By Debby Woodin

dwoodin@joplinglobe.com

A subcommittee report from the Joplin city manager to the Police and Firemen’s Pension Board angered some members of the panel Wednesday to the point that they discussed immediately filing a lawsuit over their underfunded pension plan.

Some members of the board, which is trying to resolve $16 million in underfunding, expected more details to be presented in an interim report it had requested from the city manager. A full report with recommendations for resolving the underfunding is due next month.

Instead of receiving some specifics of what is being discussed, the board got a report saying that the subcommittee is having an actuary evaluate some options, but the report did not specify what options.

A St. Louis attorney hired by the board had advised the panel two months ago that it could sue for $2 million of the $16 million owed. The attorney said the board likely could win only part of the underfunding because it had let it go on for so many years.

The board agreed at that time to give the city three months to come back with a plan to avoid a lawsuit. But, a status report was due before the full recommendation is to come in next month.

Tom Robertson, a Fire Department trustee, asked one of the pension board’s ex-officio members, city Finance Director Leslie Jones, to tell the board more details about the options the subcommittee is studying. She said she couldn’t. She did not say why.

Robertson asked, “Can we believe the city is making a good-faith effort to resolve this?” He said the interim report was supposed to have been provided to an attorney for the pension board, Dan Tobben, of St. Louis, before Wednesday’s meeting. It was not provided in advance by the city manager, which caused the board to set up a telephone conference with Tobben.

Tobben was faxed a copy of the report during the meeting and then was consulted by telephone.

“It’s almost like the city is playing musical actuaries,” Tobben told the pension board over a speaker telephone. He asked what options the actuary had been asked to evaluate.

Jones said she couldn’t give out the details.

“I would encourage everyone to let it run its due course,” she told Tobben and the board. She said the subcommittee is looking at some new ideas that had not been previously discussed. Tobben and some of the pension board members asked whether the options included any cut in benefits to current members of the pension program, cuts to future members, or committing any new revenue to making payments on the underfunding.

Jones replied that she’s just an ex-officio representative on the board and the committee, implying that she was not at liberty to discuss specifics.

“From my perspective, this isn’t a very good-faith effort,” Tobben advised the board. “If you want to give them 30 more days, I’m fine with that, but if you want to sue, I’m fine with that too.”

Tobben asked whether the options included budgeting any proceeds of a sales-tax settlement from cellular telephone companies toward the underfunding. Jones said this fiscal year’s city budget was approved before the pension board was advised that the underfunding could result in a lawsuit.

Tobben told the listeners that the city of St. Louis is now told what to budget for its pension plan by a judge after firefighters there won a court judgment compelling payments to correct the underfunding.

“St. Louis has lost all discretion” on how much to pay in a year, Tobben told the panel. “But now you have the discretion.”

A representative of the International Association of Fire Fighters, Louie A. Wright, of Kansas City, attended the meeting.

“We are monitoring this and other pension situations around the nation,” Wright said after the meeting. “It’s my role to provide representation for our affected local members.”

He said about a half-dozen cities in Missouri may be facing lawsuits to prop up their pension funds. “It’s becoming more prevalent, and it’s an issue our organization is monitoring,” he said.

Firefighters and police officers covered by the pension plan have a 20-year retirement option that allows them to collect everything they paid into the system plus their monthly benefits. They are not covered by Social Security, though.





Report deadline



The pension board set its next meeting for 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 19. Board members expect a subcommittee report to be delivered that details how the city will resolve underfunding without cutting benefits.