The League’s Employee Relations Policy Committee met Friday, Oct. 30 to discuss the League’s pension reform policy. City Mangers Department President Ken Pulskamp and Rod Gould, city manager, Poway, provided recommendations for updating League policy in this area. At the heart of the managers’ recommendations lies the belief that pensions should be fiscally sustainable and politically defensible. They recommend that to get there, the League should support regional efforts to address the growing pension problem.

Carroll Wills, California Professional Firefighters’ (CPF) communications director and Randy Perry, legislative representative for the Peace Officers Research Association of California (PORAC) made presentations to the Committee. Wills and Perry gave insight on their members’ concerns about public agency reaction to the economic crisis. Based on research, the labor representatives believe that the public pension reform issue is not a priority for voters, therefore, Wills and Perry suggest that local agencies and the League should not rush into creating new policy that affects pensions. 

Pension reform and League policy have been a topic for the committee since January of this year and will continue to be a topic in future meetings. A subcommittee of the Employee Relations Committee will meet in late November or early December to discuss the League’s position on this issue. 

While CPF and PORAC believe that pension reform is not a priority for the public, former Assembly Member Keith Richman filed his initiative on Thursday, Nov. 5 to reform public pensions through a ballot measure. He intends to qualify the measure for the November 2010 ballot.