23OCT2009

Committee Recommends Tabling Bill to Change Board

On Friday, City Council’s Plans & Policies Committee voted to recommend that City Council table any action related to changing the composition of the Police-Fire Pension Fund Board of Trustrees. An amended version of Council Bill 2009-253, which outlines proposed changes, is on Monday’s agenda and will likely be tabled by the Council at the meeting that night.

At the meeting, which was attended by Council members Bob Stephens, Doug Burlison, Dan Chiles, Cindy Rushefsky and Mayor Jim O’Neal, the discussion focused primarily on the desire of the Council slow down the process of changing the Pension Board to ensure that it gets done right. Committee Chair Burlison suggested setting aside several hours for a workshop with all members of the Council present in order to have as much time as necessary to hash out all of the details. Mayor O’Neal, who is among the Councilmembers who have expressed a desire for more citizen representation on the board, stressed that he wants to meet with Police and Fire leaders, along with other Council members and the City Manager, before any further decisions are made.

Changing the composition of the Board of Trustees is one of the recommendations made by the Police-Fire Pension Fund Citizens’ Task Force in its final report to Council. The Task Force offered two alternatives. The first was an 11-member Board, consisting of three citizens, one City Council member, one City HR Department representative, and one City Finance Department representative, two active Police employee representatives, two active Fire employee representatives, and one Police or Fire retiree representative. The second alternative was a seven-member Pension Board, consisting of five citizens, one active Fire employee, and one active Police employee. A hybrid version of those two proposals is put forth in Council Bill 2009-253 — an 11-member board with two Police representatives, two Fire representatives, one retiree, and six citizens, including some with a preferred background or expertise such as accounting or medicine. Employee representatives raised concerns about that proposal at the Oct. 12 Council meeting. (To see the Council’s original discussion of the bill on Oct. 12, click here and use the bookmarks to pull up Bill 2009-253.)

During the P&P meeting Friday, several Council members said they would like to know more about the Board and its process, such as training and certification, term limits and renewals, and the idea of hiring a professional administrator to handle day-to-day duties at the direction of the Board. Councilwoman Rushefsky encouraged the Committee members to talk to current Pension Board members to get their perspective on how the process works. Pension Board minutes dating back to 2000 are available on Pension Board page of the City Web site.

posted by Mike Brothers, Public Information

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