living Adjustments, called COLA, and the Deferred Retirement Option Plan, referred to as DROP, for employees were based on a sliding scale rather than a fixed percentage. Curry did not alter those rates.
As part of Tuesday’s counter, the union wants those rates fixed again to the levels they were. For COLA, that would be 3 percent annually, while DROP returns would again be fixed at 8.4 percent.
Wyse said he wasn’t certain what would be next.
He’d like to see another proposal from the city, but also would consult with fire union leadership on a possible next step.
Curry likewise said he would get with the city team to determine next steps.
There will be another counter coming much sooner — this time from the local chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police.
The city and police union leadership are scheduled to meet this morning, the first time since Curry offered police and corrections officers his initial proposal.
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