The Jacksonville City Council and Mayor Alvin Brown spent most of the summer months debating and constructing a pension reform measure that aimed to improve the funding of the city’s Police and Fire Pension Fund.
The Council approved the measure earlier this month. Now, the measure sits in front of the Police and Fire Pension Board, which will vote on it by January 15.
There’s no guarantee the board will approve the measure. From the Florida Times-Union:
It’s always been expected that changes to the 3 percent COLA and the guaranteed 8.4 percent return on DROP accounts for current employees were going to be stumbling blocks.
But the benefit changes for new hires hadn’t caused much of a stir until the board met last week to review the agreement.
Board members Richard Tuten and Larry Schmitt, representing the firefighters and police, said the changes are hard to swallow and will make it difficult to recruit good people needed to protect the city.
A third member of the board, former Sheriff Nat Glover, said he is uncomfortable with the changes and also concerned about the safety of the city.
Walt Bussells, the board’s chairman, said if a vote were taken, it would be 3-2 against.
“If we did do that, it kills the whole deal,” he said.
[…]
Tuten was the most vocal in his criticism of the changes for new hires and current employees.
He offered what he said was a string of broken promises and fear of more changes by politicians that “we can’t trust any farther than we can throw them.”
“If we are going to get keistered here, let’s go to court right now,” he said. “That’s what I get from my members.”
The measure calls for benefit changes for new police and fire hires, as well as COLA changes for current employees. In return, the city would pay an additional $40 million a year into the Police and Fire fund for the next 10 years.
Photo by pshab via Flickr CC License