Bill Gulliford doesn’t like the position the City Council is in when it comes to settling the issue of John Keane’s retirement benefits.
Neither does Lori Boyer. Or Aaron Bowman. Or John Crescimbeni. Or the other three members of council’s Finance Committee who had a decision to make Tuesday on the controversial issue.
Keane is the now-retired administrator of the Jacksonville Police and Fire Pension Fund who spent 25 years at the helm.
He’s scheduled to take home more than $234,000 annually in benefits, many accrued through a senior staff plan his board created that city attorneys later said was illegal.
The situation hasn’t sat well with many council members — they sued last year on the matter.
A settlement was before the group. One that cut Keane’s benefits a little more than 2 percent, or $6,000. It’s the amount Keane would have paid to the city for being in a general employee plan over the three years after the senior staff plan was deemed illegal.
For council members, it’s what to do, what to do.
Begrudgingly hold their noses and push the approval button, ending a high-profile saga once and for all, maybe at the expense of angering parts of the community?
Or continue to pursue the matter in court and take the chance for validation, perhaps risking more than $1 million in legal fees on the effort with no clear outcome?
“I have wrestled with this one, folks,” Gulliford began the conversation Tuesday. “I understand both sides of the position.”
The finance chair had done some calculations. If Keane had been in the general employee plan during his tenure as the fund’s administrator, he would still be entitled to about $187,000 a year in retirement.
Gulliford figured the difference between the settlement and general plan, when projecting Keane and his wife’s lifespans, came out to about $600,000 in additional benefits.
When weighed against the price of pursuit, it wasn’t worth it.
“Let’s just get on with it,” said Gulliford.
Matt Schellenberg said he couldn’t. Not at 2 percent, at least.
Ten percent? OK. But 2 percent? The public wouldn’t stand for it, he said, and it could come back to hurt the cause for extending a half-cent sales tax to pay down the nearly $2.7 billion in unfunded pension liability.
It’s an issue voters will have to approve and one on which Mayor Lenny Curry and others have been heavily focused.
Boyer also had an eye on the public’s perception. She said she was “very concerned” about elected officials talking to residents about the sales-tax extension when they might still be angry over the Keane settlement.
Crescimbeni likewise was concerned, but offered a possible solution.
The difference between Keane’s annual retirement benefits under the settlement (about $228,000) and what he would have made in a general employee plan was about $41,000. Split the difference, said Crescimbeni.
That would put Keane’s annual payment at around $207,000, a “true compromise” he said the citizens can buy into.
His colleagues signed off on the deal with a 7-0 vote. It’s not a typical bill, though. The proposal has to go back to Keane, his attorneys and the pension fund board for approval — or tweaks — before it can be finalized.
Keane said Tuesday afternoon he had heard a little about the earlier meeting, but declined comment. His attorney, Jake Schickel, did not return a call Tuesday afternoon.
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