The fight to control St. Louis firefighter pensions

ST. LOUIS — Board conferences of the Firefighters’ Retirement Plan are often bureaucratic affairs. Funding efficiency is reviewed. Deferred retirement purposes are vetted. Dry, prolonged stories are mentioned.

However in November 2018, the pension board was combating about Key West.

Paul Payne, the town’s finances director, mentioned going to an business convention in South Florida appeared much less like schooling than trip. And he advised Kenny Mitchell, a firefighter trustee who wished to go, simply that.

Assembly minutes relay what occurred subsequent: “Trustee Mitchell responded to Trustee Payne with a profane comment.”

For 50 years, St. Louis firefighters received most something they wished when it got here to their pension system. Mayors and aldermen authorised reams of recent advantages, let firefighters run the board overseeing the cash and coughed up tens of thousands and thousands of {dollars} when markets went south.

However sweeping reforms handed in 2012 have fractured the connection. Many perks have been reduce to economize — the town mentioned the pensions have been so wealthy, they might result in chapter — and the system itself was break up in two.

The unique, firefighter-led board nonetheless handles advantages for older and retired members, however it’s reduce off from new hires and youthful cohorts. Their advantages are administered by a brand new board the place metropolis appointees maintain sway over whether or not to advocate for profit will increase, who works for the plan and, sure, whether or not trustees can go to seminars.

Now, firefighters are again on the Board of Aldermen, urging them to remove the brand new board and let the previous board take over. They are saying the transfer will cut back administrative prices and increase firefighter morale. However a evaluate of the brand new pension board’s assembly minutes over the previous 10 years signifies the struggle is about greater than that, and gives a window into what may comply with.

Firefighter board members have locked horns with metropolis appointees over authorizing journeys to funding seminars, hiring the plan’s legal professional and restoring advantages like additional cost-of-living changes for widows.

Michael Pollihan, a retired firefighter who served on the board from 2013 to 2019, mentioned he was disgusted by the resistance.

“The whole lot was Paul Payne (saying), ‘That’s an excessive amount of, that’s an excessive amount of, that’s an excessive amount of,’” he mentioned.

Payne, alternatively, mentioned the fights have been proof of why the brand new board was wanted. The firefighters’ effort to interchange it, he mentioned, is about greater than saving on administrative prices.

“It’s about making an attempt to show again a few of the adjustments we made in 2012,” he mentioned.

Alderman Tom Oldenburg, who represents various firefighters in his southwestern ward, in June filed a invoice to return management of all pensions to firefighters and handed it via the board Dec. 1 on a 17-7 vote. Mayor Tishaura O. Jones vetoed the plan Friday, echoing Payne’s worry of a return to disaster.

Oldenburg mentioned Friday his invoice is just about placing firefighters in control of their retirements and saving cash. The mayor and aldermen would nonetheless need to approve profit will increase, he argued.

He mentioned he had 19 of 20 votes needed for an override, and features on two extra.

The pensions are funded by contributions from each firefighters and the town.

In 1959, a 30-year firefighter’s pension paid about 40% of the common of his last 5 years of pay. In 2000, the identical firefighter received 75% of the common of his final two years. And in between, mayors and aldermen agreed to refund firefighter pension contributions in a lump sum after they retired, allow them to begin banking pension checks earlier than they retired and money in hundreds of hours of sick depart.

Then the Nice Recession hit, tanking the pension fund’s funding returns and forcing the town to cowl deep losses. By 2012, a 3rd of the fireplace division’s finances was going to pensions. Mayor Francis Slay responded with proposals to chop advantages for brand new hires and youthful firefighters, and to place administration of their advantages underneath a brand new board managed by metropolis appointees.

Firefighters declared the proposals unlawful and fought again on the Board of Aldermen, within the media and in court docket. However whereas they succeeded in preserving some advantages, vital reductions held. The previous, firefighter-run pension board was relegated to coping with older firefighters and retirees, which means no new members and an extended, sluggish march to dissolution.

The brand new board for the Firefighters’ Retirement Plan began assembly in late spring 2013 and instantly received off on the fallacious foot.

The board’s 4 metropolis appointees held three conferences earlier than firefighter representatives have been elected, and whereas it was largely housekeeping, firefighters didn’t perceive why they didn’t wait.

“That pissed lots of people off,” Pollihan recalled not too long ago.

So did the journey coverage. Pension board members need to do a specific amount of coaching every year. It may be executed with native legislation corporations and value lower than $200. However there are additionally occasions throughout the nation, in massive cities and trip locations. Early on, Richard Frank, the town’s personnel director and the board’s secretary then, warned trustees to be prudent as a result of their expenditures can be public document.

And in 2015, Payne, the town finances director, efficiently eliminated seminars in New Orleans and Santa Barbara, California, from the listing of journeys the system would cowl.

However he hit a nerve with Key West. In late 2017, an try and take that seminar off the listing was stymied by board members Mitchell, fellow firefighter John Costello and Bridget Halquist, an legal professional appointed by Slay.

That winter, the three dissenters headed to the island for every week at a price of about $2,000 per individual, together with $1,200 every for 4 nights in a waterfront lodge.

The subsequent yr, Payne advised the board he received his coaching executed in a one-day $95 session with a neighborhood legislation agency. He chided Mitchell, prompting the profanity. And whereas Payne received outvoted that yr and the subsequent, he ultimately knocked the occasion off the listing.

Firefighters on the brand new board have been much less profitable with pushes on advantages.

In 2017, they began pushing to pay additional cost-of-living bumps to widows. Below the previous system, widows who maxed out their common will increase may get dividends from a particular fund to compensate.

Directors mentioned metropolis ordinance didn’t enable such funds from the brand new system and that state legislation required the pension to be higher funded earlier than making adjustments. When metropolis officers blocked a transfer to get a second authorized opinion, Mitchell recommended making the funds no matter legality. He ultimately backed down.

The difficulty was resolved when the older board stepped in and agreed to pay the widows.

Mitchell’s subsequent grievance: The 2012 pension reforms had left new firefighters as the one metropolis workers who couldn’t begin banking pension checks whereas they have been nonetheless working. He contended that it wouldn’t value the plan something to vary that.

Metropolis workers mentioned that was extremely unlikely, and once more pointed to state legislation requiring a system to be not less than 80% funded earlier than including advantages.

However Mitchell saved pushing for months, asking why the board wanted to comply with state legislation as a result of it was created by native ordinance. Metropolis legal professionals ready a memo mentioning that the system was ruled by state and native legislation, and that state legislation trumped native legislation.

The state funding commonplace got here up once more the next yr, when firefighters received the board to pay for a examine making the case for permitting sure firefighters with 30 years of service to retire with full advantages earlier than the minimal retirement age of 55.

Across the identical time, firefighters restarted a push to rent a non-public legal professional to interchange metropolis legal professionals they’d fought for the reason that reform battle.

Mitchell thought the Metropolis Counselor’s workplace had a battle of curiosity as a result of its first loyalty was to the town. A 2017 try to rent another person failed when metropolis appointees blocked him. In 2020, he received a mayoral appointee on his facet to authorize a seek for new legal professionals.

However the Metropolis Counselor’s workplace ran the search and picked Thompson Coburn, a legislation agency that helped the town cut back firefighter advantages in the course of the reform struggle. Mitchell was not amused.

By the subsequent month, there was nothing he may do. He was elected to function a trustee of the older system. Below the brand new system’s guidelines, he couldn’t serve on each boards and he had to surrender his unique seat.

He filed a lawsuit difficult the rule.

Mitchell declined remark, citing the lawsuit.