Springfield Police, city seek answers

The argument is over the Police Department’s pension fund, which is staring down a $3.5 million shortfall. City officials have named a seven-member committee, the Police Officers and Firefighters Retirement Plan Review Committee, to examine the pension fund’s status and to find a solution.

Assistant City Manager Evelyn Honea chairs the committee and is joined by city representatives Councilman Conrad Griggs and Assistant City Attorney Nancy Yendes.

Police officers say they’ve been snubbed – allowed just one representative on the committee, officer Anthony Gomez. (A list of all committee members is on page 45.)

“Our problem is we didn’t have any input on who was on the board,” said Allen Neal, president of the Springfield Police Officers Association. “The chair is appointed by (City Manager) Tom Finnie, another member from City Council is appointed by the mayor, and the third member that was appointed is a city employee that works for Finnie.”

Finnie also is the target of recent billboard ads sprinkled around the city paid for by the Springfield Police Officers Association. The ads read, “Dear Mr. Finnie, He’s not an unfunded liability. He’s my daddy and a policeman. Protect him. Signed, Timmy.”

The shortfall was first noticed last year, when officials realized that Police and Fire employees were continuing to accumulate unused holiday time, with the intent of receiving a lump-sum payout upon retirement. Those payouts, the city said, would drain the pension fund. Independent actuaries confirmed the city’s finding that the current amount of accumulated vacation time would put a $3.5 million hole in the fund.

The struggle has been ongoing since city officials presented council with a proposed change to the practice of Fire and Police employees saving holiday time. The change, proposed at the Dec. 13 council meeting, was accepted by the Fire Department but not by Police.

Neal said the officers feel that the ability to accumulate holiday pay is part of their benefits package.

“The city is attempting to reduce the benefits of the officers when it comes to scheduled holidays. We feel that these were benefits that were used to recruit and retain Police officers, and now they’re trying to take those away,” Neal said. “We just think they should honor their commitments.”

Tall task

The committee will: compare Springfield’s Police and Fire pension plan with Midwestern cities; recommend to City Council a multiyear plan to fund the pension plan; and make sure the plan is equitable for Police and Fire employees, all other city employees and citizens.

Honea said the fund at its current level is not adequate for new retirees.

“The plan would probably be able to meet the current retirees’ pensions that are on retirement at this point, but we wouldn’t be funding future pensions,” she said. “In other words, it could someday become a pay-as-you-go plan, if we don’t meet the shortfall.”

The public’s expected fix is for the city to simply add $3.5 million to the fund. But Finnie said that option would not work for a number of reasons.

“It would mean that we’re putting significantly more money into Police/

Fire pension – 60 percent more – than we’re putting into the other city

retirement system, the Local Government Employees Retirement System program. So it doesn’t pass the fairness test,” he said. “No. 2, it would require that all the money allocated for pay increases for all employees, including Police, for the next three years would have to go to fund this retirement gap. And that’s not fair. Third, the taxpayers would have to put an enormous amount of money into the retirement system, which is not fair to taxpayers.”

Neal is not impressed with that argument.

“(The city’s) opinion is that this is an unfunded liability, and it’s going to cost the city and the taxpayers a lot of money,” Neal said. “We felt like if they were going to offer these benefits, they should have made the arrangements to make sure they were funded.”

The committee has been given the task of returning to the council by Jan. 1 with recommendations on how to alleviate the situation. The committee’s first meeting is tentatively scheduled for May 6.