The third time was the charm.
After two failed attempts in recent years, City Council passed the first leg of pension reform Tuesday evening.
The 14-4 vote pushes the plan back to the Police and Fire Pension Fund board for final approval in the coming weeks. Council members Bill Bishop, Lori Boyer, John Crescimbeni and Matt Schellenberg were the opposing viewpoints; Kim Daniels was absent.
It’s a plan that defines benefits for current and new employees and strengthens how the plan is governed. It annually establishes how much the city will pay toward the $1.6 billion-plus unfunded liability in the plan — although a funding source still has to be figured out.
“This is but a first step,” said council member Bill Gulliford, who helped bring the plan toward the finish line.
He was a voice of opposition during a late March meeting where reform went down in a 9-9 tie vote.
When he was council president, Gulliford abruptly pulled a deal before lengthy review could take place. It also went down during his first meeting in the leadership role.
After the March vote, he filed the bill that passed Tuesday and worked with Mayor Alvin Brown’s administration and John Keane, the Police and Fire Pension fund administrator, to reach a compromise on several issues council members objected to in the past.
Brown and Keane spent weeks last year negotiating the deal on which the passed legislation was largely based.
Keane said he’s optimistic the board will sign off on the plan, with an amendment passed late helping that cause. Council approved a “fairness” issue about restoring police officers’ pay to former levels before they contributed more toward their pensions.
The deal is for seven years, a compromise from the three years many council members sought and the 10 years that fund board members pushed. It was the length that had some opponents concerned — a ruling by Circuit Judge Thomas Beverly maintains a collectively bargained deal can’t be more than three years.
“Judge Beverly gave the city an out,” said Bishop.
Boyer suggested during discussion the benefits portion could be invalidated in the courtroom, leaving the city in a deal without the concession of benefits changed. She wanted her colleagues to be fully aware of the potential consequences, she said.
But in the end, the majority of council members wanted reform — a decision Chris Hand, Brown’s chief of staff, said showed broad-based support for a done deal.
“There’s a lot of gratitude,” Hand said after the vote. “Pension reform is not an easy issue.”
After another affirmative vote, the first step will be done. Then it’s on to finding the money.
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