It’s the next round in a back-and-forth that’s lasted months.
City Council members will have a pension deal back before them tonight, launching the next round of possible changes. Or in the coming weeks, maybe even a conclusion to the first stage of pension reform.
Along with the deal comes a legal opinion from a pension expert on one of the biggest complaints council members have had with the deal.
In the opinion of Jim Linn of Lewis Longman & Walker, the city and council could agree to waive the ability to impose benefits during impasses for a specified period of time.
That’s been a key point in pension talks, as council sought to have any agreement limited to three years in accordance with state law.
The Police and Fire Pension Fund board balked at that, voting instead to revert it back to the 10-year pact Mayor Alvin Brown and fund administrator John Keane signed off on over the summer.
The fund also made changes to council-approved tweaks to return rates within cost-of-living adjustments and the Deferred Retirement Option Plan.
And while council has pension reform back on its plate, it doesn’t necessarily mean it will be done anytime soon, said council member Bill Bishop.
“I don’t think anything is going to happen before the next election,” Bishop said Monday, shortly after taking part in a pension forum hosted by the Meninak Club of Jacksonville.
The is March 24 first election, followed by a general election May 19.
Bishop said the issue has too “many moving parts,” such as how to pay the estimated $400 million tab that comes with paying down the plan’s unfunded liability.
“When you throw this kind of big issue in front of an election, people don’t like to have to deal with it,” he said.
Bishop, who is term-limited on council, is a running for mayor.
He wore the role of council member in Monday’s pension forum that featured Keane, Brown’s Chief of Staff Chris Hand and former council President Matt Carlucci.
Carlucci and businessman Charlie Appleby worked on a proposal calling for the city and JEA to each borrow $120 million that, when combined with $60 million from the fund, would satisfy the needed spending to pay down the plan’s liability.
Hand and Carlucci both stood by the funding plan as a solution, while Bishop said that deal would negatively impact the city’s annual budget.
Although it’s a good deal for JEA, Bishop said the millions lost in annual payment to the city would hurt overall services.
When pressed for an alternate plan, Bishop said a sales tax rather than a property tax was a possibility.
Hand and Carlucci didn’t endorse an alternative, instead standing by their idea the JEA plan would work.
During the forum, Hand also introduced the Linn legal opinion.
Afterward, Bishop said he doesn’t know whether waiving the rights would be enforceable in court. Other legal minds, he said, don’t agree.
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