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Thursday, October 22, 2009

Council Mulling Pension Options

The conflict between the mayor and City Council over how to handle the municipal pension program continues.

Council is planning to hold an informational hearing Monday on a pension resolution introduced over a year ago by Councilman Bill Green. Green wants the labor committee to hold a series of hearings on the pension plan’s structure and prepare recommendations on how to improve the plan.

Council and the mayor have butted heads recently over the pension, which is severely underfunded and considered a major financial liability for the city.

The mayor wants the city to enter a state pension program that would require it to create a lower-cost retirement plan for new hires. That state authorization would be a powerful bargaining tool for the city in the ongoing to contract negotiations. But to get it, City Council must pass a resolution by the end of the month pledging to create a lower-cost pension plan for new hires.

So far, Council has held back, with many members saying that negotiating pension terms should be done within contract talks. This new move looks like Council trying to take control over the issue in their own way.
 
Posted by Catherine Lucey @ 11:09 AM  Permalink | 7 comments
Comments   
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 12:38 PM, 10/22/2009
    Actually, City Council doesn't have to pass this resolution to create the lower cost pension plan for new hires for the city pension for the state to take over the city pension. It would just create unity in the Dems in Philly for that to happen. The city pension is eligible for state takeover, and I don't recall any language in the recent sales tax hike/pension reform legislation that requires Council to assent to anything. The only requirement for state takeover is that the pension be in terrible financial shape, as assessed using specific, objective, standard accounting measures. That formal accounting, once done, will be all that is needed. That's why Pileggi is a genius -- he structured the bill to allow for state takeover if Council refuses to act. If only you could make money hedging your bets on that, Pileggi would be a millionaire.
    — CleanupPhilly
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 12:40 PM, 10/22/2009
    I hope the unions understand that they don't have a friend in Council like they think they do. Council's refusal to act on new hires endangers the unions' collective bargaining and arbitration status for all hires.
    — CleanupPhilly
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 12:46 PM, 10/22/2009
    Council is making a sham attempt to preserve collective bargaining here. By refusing to act, they assure that collective bargaining will be removed as part of the city pension process because the state will control the pension. This is the last chance Council has to fund this thing and keep local control. That means they have to do simple things like fix assessments, collect property taxes at sheriff sale, and put property back into the property tax paying base. They have to grow the economic base by cutting wage taxes to improve business tax revenue. All of this is just completely beyond their ken. The press has to call them out on bad city financial management practices, because that is how they are forfeiting the unions' basic raison d'etre. A right winger could not do a better job breaking the unions in Philly than Council simply failing to fund the pension by fixing the broken, patronage, waste houses it controls that don't work and don't get the revenue the city needs.
    — CleanupPhilly
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 12:50 PM, 10/22/2009
    When is the press going to stop falling for the ersatz claim of being for the little guy by not collecting property taxes (even from vacant lots, empty houses) at sheriff sale, not lowering taxes to grow the base, not putting property back into the tax paying market place, all of this defunds schools and keeps them wretched, but it has also defunded the pension, and now the unions are going to be powerless to negotiate pension issues. When is the press going to call Council out for just bad fiscal management? Needing to have a PICA is an embarrassment. The press just lets Council slide. Their job is to make sure that revenue is coming in, not just to pass the buck.
    — CleanupPhilly
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 2:21 PM, 10/22/2009
    CleanupPhilly - SPOT ON. Fund the pension, change the workplace rules to allow the useless dregs to be fired (especially including the patronage hacks, but not discounting the union slackers), and realize your savings through efficient management. Cutting compensation will just encourage people of lesser and lesser quality to work for the City - can anyone want that??? If Council would properly fund the pension (as required to contractually), this would be such a non-issue. THEN we could worry about the horrible collection rates and such!
    — citylumberjack
  • Comment removed.
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 8:22 PM, 10/25/2009
    If it be true that Managing Director Camille is having staff do "dogsitting" as inky news reports and that she leaves early..is that not a slacker if not a thief of honest services?
    — Clark_Kent_SuperHero


7 comments
About The Philly Clout Team
PhillyClout
Chris Brennan, a native Philadelphian and graduate of Temple University, joined the Daily News in 1999. He has written about SEPTA, the Philadelphia School District, the legalization of casino gambling, state government, the mayor, the governor, City Council and political campaigns.
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David Gambacorta spent a small eternity writing about cops, drug dealers and serial killers. Now he’s writing about power and politics ­– which sometimes reminds him of the old crime beat. He joined the Daily News in 2005. And yes, he knows you’re not quite sure how to pronounce his last name. E-mail tips to gambacd@phillynews.com
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Catherine Lucey joined the Daily News in 2002 and has written about murderous drug gangs, political protesters and Harry Potter. After covering the 2007 mayoral election, she moved over to the City Hall bureau where she has been reporting on the Nutter administration.
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Jan Ransom, a native New Yorker, joined the Daily News in 2010 after graduating from Howard University. She has since written about the difficulty of filing police complaints, tax deadbeats and life after violent home invasions. She joined the Daily News City Hall Bureau in 2011 and has plunged headfirst into reporting on administration budget battles and City Council shenanigans.
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Catherine Lucey
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Chris Brennan
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