Police and Fire pension reform proposal fails at Jacksonville City Council

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The latest attempt at Police and Fire pension reform in Jacksonville, which could have saved more than $1.3 billion, has failed.

On a 9-9 vote, Jacksonville's City Council rejected the most recent reform proposal, which was actually built off a proposal they had approved back in December. The Council had amended that initial bill, changing certain benefits payouts and the term of the agreement, and that was then changed by the Police and Fire Pension Fund Board, who then sent it back to City Hall.

Ultimately, the Council thought they were compromising too much in the plan.

“This is not a pension reform deal, this is a pension reform mirage. This is the Potemkin village that pretends to be pension reform, it’s the cardboard cutout that wants you to believe it’s pension reform,” says Councilman Robin Lumb.

A key concern was a provision which would have the Council waive their right to impose renegotiations on benefits for ten years. The Board had wanted 15, but agreed to 10 in a deal brokered by the Mayor's Office. The Council wanted a three-year term, saying they were unwilling to remove the rights of future Councils. The Board initially rejected the three year proposal and offered back 10. While some Council members were willing to accept that, it was not enough, especially after two attempts to reach a compromise by either adding a failsafe or splitting the difference at 7 years failed.

Another big question was the lack of an approved funding source for paying the annual $40 million contribution which would be required under the proposal to whittle away at the City’s $1.6 billion pension debt.

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The Mayor initially wanted JEA to foot the bill in exchange for certain provisions like establishing their own pension system. When that was rejected by the utility, they offered to begin negotiations on their next contract with the City and put forward a proposal that would have given the City a $120 million up front lump sum to use at their discretion. While JEA had no strings attached to that money, several civic leaders, with the backing of the Mayor, put forward a plan that would use the money and other borrowed funds to make a lump sum payment toward the debt.

That hasn't yet been vetted by the Council and is contingent on the JEA contract negotiations as well. One Councilman had sought to get a sales tax on the ballot which would ultimately be used for the debt, but that hasn't been gaining steam either. With no definitive funding source known, several Council members feared committing themselves to the unknown. There was a provision in the bill which would have given the City a year to find a funding source and, if none could be identified, the agreement would have been void, but that was not enough.

Still a third issue for many of the Council members is the Senior Staff Voluntary Retirement Plan under the PFPF, which they believe is an illegal payout at the expense of taxpayers.

“It’s not right. We are approving bad behavior, and it’s time the bad behavior stops. The taxpayers are tired of it,” says Councilman John Crescimbeni.

Efforts to eliminate the plan from the proposal failed, although Crescimbeni tried to bring the issue back up after the proposal overall had failed.

Immediately following the vote on the bill, he moved to reconsider the vote, telling Council members he would vote in favor of the plan overall if they eliminated the Retirement Plan. The needed ten votes were cast to allow the bill to be reconsidered, but Councilman Doyle Carter then said he didn’t mean to vote as he did, which was in favor of reconsidering. That sent off a fair amount of jostling, but ultimately they reconsidered the reconsideration and denied a second vote on the pension bill.

Councilmembers Bill Bishop, Lori Boyer, Richard Clark, John Crescimbeni, Bill Gulliford, E. Denise Lee, Robin Lumb, Matt Schellenberg, and Clay Yarborough voted against the bill. Because one of the 19 seats, formerly held by Johnny Gaffney, who stepped down to run for State House, is vacant, it left the Council with an even number of votes and a tie means the measure fails.

“What nine members of City Council did tonight is an insult to both taxpayers and our brave public safety officials,” says Mayor Alvin Brown’s Chief of Staff Chris Hand, who has led up many of the City’s negotiations.

Hand said they’re reaching out to stakeholders now, including the Police and Fire Pension Fund, to determine if and when they will head back to the bargaining table. He said the Mayor will continue to advocate for reform and offer potential solutions.

WOKV has reached out to the Police and Fire Pension Fund for their perspective and will let you know as soon as that’s in.

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