Dallas mayor sues cop/firefighter pension plan

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Mayor Mike Rawlings is asking a judge to do what the Dallas Police and Fire Pension System won't: Stop the run on the bank.
Rawlings filed a lawsuit Monday morning against the pension system at his own expense and as a private citizen. He is asking for an emergency temporary restraining order and a permanent injunction on the system's payments of hundreds of millions in lump-sum withdrawals, which have threatened its solvency.

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/dallas-ci...rop-withdrawals


Is the plan in that bad shape that the mayor has to sue to stop lump sum withdrawals ?
 
I hardly call any system with guaranteed 8% returns a pension system. Every single penny of that should be clawed back.
 
Boo on the mayor !! The firefighters as well as the police have a right to their pensions !! Maybe his real intention is to halt pension payments to the widows of the five Dallas PD Officers who were gunned down this past summer? He must have a lot of darkness in his heart to try and halt the pension system on those survivors.
 
Originally Posted By: LoneRanger
Boo on the mayor !! The firefighters as well as the police have a right to their pensions !! Maybe his real intention is to halt pension payments to the widows of the five Dallas PD Officers who were gunned down this past summer? He must have a lot of darkness in his heart to try and halt the pension system on those survivors.


Where will the money come from?
 
More adventures in corrupt pensions. In some California cities employees actually realized a pay raise when they retired. They sometimes get a ceremonial promotion a few months before the date because their retirement payment is based on those last few months. They are sometimes allowed to by years or points. A neighbor is receiving 135% of his last 3 months salary rate. Eventually those future retirement payments will come from converting magic beans into cash. You can call that corrupt or government as usual. Same thing.
 
Originally Posted By: LoneRanger
Boo on the mayor !! The firefighters as well as the police have a right to their pensions !! Maybe his real intention is to halt pension payments to the widows of the five Dallas PD Officers who were gunned down this past summer? He must have a lot of darkness in his heart to try and halt the pension system on those survivors.


Incompetent city councils over promised and kicked the can down the road. These pension payments bankrupt the city while most tax payers have no pension at all. Where will the money come from you ask? Cutting maintenance on infrastructure and laying off police officers and teachers.
 
And you can bet there's been quid pro quo going on between city leaders and the various groups they employ. After all, the taxpayers pockets are endless.
 
Ummm... plans are in that bad of shape all over the place.

The state pension plans in Illinois are underfunded to the tune of $130 Billion..

But we've been told over and over for the past several years, as to how good things are. Not.
 
Originally Posted By: Blueskies123
Originally Posted By: LoneRanger
Boo on the mayor !! The firefighters as well as the police have a right to their pensions !! Maybe his real intention is to halt pension payments to the widows of the five Dallas PD Officers who were gunned down this past summer? He must have a lot of darkness in his heart to try and halt the pension system on those survivors.


Incompetent city councils over promised and kicked the can down the road. These pension payments bankrupt the city while most tax payers have no pension at all. Where will the money come from you ask? Cutting maintenance on infrastructure and laying off police officers and teachers.


Highlighted your central theme. Why shouldn't a career public safety employee receive what in most cases is a contractually guaranteed benefit the employer is legally bound to honor?

Sounds like the police and fire need to counter-sue the mayor . . .

FOP endorsed Trump. Dallas FOP Lodge #588 is the largest in the country with over 32,000 members. Maybe the PEOTUS needs to make a call to the City of Dallas as he did to United Technologies (Carrier Corp)?
 
Without opening the link, I'm assuming that they weren't required to contribute in a responsible manner and now that things are going south there's a mass exodus of retirees?? I think there's a lot of variations on a theme with public service union pensions. Underfunded, mass spiking of pensions the last two years on the job creating 20% larger payouts, etc.

Near me, a regional fire chief spiked his pension and takes home 268K/year in retirement....which is 15% more than he made on the job. Not particularly unusual. It may be criminal and obscene but it was allowed and only recently have there been curbs on this behavior. People have to understand that the adults aren't really in charge.....
 
