City Council’s pension reform talks will have to wait another day.
The council Rules Committee on Monday deferred action on the deal, one Mayor Alvin Brown says will save in excess of $1.5 billion over 30 years.
Council member Bill Gulliford, chair of the Rules Committee, said he was deferring action at committee member Robin Lumb’s request. Lumb was sick and excused from Monday’s meeting, but said he wanted to be present for the debate.
Gulliford said given the magnitude of the work, he felt compelled to comply and allow all council members the opportunity to weigh in.
A four-hour special council meeting Oct. 22 featured discussion, but no action on a series of amendments council members proposed that would shorten the deal from 10 to three years, alter cost-of-living adjustments and other changes.
Instead, council was to again take it up this week in committees.
Although the bill itself wasn’t addressed, issues around pension talk still were prevalent during Monday’s meeting.
Council member Matt Schellenberg through a resolution has asked Brown’s administration and general counsel to pursue completion of a lawsuit that would determine the legality of the so-called “30-year agreement” that dictates benefits for public safety employees. As part of the deal, the unions contend the city has to negotiate with the fund board, not the unions, over those benefit changes.
The deal Brown and fund administrator John Keane agreed upon would effectively shorten the deal by six years, ending in 2024.
Schellenberg wants that deal on the table to be rejected and the city to be on the offensive in determining the validity of the 30-year agreement. Instead, he wants to enter collective bargaining immediately, which has a cap of three years.
He said the issue was recognized by Circuit Judge Waddell Wallace in a ruling on the city’s lawsuit with Florida-Times Union editor Frank Denton over Sunshine Act Violations last year. The lawsuit said the city negotiated benefits improperly by having them behind closed doors. Council also has filed a resolution asking Brown to no longer appeal that decision.
Schellenberg said private attorneys have called the 30-year agreement illegal because of the Sunshine Act.
Derrel Chatmon, the city’s chief deputy general counsel, disagreed with that statement.
Council, Schellenberg said, has been in a defensive posture for 12 years on the pension issue. He said now it’s time to go on the offensive — to say the city is collectively bargaining and impose it. If they disagree, “they can take us to court,” he said.
But, to modify the current 30-year deal that to him was illegal is “insanity,” he said.
Like the pension reform bill, Schellenberg’s resolution to further pursue litigation also was deferred.
The council Finance Committee is the other committee where the pension deal will be discussed. It met at 9 a.m. this morning.
Richard Clark, the committee’s chair, said he’s willing to allow the group to open discussion on the amendments and deal.
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