New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu announced Tuesday morning the creation of a “task force” to recommend “fundamental” changes to the city’s Fire Fighters Relief & Pension Fund.
From the Times-Picayune:
The mayor created the “working group” through an executive order that will stay in place for 12 months.
The group will be made up of nine members, including city officials, firefighter representatives and local business leaders, according to the announcement.
– New Orleans Chief Administrative Officer Andy Kopplin
– Councilwoman Stacy Head
– Timothy McConnell, superintendent of the New Orleans Fire Department
– Paul Mitchell, Jr., deputy director of the pension board
– Thomas F. Meager, III, secretary and treasurer of the firefighters’ pension board
– Nick Felton, president of New Orleans Fire Fighters Association, Local 632
– Hardy Fowler, an accountant and the former managing partner of KPMG in New Orleans
– Scott Jacobs, an insurance and risk management professional
– Greg Rattler, Sr., a vice president at JPMorgan Chase & Co.
The New Orleans Business Council will pay for outside consultants and any “technical assistance the group may need, according to the announcement. Its chairman, Paul Flower, will also chair the pension advisory group.
The task force doesn’t have authority over the pension fund’s Board of Directors, so it won’t have any way to enforce the changes it prescribes.
The city and Mayor Landrieu are in the midst of a legal battle over unpaid contributions that were supposed to be made annually to the firefighters’ fund.