From the article:
Quote:
Pension officials are hoping for a $1.1 billion bailout from taxpayers. That number has swollen since the run on the bank started.


Good for the mayor. The pension shouldn't get a penny from taxpayers to bailout their incompetence. They should fix it themselves with significant benefit cuts to existing and new retirees or face insolvency and takeover which would be significant cuts regardless.
 
I posted the link cause it shows the lawsuit with some interesting financial stats.

Fund will run dry by January 2017 at the extreme rate of lump sum cash withdrawals.
 
Someone starting a career in government for $40k vs private industry for $55k is taking the long look b/c of the benefits, agreed to by two parties in a lawful contract, and we taxpayers are looking to rip that back after a lifetime of service?

Why not fix the contracts for the future and make good on our current promises?
 
Originally Posted By: zzyzzx
This is why government employees need 401K's instead of defined benefit pension plans.
Spot on.
 
Originally Posted By: eljefino
Someone starting a career in government for $40k vs private industry for $55k is taking the long look b/c of the benefits, agreed to by two parties in a lawful contract, and we taxpayers are looking to rip that back after a lifetime of service?

Why not fix the contracts for the future and make good on our current promises?


Yes, it a case of "we'll pay you later", and now people want those contracts reneged on...do they seek to offer backpay for the foregone part wages in compensation ?
 
I worked in the City of Los Angeles for a couple of years and did a couple of salary surveys.

The results showed that the average pay was decently high - $90,000 per year inclusive of various bonuses and overtime. Overtime represented a significant portion of total payroll, with Fire and Police racking up the biggest.

The problem with respect to local government payroll results from a myriad of factors:

1. People expect the government to do a good job. But if you want quality workers, you'll need to attract them with good pay. "My dream job is to work for the City" - said no one ever. But pay a decent wage, and the public will hang you by the neck. Those government slugs are making HOW much?!
2. Most government employees are covered by unions. The debate about unions is another topic, but I'll throw this bit out: the #1 goal of the union is to protect the interest of its members, more specifically, the interest of its older longstanding members. Meaning, those who are about to retire and get into pension. Which leads to problem #3
3. Pensions. These are a bit antiquated due to the assumptions they rely upon - economic growth (historical models are generous), average life span, and healthcare costs. I don't need to get into any details about these drivers of pensions costs, basically we all know pensions can't keep up.
4. Politics. Real life politics. The mayor of a City needs to be a pro at politics - he needs to make sure his constituents are happy, his allies are happy, and that he can achieve his agenda and demonstrate real results to get re-elected or to move up to the next step (governor, senate, president). A large portion of his constituents are the very people that work for him - any disparaging remarks or tough negotiations with the unions will lead to the unions saying not to vote for the guy. Plus, the mayor may have put in a couple of former staff, or other individuals within the City connected to him into executive leadership positions at various departments.

You add these factors up, and you have to ask yourself - what is the real solution to this problem? No politician will get elected if they run on a campaign of complete overhaul of the pension system - the City employees will vote enmass and sink his campaign. So politicians have no choice but to toe the line and work gradual concessions with the unions. There is no effective way to tear down the status quo, even if we all know the system is doomed to fail in the long run.

I left the City and am no longer an employee. I don't know what the solution to the problem is, but I do know that the general public underestimates by a long shot the complexities and issues faced by their City leaders.
 
Originally Posted By: eljefino
Someone starting a career in government for $40k vs private industry for $55k is taking the long look b/c of the benefits, agreed to by two parties in a lawful contract, and we taxpayers are looking to rip that back after a lifetime of service?

Why not fix the contracts for the future and make good on our current promises?



I agree with you.
I also think that the pension should be based on salary only and not overtime since that is where the games are played...the OT runs up the pension costs....OT should be a one time payment and not for the rest of the guy/gals life....

PS: I know it's not popular to talk about bailing out pensions but nobody squawked when we just agreed to give Israel 38 BILLION dollars over the next ten years while our own infrastructure crumbles.....
 
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