It was pension reform’s final stop that resulted in the biggest changes.
Two City Council committees passed the platform the Police and Fire Pension Fund had bounced back to the legislative group. That plan strengthened cost-of-living adjustments and the Deferred Retirement Option Plan for current police and firefighters with fewer than 20 years on the job. It also kept the length of time council could impose benefit changes at 10 years.
It was the latter that has caused concern among council members who said anything more than three years is illegal. Votes by the Finance and Recreation, Community Development, Public Health and Safety committees failed to change it back to the smaller window, but the Rules Committee passed it 4-3 Monday.
Many of the points made during the hours of discussion Monday had been brought up before.
The smaller window allows the city and employees to come back to the bargaining table should the economy shift, some said.
Others said the 10-year window is the only one the Police and Fire Pension fund board would support, that without it a deal is dead. The current deal on the table provides stability, they said.
“We’ve been down this road so many times,” said council member Warren Jones, a member of the Rules Committee.
Voting for the change to three years were Rules members Lori Boyer, Bill Gulliford and Matt Schellenberg, along with council President Clay Yarborough, a voting member of every committee. Against were Jones, Robin Lumb and Stephen Joost.
It was the first big alteration of the day for the pension package. The other came during a 5-2 vote by the committee to remove mention of the senior staff retirement from the bill.
That plan has been deemed illegal by the Office of General Counsel and has been closed for new members, but board administrator John Keane is among the few still on it.
The pension deal settles that issue, but others don’t want council signing off on authorizing it.
“For us to justify it … is flat out wrong,” said council member John Crescimbeni, who attended the meeting.
The full council will have the opportunity to decide which version to vote on. If it’s the one without changes — the one passed back by the pension fund board — then the governance and benefits side would effectively be done.
If it’s the version approved Monday, then the deal heads back to the pension board for approval.
Neither includes the funding source for any deal, although the Rules Committee did pass a measure Monday with an eye toward the issue.
By a 4-3 vote, the group approved a bill that would allow for a half-cent sales that ultimately could be used to pay down the more than $1.6 billion in the plan’s unfunded liability. Voting in favor were Boyer, Gulliford, Jones and Yarborough, while Joost, Lumb and Schellenberg were against.
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