It has been a very good week for fiscal reform! The public pressure is paying off and the Mayor and City Council have agreed to offer our pension reform package as part of a settlement offer to the labor unions.
Now the ball is in the labor unions’ court. If they do not want to join us in this compromise package, we stand ready to take reform to the ballot box for a public vote. – Carl
DeMaio calls on unions to “be part of the solution and take this step
to end the pension crisis together”
City Councilmember Carl DeMaio today urged labor union leaders to accept an offer made with the unanimous support of the Mayor, City Council, and City Attorney to negotiate a final and complete resolution to the city’s pension crisis.
The focus of negotiations would center on DeMaio’s proposal to cap pensionable pay and the City Attorney’s proposal to reach a global settlement on outstanding pension litigation.
“We have never been closer to a real fix to our city’s pension crisis,” said DeMaio. “I hope the city’s labor unions will end their opposition to reform and join us in a mutual and collaborative effort to finally put an end to the city’s pension crisis.”
DeMaio’s proposal to cap pensionable pay includes the following simple elements: change how city employees’ pensions are calculated to exclude “add-ons” or “specialty pays” and use only base salaries in the calculation of benefits. The amount of “pensionable pay” would be frozen, but to provide employees with a mechanism to earn additional compensation based on performance, DeMaio proposed the creation of a “share-in-savings” program.
By enacting a cap on pensionable pay, city taxpayers will save approximately $250 million in just the next five years – and significantly more thereafter. The proposal – validated this week by the City Attorney – does not violate vested rights and technically does not need the agreement or acceptance by the labor unions.
DeMaio cautioned the labor unions that if negotiations are not successful, he would join with taxpayer advocates to impose the reforms at the ballot box.
“If the labor unions do not accept a compromise as we are suggesting, then we will have no choice to take these reforms directly to a vote of the people,” concluded DeMaio.
Comments 1
Great job this week.
Also If the global settlement includes Retiree Healthcare for Non-Safety employees, then a public vote would be required under the 2006 Proposition B when San Diego voters enacted a no-improvements-without-public-vote.
This includes any acknowledgement or increase related to Retiree Healthcare for Non-Safety employees.
According to our Municipal Code Section 24.1102, the IRS, and SDCERS; the City of San Diego only owes Public Safety personnel lifetime Retiree Healthcare. General Retiree Healthcare for non-safety employees was never codified or written into law. The last thing David Wescoe tried to push before he left was to delete Municipal Code Section 24.1102 without an Actuary report. Thankfully Donna Frye, Carl DeMaio, and Tony Young asked for the required Actuary report.
http://docs.sandiego.gov/municode/MuniCodeChapter02/Ch02Art04Division11.pdf
See top of Page 3 for Municipal Code Section 24.1102 “General members granted CERS benefits by this section shall not, pursuant to Sections 24.1201 and 24.1202, be eligible for City-sponsored Group Health Insurance for retirees.”
http://www.tinyurl.com/SDHeathcare
“SDCERS has also indicated that unless the Municipal Code is amended as requested to sanction the purchase allowances it has allowed since 1992, it will unwind all of them. SDCERS has allowed General Members to purchase SDCERS service credit with their refunded SDCERS contributions withdrawn when they enrolled in the 1981 Pension Plan and to afford these purchasing members retiree health benefits.”